THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, February 12, 1996 TAG: 9602120054
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DANIEL Q. HANEY, ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: BALTIMORE LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
Maybe doctors should write ``Go to church weekly'' on their prescription pads.
Growing evidence supports the notion that religion can be good medicine.
``I believe that physicians can and should encourage patients' autonomous religious activities,'' said Dr. Dale A. Matthews of Georgetown University. ``I'm not saying that physicians should supplant clergy or that prayer should supplant Prozac.''
Matthews and other researchers presented the latest evidence of the influence of religious belief on health Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Matthews reviewed 212 studies and found that three-fourths showed positive effects of religious commitment on health. Only 7 percent concluded that religion is bad for health.
He said the research shows benefits of religion on dealing with drug abuse, alcoholism, depression, cancer, high blood pressure and heart disease.
One of the largest studies, which is not yet finished, is following 4,000 elderly women to see whether their beliefs seem to affect their health.
Preliminary results show that ``people who attend church are both physically healthier and less depressed,'' said Dr. Harold G. Koenig of Duke University Medical Center.
Perhaps simply being religious, though, is not enough. He also found that people who sit home praying alone or watching television evangelists actually are worse off than other folks.
Just how religion makes people healthier is not clear, although theories abound.
At least one piece of research raises the possibility that divine intervention is the answer. The controversial study, conducted in San Francisco, randomly divided 393 seriously ill heart patients into two groups.
Half were prayed for, half were not, and none knew which group they were in. The prayer recipients suffered fewer health complications.
``This is outside the realm of science,'' said Dr. Jeffrey S. Levin of Eastern Virginia Medical School. ``If God heals, it's a matter of faith. We can't prove it.''
However, experts say there are other explanations that also make sense.
For instance, Levin said it could be the placebo effect - the idea that people who believe they are getting a potent medicine sometimes heal faster, even though the pills are dummies.
``Just assume that - God forbid - there is no God, just believing may lead to good health,'' he said.
There are other possibilities as well, including:
People who go to church have strong networks of friends who look out for them and make sure they get proper medical care. They may cope better with stressful events.
Religious people are less likely to smoke, drink and have other unhealthy habits.
Taking part in prayer and ritual may lower harmful stress hormones in the body such as adrenalin.
Studies have shown this kind of stress reduction can reduce high blood pressure, chronic pain, insomnia, anxiety, infertility and pre-menstrual syndrome, among other things, said Dr. Herbert Benson of Harvard Medical School.
``Prayer is good for you,'' Benson said.
Dr. Kenneth Pargament of Bowling Green State University, a clinical psychologist, said he sometimes recommends that his patients talk to their clergy and do religious reading when dealing with problems.
He and others recommended that doctors take religion more seriously as a way of keeping people healthy.
``Health professionals tend to be less religious than the general population,'' he said. ``If we want to understand this, we have to get closer to it.''
KEYWORDS: RELIGION HEALTH by CNB