TruthBook Religious News Blog

Submitted by Tyler Woods Ph.D.
Nov 20th, 2009

Depression is the opposite of a state of thankfulness and being thankful and grateful could help symptoms of depression. Research that appeared in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology confirmed that those individuals who kept a weekly gratitude journal were more optimistic about life, more likely to exercise regularly, and felt better physically compared to those who recorded hassles or neutral life events.

More and more studies just like this are coming to light about the powers of gratitude and healing depression. There have been many studies and surveys on the power of gratitude and depression. In a survey commissioned by spirituality.com, 84% of Americans said expressing gratitude reduces stress and depression and fosters better health and optimism.

Please click on "external source" for the complete article

Labels: depression, gratitude, health, spirituality, Tyler Woods

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Sunday, September 27, 2009

Health: The healing power of prayer

By Pamela Fayerman,
VANCOUVER SUN September 26, 2009

Bending down to place flowers at the graves of his parents, 87-year old Marcelo Carr lost his balance, hitting his head on the tombstone at Ocean View cemetery.

The trauma caused paralysis in his upper and lower limbs. Three months into his stay at Vancouver General Hospital, he says doctors told him to resign himself to his limitations and accept life in a wheelchair.

For Carr's 84-year old brother, Stan, the accident was just as traumatic and life-changing. As his brother’s primary caregiver, Stan is at Marcelo’s side 12 hours a day. Now, a little more than a year since the fall, Marcelo is able to walk with his brother’s assistance and his arms have also regained some function.

The men don’t discount the assistance from physiotherapists and other health professionals in Marcelo’s gradual recovery. But nothing would be possible, they say, without the healing power of prayer. It helped lift Stan’s depression after the accident. And it has given them both the physical and emotional strength to endure.

Chris Bernard, a Providence Health Care pastoral care worker at St. Vincent’s Hospital (Langara site), the long-term care residence where Marcelo now resides, is an integral force in their journey. Such workers offer emotional and spiritual support, companionship and compassion to people of all faiths, spiritualities and belief systems. Providence Health Care is believed to have the largest number of hospital chaplains in the province, in accordance with the founding legacy of the nuns who laid out its spiritual underpinnings, according to Liz Macdonald, coordinator of pastoral care services at St. Paul's Hospital.

Although Catholic icons abound in the many hospitals and facilities throughout the Providence organization, Bernard and Macdonald help facilitate multifaith prayer or non-religious reflection and meditation.

"As care providers, we take a holistic view of the patient/resident ... to ensure all the facets of their being receive attention — social, physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual. In this context, healing means the return to wholeness and integration of the person. Even if the patient/resident cannot be physically cured per se, they can attain healing in other dimensions of their humanity," Bernard says.

When she visits patients in hospital who are open to praying, Macdonald, a former nurse, says “we may pray for restoration or a cure if we think there is one, but if not, we pray for strength to accept suffering, to be at peace, to accept that in life, there is suffering. We thank God for the medical technology and the skills of doctors, nurses and other health professionals and ask that God give strength.”

Bernard adds prayer brings about insight, connectedness, understanding, tranquility, reconciliation and peaceful acceptance.

Skeptics may doubt the power of prayer, but in a recent article, Jeff Levin, a leading researcher in the area of faith and healing, noted that a review of over 1,200 studies of religion and health found a positive effect of some sort (hope, optimism, physical and emotional strength and recovery) in the vast majority.

Please click on "external source" for the complete article. And for a Urantia Book perspective on prayer and health, please consider the following:

91:4.5 Remember, even if prayer does not change God, it very often effects great and lasting changes in the one who prays in faith and confident expectation. Prayer has been the ancestor of much peace of mind, cheerfulness, calmness, courage, self-mastery, and fair-mindedness in the men and women of the evolving races.

Labels: faith, health, hospital, Pamela Fayerman, prayer, spirituality

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Friday, August 21, 2009

Looking for a Higher Authority on Health Care

by Phil Davis

When the topic of health-care reform is so focused on economics and politics, I often think of a woman in the Gospels who had been hemorrhaging for many years. Who knows what her actual problem was, but it was severe enough that she had spent all her financial assets on the medical system of her time and was no better for it. In her desperate need, she reached out to Jesus Christ and was instantly healed.

What's the point of this story? Is it an indictment of a cold and heartless society not providing the necessary financial resources to give her better care? Is it an indictment of a health care system that didn't heal over many years? Some might think so. This is where the economics and politics come in. But I see it differently.

Obviously, the woman needed healing of her hemorrhaging. And yet, I feel she was reaching out for something beyond just another method to fix the body. She was probably yearning to have a deeper sense of her well-being that went beyond physical health...

Please see "external source" for this complete article. And for a Urantia Book perspective on this miracle of Jesus please see HERE

Labels: healing, health, hemorrhage, Jesus, The Urantia Book

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Friday, August 14, 2009

Grudge not lest you be grudged

August 9
Francine Adams

It is far easier to hold a grudge than to let go of something seemingly unforgiving, especially when one feels they are expressing righteous anger. It appears, however, that the grudger may, in the long run, wind up paying a much higher price than the grudgee. Dr. Piderman of the Mayo Clinic elaborates on this with quite interesting remarks on forgiveness. If one finds they are among those who are still hanging onto a grudge against someone long after the matter has been put to rest, consider the following:

"But when you don't practice forgiveness, you may be the one who pays most dearly. By embracing forgiveness, you embrace peace, hope, gratitude and joy. Here, Katherine M. Piderman, Ph.D., staff chaplain at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn., discusses forgiveness and how it can lead you down the path of physical, emotional and spiritual well-being."

Are your grudges giving you headaches, backaches and sleepless nights. It is now common knowledge in modern medicine that there is a mind/body connection which means our emotions can affect our health. Stress and negative emotions have been associated with heart health. The American Academy of Family Physicians provides an extensive lists of disorders that can be signs one's emotional health is out of balance:

Please click on "external source" for the list, and the complete article.

Labels: emotion, Francine Adams. forgiveness, health, mind-body connection, well-being

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Friday, August 07, 2009

Book Review: Medicine, Religion, and Health: Where Science and Spirituality Meet

CYNTHIA GEPPERT, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H.
Albuquerque, N.Mex.

The historically recent antipathy between religion and psychiatry stemming from Freud, Ellis, and other secular intellects has been gradually reversed through the influence of the wider movement over the last several decades to reintegrate spirituality into health care. Ironically, many of the leaders of this effort have been psychiatrists, among whom none is more prolific than Harold Koenig, M.D., the author of over 40 books on the topic, several of them dealing specifically with religion and mental health. His latest work, Medicine, Religion, and Health: Where Science and Spirituality Meet, is a concise yet substantive tour of the burgeoning research base examining the relationship between religion and health. The book, which is directed toward the educated generalist, has chapters covering studies of religion and health, involving the cardiovascular and immune/endocrine systems, longevity, and disability. Mental health professionals will be particularly interested in the chapters on mind-body interactions, mental health, and diseases related to stress and behavior, as well as the final chapter on clinical applications of the research. Psychiatrists will be conversant and likely comfortable with Koenig’s overarching thesis:

It appears that psychological and social factors influence the physiological systems of the body that are directly responsible for good health and the ability to fight disease. Therefore if religious/spiritual involvement can be shown to enhance psychological health and social interactions, it is reasonable to hypothesize that religious factors may improve physical health as well, doing so by reducing psychological stress, increasing social support, and encouraging positive health behaviors. (p. 53)

Medicine, Religion, and Health: Where Science and Spirituality Meet
by Harold G. Koenig, M.D. West Conshohocken, Pa., Templeton Press, 2008, 240 pp., $14.95.

Please click on "external source" to access the entire article.

Labels: Cynthia Geppert, Harold Koenig, health, psychiatry, Psychiatry Online, religion, spirituality

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Friday, July 24, 2009

Meditation as medicine

Ancient practice is helping people slow down and find serenity and, evidence suggests, improve their health

By KELLY BOTHUM • The News Journal • July 21, 2009

Russ Apple has practiced meditation for 35 years as a way to live in the moment and find the calm amid the sea of chaos around him. Through meditation, he has explored what it means to live life from the inside out and learned how to escape a mind always in motion.

While others boast of their Bluetooths and BlackBerrys that allow them to juggle five tasks simultaneously, Apple remains deliberate in finishing one thing at a time. A one-on-one conversation is just that -- him and another person talking, with no other distractions or filters to get in the way.

His appreciation for the power of meditation has only deepened since his diagnosis of appendiceal cancer in 2008. Despite two surgeries and several rounds of chemotherapy, the cancer has not abated. But Apple has found strength in continuing to live life in the present, one of the key focus points of meditation.

"The thing with cancer is, there's this threat of death. And the threat of death is the understanding that the tomorrow may not be," said Apple, who has decided to forego traditional cancer therapies and follow alternative treatments. "The blessing, if one's willing to look at it like that, is that I no longer live in the tomorrow or in the past. I've got today."

On the surface, something as simple as sitting silently or chanting mantras in a lifelong search for inner peace seems out of place in an always-on-the-go, technology-driven society. But it's an ancient practice that has remained popular despite our infatuation with speeding up life and staying busy.

An estimated 20 million Americans had practiced meditation within the past year, according to a 2007 survey by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. By comparison, about 15 million people had practiced meditation in 2002.

Across the country, medical centers like St. Francis Hospital in Wilmington are even offering guided imagery and other relaxation techniques to help patients preparing for surgery or living with chronic health problems.

This is the first of a five-page article about the benefits of meditation. Please click on "external source" for the whole article.

And, here is another view, with a Jesusonian twist; this article discusses "Jesus-Style" meditation

Labels: cancer, health, Kelly Bothum, meditation, National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine

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Thursday, July 09, 2009

Music designed to boost physical, spiritual health

July 07, 2009
By Abbie Stancato

Research has shown that music has a profound effect on your body and psyche. In fact, there’s a growing field of health care known as music therapy, which uses music to heal. Music therapy can help with pain management, ward off depression, promote movement, calm patients and ease muscle tension.

Music is thought to link all of the emotional, spiritual, and physical elements of the universe. Music can be used to change a person’s mood, and has been found to cause like physical responses in many people simultaneously.

In the 1973 classic, The Secret Life of Plants, Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird devote a whole chapter on how music affects plants, called “The Harmonic Life of Plants.“

However, do different styles of music have negative effects on the mind, body and soul?

To find out the answer, please click on "external source," at the bottom of this entry.

Labels: Abbie Stancato, emotion, health, music, music therapy, pain management

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Friday, May 29, 2009

Five must-read books to for health and happiness.

Five must-read books to for health and happiness.
May 25, 12:44 PM

The definition of overwhelmed? Standing in front of the self-help section at your local big box bookstore. How do you sort through all that clutter to find the best of the best? Here are five recommendations to get you started. From the practical to the spiritual, each ends up with the same core conclusions:

1. We each have a remarkable inner navigation system to guide us to our own happiness.
2. The most powerful change tools available to us are our thoughts and our imagination.

These are books to change your life.

Note: Please go to "external source" to access this list of great books for your journey. And while you're at it, don't forget The Urantia Book!

Labels: Chris Trout, happiness, health, spirituality, The Urantia Book

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Friday, May 15, 2009

8 Ways Faith Can Heal

Wednesday May 13, 2009

In February "Time" Magazine published some fascinating articles on the "biology of belief": how faith can heal us. Folks who attend church services on Sunday have a lower risk of dying in any one year than the guys who sleep in, read the paper, and skip all holy activities. "Spirituality predicts for better disease control," says Dr. Gail Ironson, a professor of psychiatry and psychology at the University of Miami who studies HIV and religious belief.

Okay. So how? What exactly happens in a brain when a person sings "Alleluia!" that makes her more resilient to illness than the nonbeliever? Here are 8 ways faith can heal.

Please click on "external source" to raed the list of eight ways that faith can heal. This is an interesting and hopeful article.

Labels: biology, faith, Gail Ironson, health, spirituality

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Friday, May 01, 2009

Study: Prayer Leads to Good Health

Monday, April 27, 2009

By: Phil Brennan

Writing in his new book, "How God Changes Your Brain," Andrew Newberg, reports the results of brain scans that he and his team conducted on more than 100 meditating or praying people.

Newberg, director of the Center for Spirituality and the Mind, says his research shows that the physical and emotional benefits of spiritual observances “dramatically accrue over years of practice, but even recent converts exhibit healthier brains,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle’s David Ian Miller.

In one of Newberg’s studies his team did brain scans on people who had never meditated before and went on to teach them simple meditative methods, Miller writes. After a mere eight weeks of just 12 minutes a day of meditation, there was a considerable improvement in memory scores and a measurable decrease in anxiety and anger.

Newberg’s study echoes a 1999 study, "Scientific Research of Prayer: Can the Power of Prayer Be Proven?" by researcher Debra Williams.

Williams looked at more than 4,000 participants over the age of 65. She learned that those who pray and attend religious services on a weekly basis, especially those between the ages of 65 and 74, had lower blood pressure than their counterparts who did not pray or attend religious services, according to Jet magazine.

Moreover, they found that the more religious a person, particularly those who prayed or studied the Bible weekly, the lower the blood pressure. These people, the study showed were 40 percent less likely to have high diastolic pressure or diastolic hypertension than those who did not attend religious services, pray, or study the Bible.

Labels: Andrew Newberg, Center for Spirituality and the Mind, Debra Williams, health, meditation, neurotheology, Phil Brennan, prayer

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Sunday, April 05, 2009

Meditation has health and spiritual benefits

By Kenesha Beheler

March 31, 2009

Meditation is a process of reflection, contemplation and devotional exercise that has been practiced around the world for centuries. Christians pray and Buddhists chant; even nonreligious practitioners use the techniques to improve mental and physical health.

“There have been studies done at major universities, so it’s not just a lot of anecdotal evidence. For people who are spiritually inclined or not spiritually inclined, there is a tremendous physical benefit and also a psychological benefit,” said Grace Fogle, a local resident who has practiced meditation for many years. “Some of us meditate purely for health reasons, and a lot us meditate for the combined physical and spiritual benefits that we feel we receive.

“[As for the health effect] my studies in the clinical area show that any form of meditation you might learn, and there is a wide range, [is beneficial],” she said. “But there are definitely clinical studies that show that your blood vessels relax, therefore your heart has to do less work and your blood is moved through the body in a more natural, less stressful way.

“Your pulse rate drops significantly and that has to do again with the slowing of the heart; the ease in which all your body can perform its functions comes through meditation. And there is just a healing process that seems to occur because the body has its own wisdom in terms of how to heal itself. What you are doing is really enabling yourself. So even if you are taking a medication or whatever you are doing for your health, you are enhancing that therapy.

Fogle has been practicing meditation off and on for over 40 years, but within the last five she has been steady in her practice and has seen significant improvements in her own health.

“I find in my older years that now I’m turning much more to it, and it helps me mature in age more gracefully,” she said. “I am more grateful for every day and every moment, and I know my health benefits from it. It is not that you don’t have health challenges, but you deal with them very differently. Hopefully you recover quickly and with less trauma from things that you might have to go through.”

There are many forms of meditation: mantra, yoga, Tai Chi, prayer and Chi Gong. They are usually classified into two kinds: mindfulness and concentrative.

“You can incorporate meditation into every part of your life. So you can do walking meditation, where you are grateful for every step that you take. People do this now in many ways, but they just don’t call it meditation,” said Fogle. “What do you think the monks are doing or the nuns in the convents are doing? This is all prayerful meditation. If you are following a rosary or chanting, music or prayers, you are meditating. It is all the same, except it is a different form.”

Guided meditation is another form that is used, explained Fogle, in which a leader will teach the participant to sit, close the eyes, relax and take slow breaths as the leader guides the listener through a story. This form of meditation is often practiced for healing purposes and as a way to overcome challenges.

For many years people have carried a misunderstanding of meditation, she said, thinking that one had to be of a particular faith, religion or nationality to practice the methods. However, she said, anyone with an open mind can do it.

For anyone not doing it for spiritual reasons, it helps to refocus and reorganize the mind.

Labels: health, Kenesha Beheler, meditation, spirituality, stress

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Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Keeping (Or Finding) The Faith

Keeping (Or Finding) The Faith
Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009

Not all that long ago, you'd have had a hard time finding a research institute, an academic department or even a decent conference exploring the link between spirituality and health. And with good reason. Health is science, spirituality is something else entirely, and people who say otherwise clearly need to sit down with a medical journal or two.

But that's all changing. Everyone's got a stake in getting human health right--whether families and individuals simply trying to stay well or governments trying to build a functioning health-care system that doesn't break the bank. With so much on the line, no one can afford to take options off the table.

For that reason, investigators around the world backed by both public and private money are studying the faith factor in all manner of diseases and conditions. They have examined the spiritual-care needs of children with terminal illnesses and looked at how religion and superstition affect schizophrenia in China and how spirituality influences the well-being of college students in Malta and nuns in India. They have probed the links between religion and psychological woes too: neuroticism in Dutch twins, obsessive-compulsive symptoms in Italians, death anxiety among Egyptian nursing students and substance abuse in adolescents in Jerusalem. They have tried to measure the benefits of Bible therapy for patients with Alzheimer's disease, as well as the impact of religious guilt and congregational criticism on doubting members of the flock. They've looked at the health effects of psychoactive sacramentals (think peyote) and the spiritual preferences of neo-pagans (think Wiccans and druids).

The fact that what began as a trickle of studies has become a torrent doesn't mean that everyone is happy, and many scientists will continue to have nothing to do with what they see as fluff. Still, the movable feast of institutes, academic treatises, self-help books, websites, healing centers and luxury spas with a spiritual bent grows steadily larger. Here is just a sampling of what's available.

Please click on "external link" for the list of spiritually focused healing sites.

Labels: faith, health, science, spirituality, websites

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The Biology of Belief

The Biology of Belief
By JEFFREY KLUGER Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009

This is page one of a four-page article - well worth the read. Please click on "external source" to access the entire article

Most folks probably couldn't locate their parietal lobe with a map and a compass. For the record, it's at the top of your head — aft of the frontal lobe, fore of the occipital lobe, north of the temporal lobe. What makes the parietal lobe special is not where it lives but what it does — particularly concerning matters of faith.

If you've ever prayed so hard that you've lost all sense of a larger world outside yourself, that's your parietal lobe at work. If you've ever meditated so deeply that you'd swear the very boundaries of your body had dissolved, that's your parietal too. There are other regions responsible for making your brain the spiritual amusement park it can be: your thalamus plays a role, as do your frontal lobes. But it's your parietal lobe — a central mass of tissue that processes sensory input — that may have the most transporting effect. (Read "Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs".)

Needy creatures that we are, we put the brain's spiritual centers to use all the time. We pray for peace; we meditate for serenity; we chant for wealth. We travel to Lourdes in search of a miracle; we go to Mecca to show our devotion; we eat hallucinogenic mushrooms to attain transcendent vision and gather in church basements to achieve its sober opposite. But there is nothing we pray — or chant or meditate — for more than health.

Health, by definition, is the sine qua non of everything else. If you're dead, serenity is academic. So we convince ourselves that while our medicine is strong and our doctors are wise, our prayers may heal us too.

Here's what's surprising: a growing body of scientific evidence suggests that faith may indeed bring us health. People who attend religious services do have a lower risk of dying in any one year than people who don't attend. People who believe in a loving God fare better after a diagnosis of illness than people who believe in a punitive God. No less a killer than AIDS will back off at least a bit when it's hit with a double-barreled blast of belief. "Even accounting for medications," says Dr. Gail Ironson, a professor of psychiatry and psychology at the University of Miami who studies HIV and religious belief, "spirituality predicts for better disease control." (Read "Finding God on YouTube.")

It's hard not to be impressed by findings like that, but a skeptic will say there's nothing remarkable — much less spiritual — about them. You live longer if you go to church because you're there for the cholesterol-screening drive and the visiting-nurse service. Your viral load goes down when you include spirituality in your fight against HIV because your levels of cortisol — a stress hormone — go down first. "Science doesn't deal in supernatural explanations," says Richard Sloan, professor of behavioral medicine at Columbia University Medical Center and author of Blind Faith: The Unholy Alliance of Religion and Medicine. "Religion and science address different concerns."

That's undeniably true — up to a point. But it's also true that our brains and bodies contain an awful lot of spiritual wiring. Even if there's a scientific explanation for every strand of it, that doesn't mean we can't put it to powerful use. And if one of those uses can make us well, shouldn't we take advantage of it? "A large body of science shows a positive impact of religion on health," says Dr. Andrew Newberg, a professor of radiology, psychology and religious studies at the University of Pennsylvania and co-founder of Penn's Center for Spirituality and the Mind. "The way the brain works is so compatible with religion and spirituality that we're going to be enmeshed in both for a long time."

It's All in Your Head
"enmeshed in the brain" is as good a way as any to describe Newberg's work of the past 15 years. The author of four books, including the soon-to-be-released How God Changes Your Brain, he has looked more closely than most at how our spiritual data-processing center works, conducting various types of brain scans on more than 100 people, all of them in different kinds of worshipful or contemplative states. Over time, Newberg and his team have come to recognize just which parts of the brain light up during just which experiences.

When people engage in prayer, it's the frontal lobes that take the lead, since they govern focus and concentration. During very deep prayer, the parietal lobe powers down, which is what allows us to experience that sense of having loosed our earthly moorings. The frontal lobes go quieter when worshippers are involved in the singular activity of speaking in tongues — which jibes nicely with the speakers' subjective experience that they are not in control of what they're saying.

Labels: Andrew Newberg, brain, faith, health, Jeffrey Kluger, medicine, parietal lobe, prayer, religion, science, spirituality

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Friday, January 30, 2009

Transformations in spiritual health through trials

January 28, 3:51 AM
by Thomas Hartmann, Philadelphia Health Examiner

This articles is the first page of a three page series of articles dealing with using spirituality to transform difficult problems of the material world. Please click on "external source" at the bottom of this article to continue...

President Obama could not have been elected without the civil rights movement of the 1960s. The Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott, led by Dr. Martin Luther King, was the pivotal moment of this historic shift in American society. Earlier this month America honored Dr. King with a national holiday.

How did Dr. King manage to successfully lead the civil rights movement, and what does his leadership have to do with health? After all, he was surrounded by a loving family and in good physical condition. This article concerns the maturation of King’s spiritual health as a result of the crushing pressure the leadership place upon him.

For a time during the height of the boycott, his household received death threats via mail and telephone, messages which had to be fielded by him or his wife in case the call was from a supporter.

The tension took an immense toll, particularly after a middle-of-the-night bomb threat. He became concerned not only for his safety but also for that of his family, and considered giving up leadership of the movement. This sort of pressure may be familiar to anyone who has faced immense fear or hatred, whether as a result of war, prejudice, physical, or mental difficulties.

In short, King was not able to sleep, and went downstairs to the kitchen to fix a pot of coffee. There, he prayed aloud for guidance, acknowledging his utter inadequacy to cope.

Upcoming: The remarkable changes in spiritual health that are sometimes brought about through difficult trials.

Labels: health, leadership, Martin Luther King Jr., President Obama, tension

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Sunday, December 07, 2008

Researchers Stepping Up Study of Health And Religiosity

Small Field Devoted To Exploring Possible Link Is Expanding Despite Criticism, Lack of Funding

To critics, the few dozen researchers who met this week for a Washington conference are part of an ideological crusade, a modern-day sham meant to infect science with religious belief.

To participants, they are studying what they say is becoming increasingly obvious: the link between a person's religion or spirituality and their health.

The meeting Wednesday at the Reagan Building represented the growth of a research field that has existed on a small scale for decades but has expanded significantly in the past few years. The researchers include psychologists, sociologists, philosophers, statisticians and others who believe being religious or spiritual has health benefits.

Jennifer Marshall of the Heritage Foundation, one of the conference hosts, said the advocates' goal is to make religiosity one of the benchmarks that policymakers use to measure health, alongside other factors such as socioeconomic status and age.

But to the field's many challengers, empirical proof linking religiosity and health is weak. If being a church member improves one's health, it could be due to the social contact, and being on a soccer team could create the same results, they say. If prayer calms the heart, secular yoga class could as well.

Still, the field is growing. Harold Koenig, a psychiatrist and behavioral scientist at Duke University, tallied about 6,200 published studies on the issue in professional journals before 2000, and 7,145 articles between 2000 and 2008.

Funding, however, doesn't appear to be increasing significantly. The federal government invested in recent studies that produced conflicting results. But interest from the John Templeton Foundation has been a massive boost, Koenig said, adding that it funds about 75 percent of today's research.

The field is working to become more credible, and to overcome early, well-publicized studies that looked at whether people's health would be improved if others prayed for them without their knowledge. Most mainstream scientists dismissed the research and even supporters of the field said the studies were not well done.

About half of U.S. medical schools now have courses on religion's link to health, said Byron Johnson, a Baylor University sociologist.

Columbia University behavioral psychiatrist Richard Sloan, a well-known critic of the research who was not at the conference, said the subject seems to be gaining ground because spirituality and health are booming American trends.

"The confluence of the two is irresistible to the media, and in general," he said. Policymakers are also looking at it more seriously, he said, "for no good reason. Understandable reasons, but none very good."

But measuring religiosity, and how to isolate it from other personal factors, is not possible, he said.

Measuring how often someone attends worship services or prays cannot fully gauge an individual's beliefs. Such measurements also don't capture religion as it is practiced and understood in 2008, with many people moving away from denominational identity and church membership. Instead, conference participants discussed other yardsticks, such as people's perceptions of God, how close they feel to God, and how often they feel supported by their faith community.

Labels: faith, Harold Koenig, health, Michelle Boorstein, religiosity, spirituality

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Friday, November 28, 2008

Six (Medical) Reasons to Be Thankful

Six (Medical) Reasons to Be Thankful

When you thank your friends and family this holiday season, the reasons to do so may extend beyond good manners. Study after study has shown that social connections - through family, friends, or even with companion animals - seem to pay off in terms of good health, longevity and even prolonged survival among patients with very serious diseases. Some evidence linking good health with strong ties to family and friends includes:

1. The immune system's natural killer cell activity is negatively affected by three "distress indicators" - one of which is lack of social support.
2. One study of 75 medical students found that those who were lonely had more sluggish natural killer cells than students who weren't.
3. Research has shown that people who have companion animals have less illness than people who do not. Companion animals’ owners also recover from serious illness faster.
4. Susceptibility to heart attacks appears to correlate with how often people use the words "I," "me," and "mine" in casual speech.
5. And believe it or not, studies show that people who get out and spend more time with others during cold and flu season actually get fewer episodes of colds or flu than those who choose to be alone.
6. Being grateful for what you have has been associated with physical and emotional health.

Labels: Dr Andrew Weil, family, friends, gratitude, health, longevity

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Friday, November 21, 2008

Trying to measure faith, health link

Some scientific studies show religion and spirituality offers benefits

By JANUARY W. PAYNE
THE WASHINGTON POST

Published: Saturday, November 15, 2008

An integral part of many people's lives, religion defines patterns of worship and socialization, but its impact, if any, on health is unclear. Some studies show a benefit to religious practice, while others -- including much of the research into prayer -- fail to prove its health value.

The question of the role something as unquantifiable as religious belief might play in health troubles some scientists in an age when mainstream medicine is turning ever more toward epidemiological science to define research protocols and to determine the validity of treatments.

That said, it's not hard to understand why being religious might be good for the body, experts say. Religious people often attend regular services; this puts them in a socially supportive environment, which has widely acknowledged health advantages. And some religions promote healthful diets and discourage unhealthy behaviors such as drinking alcohol and smoking

Among that research is some evidence that religion and spirituality offer health benefits and even longer life spans. A national survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ...found that people who did not attend religious services were 1.87 times more likely to have died during an eight-year period than those who attended services more than weekly.

The life expectancy for infrequent attendees was age 75, and it was 83 for those who attended frequently.

A 1996 study looked at the association of Jewish religious observance with mortality by comparing secular and religious kibbutzim in Israel. Belonging to a religious group appeared to prolong life, and the lower mortality rates seen in the religious group were consistent for all causes of death, the authors wrote. And a 2003 study published in Psychosomatic Medicine found that meditation might alter brain and immune function in positive ways, an effect similarly seen in research involving Buddhist monks.

It's hard to show conclusively whether or how a belief system affects one's health; other life experiences might provide benefits to health so similar to religion and spirituality that it's hard to differentiate.

Despite the lack of scientific evidence, some common religious practices are widely thought to enhance health.

Power of prayer

It's not unusual for people to pray for their own health and for that of others. In a 2004 survey of more than 31,000 people, 45 percent said they'd prayed for health reasons, 43 percent prayed for their own health, and 25 percent reported that others had prayed for them. About 10 percent said they'd participated in a prayer group for their health, according to the results, released by the National Center for Health Statistics and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

But science says that prayer might not help a person who is ill. A 2003 update to an earlier systemic review of clinical trials on distant healing found that intercessory prayer, which involves someone praying for the healing of a person located elsewhere, with or without that person's knowledge, probably doesn't offer specific therapeutic healing effects.

Any benefit seen from prayer might come from the fact that "knowing that your friends and family are praying for you is part of social support, ... and (that is) probably really helpful to people, independent of if there is a higher being that answers those prayers," said David Schlundt, an associate professor of psychology at Vanderbilt University, who has researched the connection between faith and health.

Although religion might provide social support, purpose, a belief system, a moral code -- and even happiness -- these benefits can also come from other sources, notes a 2007 study by Eckersley published in the Medical Journal of Australia. Future examination of the health benefits of religion and spirituality should be done in a broader context, he said, especially with regard to how cultural influences affect faith and health.

Cultural context

That cultural context could be key to understanding how people's beliefs factor into their health outcomes, experts note, because religion and spirituality don't seem to produce a uniform effect on everyone. Differences are apparent between groups of varying socioeconomic and racial and ethnic backgrounds.

A dangerous aspect of the purported faith-health connection is fatalism, the belief that health is predetermined and is not within a person's control. Research shows that people who hold such beliefs are less likely than others to participate in health promotion programs and to seek health care.

Research shows that African Americans are more likely to endorse fatalism than whites. A 2007 study published in the American Journal of Health Behavior reported that such beliefs could be a reaction to chronic illness or poor health rather than something that inhibits beneficial health behavior from the outset.

FAITH HEALING

Research suggests that religion offers health benefits, including longer life spans. Is that because of the healing benefits of prayer or because people of faith enjoy supportive, healthful lifestyles? Some statistics:

83: The life expectancy of people who frequently attended religious services; for infrequent attendees, the estimate was 75.

70 percent: The percentage of churches that provide health-care services to their communities, according to a survey of 6,000 congregations.

40 to 60 percent: The percentage of hospital patients who want their doctors to pray with them. But fewer than 5 percent of doctors say they do so.

2,500: Number of Maryland kindergartners exempted from vaccine mandates on religious grounds, up from 1,300 in 2004.

Labels: belief, Buddhists, culture, faith healing, health, January W. Payne, Jewish, prayer, religion, spirituality

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Friday, November 07, 2008

4 mood boosters for good health

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

It's no secret that a positive outlook supports good health. But how do we foster good mental and spiritual attitudes that will, hopefully, carry over into our physical bodies? Here are some suggestions, based on universal spiritual principles that can be used by anyone, whether or not they are religious.

----- Develop a passion ----

We all need a reason to get out of bed in the morning, and not everyone is lucky enough to have a job they feel passionately about. So why not develop a passion for nature, for example, that will get you off the couch and out walking every day? Others find passion in art and never miss an opportunity to check out the latest exhibition.

The particular passion is unimportant; just so you have something that sets your heart racing. My father, for example, has a passion for collecting vintage fishing lures that takes him to antique stores and flea markets far and wide. He is at his happiest when he is consumed by his passion.

--- Focus on others ----

We all have problems and many of them don't have an immediate solution. Instead of focusing obsessively on my problems, I find it a relief to think about others. Suddenly my headaches and upset stomach disappear when I am working as a volunteer or just simply helping out a friend. Anything that gets my mind off the ""me, me, me"" track can only improve my outlook on life.

---- Have faith -----

Faith is a difficult concept for many people, especially those who do not participate in organized religions. I am not a religious person but I find faith in many ways. I live in California and am surrounded by natural beauty that gives me faith that the world is generally a good place. I think sometimes about family members and loved ones who have passed on, knowing that they would want me to have a happy, healthy life. Those thoughts give me faith.

--- Take a break from the news ----

I try every year to spend a week where I do not read, watch, or listen to the news. This is not about sticking my head in the sand. Rather, I find that I develop information overload after a while and become cynical. Taking a break from being constantly informed helps me refresh my mind and develop some hope in what seems like a very dark time in world history.

All of us deal with the stress of life in different ways - some become workaholics, others curl up into depression. The only sure thing is that we need to take care of whole beings - mind, body, and soul - if we are to have the fullest lives possible.

(Source: health.yahoo.com)

Labels: faith, health, passion, service, spirituality, stress

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Friday, October 10, 2008

What Religion Can Do For Your Health

Thursday October 9, 2008

Click on "exernal source" for complete article, and complete access to the rest of this interview with Dr Koenig.

Like many of you, I'm always telling people I will pray for their health, and I mean it. I realize that every person I pray for doesn't get his wish just because I've engaged the Guy upstairs in a conversation, but somehow I feel better knowing I put it in God's hands.

So it was with interest I read Beliefnet's interview with Dr. Harold G. Koenig, co-director of the Center for Spirituality, Theology, and Health at Duke University Medical Center, where he also serves on the faculty as Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and Associate Professor of Medicine. Dr. Koenig is the author of many books, including "The Healing Power of Faith," "Faith and Mental Health," and "Spiritual Caregiving," and he has been nominated twice for the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion. He spoke with Lisa Schneider of Beliefnet about why he believes being part of a religious community can make people healthier--and happier.

I have excerpted a few paragraphs.

A recent study suggests that praying for others does not improve their health. How do you interpret the results?

I think the results are very consistent with good science and good theology. Good science because there's no acceptable scientific mechanism or pathway by which prayer--at least the way it was designed in this study without people knowing whether or not they were prayed for--could have any effect, and it's good theology because God is not predictable, he's not a part of the material universe.

It tells us nothing about the effectiveness of prayer. Do you think it's impossible to do that?

It's impossible for studies designed like this. God would have to be quantitative and predictable, which is ludicrous in the context of any Christian or Jewish or Islamic tradition and even within the Eastern traditions.

How do you measure God's will for a person? Ninety-six percent of the participants in the Harvard study had someone else praying for them. We don't know how much prayer they had, we don't know how sincere the prayers were. None of that was taken into account, and it would be very hard to measure those things. And none of the benefits to the prayed-for group were measured after 30 days. Maybe God healed them after 30 days--we don't know. You can see that this study is ridiculous.

Putting aside the ability to be able to prove it or not, do you believe that prayer can heal--specifically help someone, for example, recover from cancer?

Absolutely. I believe that on faith and I also believe it because I've seen that happen with people, including personal friends. Of course they knew they were being prayed for, by their families and their churches, and those people have had remarkable recoveries. I believe it because it says it in the scriptures that I believe in. So there's no doubt in my mind that prayers help people--those who are prayed for and those saying the prayer.

One thing we do know is that God is good and because God is good, whatever God allows to happen or does in response to prayer has to be good. Theologically speaking it may be bad for a person to do well after coronary artery bypass surgery. It may be that if a person had some complications, he would realize his limitations, he may reach out to God, he may forgive his neighbor, he may tell his loved one that he loves them. Good things come out of difficult situations.

Labels: Beliefnet, Harold G. Koenig, health, religious community, Therese Borchard

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Thursday, October 02, 2008

New Site Combines Spiritual and Medical Guidance

Monday, September 29, 2008

By: Sylvia Booth Hubbard

Doctors and patients looking to augment traditional medical care with a dose of spiritual healing can turn to a new Web-based resource that offers a mix of advice, references and even actual prayers.

The site’s founders say the site offers much needed support, especially in a place as spiritual as the U.S. According to a recent Gallup Poll, 94 percent of Americans believe in a higher power. When Americans become ill, 75 percent want their doctor to include spiritual aspects into their medical treatment. And nearly half want their doctors to pray, not just for them, but with them. Some 43 percent of doctors admit they pray for their patients privately.

Spirit-Health Connections provides:

# Links to recently published articles on health and spirituality.

# Prayers of support for health providers of all faiths, including Christian prayers from several denominations appropriate in the death of a child, and Buddhist prayers for the sick.

# “Ask an Expert” section which allows readers to email questions on spirituality and health that will be answered by experts.

# A calendar of events lists lectures and conferences across the nation along with contact information.

# Links to centers and universities worldwide that study health and religion

# Excerpts from books for medical professionals, spiritual advisors, and researchers that explore spirituality and health.

# A media section which features video and audio files that can be downloaded free of charge.

Although some scientists say there is no rational explanation for how prayer works, others counter with the fact that aspirin was used effectively for hundreds of years before science figured out how it works. .

Labels: health, Spirit-Health Connections, spirituality, Sylvia Booth Hubbard, Temple Foundation Press

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Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Hospitals offer alternative therapies for mind, body & spirit

Posted by Heather VanNest

St. Petersburg, Florida--When nurses tried to insert an IV into patient Linda Aron's hand, she was so anxious over the impending operation to fix her acid reflux that they simply had to stop.

Instead of continuing to poke and prod Aron, nurses at Grinnell (Iowa) Regional Medical Center called in a massage therapist to rub her shoulders and arms to help her relax. Within 10 minutes, Aron had an IV in place.

To meet patient demand and enhance the hospital experience, more hospitals like Grinnell offer patients complementary and alternative treatments. The American Hospital Association says today that 37% of hospitals around the USA make complementary and alternative treatments available — including acupuncture, touch therapy, and music and art therapy.

A similar survey by the hospital group in 2005 found that one in four hospitals offered such services.

Patients such as Aron, 56, of Grinnell (population: 9,100), say they are surprised at how some of these therapies make a difference in their hospital experience.alter

And, to help speed her recovery and relieve pain from the surgery, Aron currently receives weekly acupuncture from the hospital in Grinnell as an outpatient. She pays the $55 fee out of her own pocket.

"This is a movement toward 'patient-centered' care," says Sita Ananth, director of knowledge services for the Samueli Institute, an Alexandria, Va.-based non-profit that studies alternative therapies. "Many hospital mission statements are to serve the mind, body and spiritual needs of their patients."

Success measured in patient satisfaction

Ananth also points to the lucrative market potential of these types of therapies for hospitals, although most hospitals have yet to see a profit. According to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, up to $19 billion a year is spent on alternative treatments. And the AHA's survey showed that much of that is paid out of pocket for patients — 71% of them pay cash.

While these types of therapies have a useful place in the hospital, more data are needed to understand how they work, says Andrew Schafer, chief physician at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. "Complementary and alternative therapies must be scrutinized in terms of their risk-to-benefit ratio and be subjected to placebo-controlled studies.

The majority of hospitals say that patient satisfaction is the No. 1 way they determine if an alternative treatment is beneficial, closely followed by clinical data on a treatment. Cleveland Clinic just completed a complementary and alternative therapy pilot program for patients undergoing heart surgery. Half of the patients — more than 1,700 — opted for spiritual care, counseling, art, music, touch therapy or guided imagery, and 93% of patients surveyed said the services were helpful.

Guidance from doctor groups for patients with chronic pain has helped bolster doctors' acceptance of complementary treatments, says Richard Nahin, senior adviser for scientific coordination and outreach at the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. He cites new guidelines for treating lower back pain issued jointly last year by the American College of Physicians and the American Pain Society, which suggest many alternative therapies as potential treatments. "As doctors become more aware, hospitals will also follow," Nahin says.

Not all doctors are on board

Yet the picture is not so rosy at certain centers. According to the AHA, 44% of hospitals that offer such therapies say that their programs have a mediocre or poor relationship with staff physicians.

Labels: healing, health, Heather VanNest, medicine, mind-body connection

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Tuesday, August 19, 2008

The healing power of forgiveness

Science measures physical as well as mental benefits
By Sandi Dolbee

August 16, 2008

Paul Livingston doesn't look like a victim. At 6-foot-7 and 330 pounds, he is taller than Michael Jordan and big enough to play offensive tackle for the San Diego Chargers. But 36 years ago, when he was only 6 years old, he became prey for a pedophile custodian at a Catholic school in Orange County.

Last summer, his lawsuit was one of more than 500 claims in a record $660 million settlement with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Then, in May, he took another step toward healing: During a weeklong program at a private institute near Napa, Livingston forgave his now-dead abuser.

“When I first heard 'forgiveness,' I could not imagine forgiving someone for doing such heinous acts to children. I thought it would be letting him off the hook,” says Livingston, who lives in San Diego. “Boy, have I been taught a lesson in life. Forgiveness is not about letting them off the hook. It's about continuing on with our journey. It frees up our soul, in a way. You let go of the anger.”

He says he can feel the difference. His acid reflux is gone. He's stopped yelling at his daughter. Livingston has discovered what science has been saying for years: Forgiveness is good for you. Literally.

FORGIVENESS

What it is: Researchers studying the health benefits of forgiveness generally define it as the process of letting go of the pain, anger and resentment caused by an offense.

What it isn't: Forgiveness isn't denying the hurt, nor is it having to trust someone who is not trustworthy or staying in a relationship that is not healthy. It is not instant; premature forgiveness could be a sign of low self-esteem or other problems.

Why it matters: Hundreds of studies have linked forgiveness to improved physical and emotional well-being. In controlled tests at the University of Wisconsin Madison, for example, researcher Robert Enright sums up the findings in two words: "Forgiveness works."

A new science is exploding. It's not about measuring the big bang or excavating the ice on Mars. This science is more homeward bound, dealing with a word that religions have exulted and people have largely eluded.

Since its emergence in the 1990s, the new science of forgiveness has mushroomed into hundreds of studies by researchers testing aspects ranging from the physical and mental health effects on college students seething over being dumped by their dates to abuse victims reeling from betrayal and people rendered paralyzed in accidents.

In journal after journal, year after year, the cumulative evidence is enough to even convince a team from “CSI.” Bag 'em and tag 'em: People who learn to forgive seem to have fewer cardiovascular problems and stress-related ailments, and generally feel happier than those still holding a grudge.

Just last month, the journal of Mental Health, Religion and Culture reported that people who forgave had decreased odds of depression – women more so than men. Another study published this year found that men generally have a harder time forgiving than women.

Religion & Ethics Editor Sandi Dolbee was one of 10 participants this summer in the Templeton-Cambridge Journalism Fellowships in Science and Religion.

Dolbee's project was on the science of forgiveness, particularly how the ancient religious virtue is being popularized by studies showing that it has mental and physical health benefits.

Perhaps it's ironic that the midwife for this birth was a theologian and ethicist. The late Lewis Smedes, of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, knew the God stuff. He knew the world's religions considered forgiveness a virtue. From Hinduism's Bhagavad Gita to the Koran of Islam to Christianity's Lord's Prayer, scriptures extol forgiveness as a heavenly attribute.

But Smedes was convinced that forgiveness was good for the forgiver, as well. And he wanted researchers to put it to the test. Everett Worthington Jr., a psychology professor at Virginia Commonwealth University who became a pioneer in forgiveness research, remembers Smedes' message this way: “We can do this. We can study it scientifically.”

The first challenge for researchers was the word itself. Just what is forgiveness?

“Forgiving does not mean excusing, forgetting or pretending that an offense never occurred,” says Julie Juola Exline, associate professor of psychology at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. “Forgiveness also does not imply that you trust the person who hurt you. Forgivers still seek le gal justice in some cases, and they may take steps to protect themselves from being hurt again.”

Instead, forgiveness is a letting go of the “bitter, grudging, vengeful feelings.”

It is a decidedly secular definition, far short of the radical forgiveness preached by Jesus, who told an offender to go and sin no more and offered forgiveness to his executioners even as he was dying.

“I think Jesus was an exemplar of forgiveness,” says Ken Pargament, a clinical psychologist at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. “We're not Jesus. For other human beings, forgiveness is a process.”

Part of that process is empathy, “putting yourself in the perspective of the person who hurt you rather than just demonizing them,” Pargament says.

Earlier this year, a Mayo Clinic journal reported that people who held grudges had increased blood pressure and heart rates, part of a mounting body of evidence, including a previous study of more than 2,000 twin pairs in Virginia that found that forgiveness related to less nicotine dependence and less drug abuse.

Other research found that HIV-infected patients took better care of themselves if they successfully forgave themselves and others. So did recovering alcoholics. People suffering spinal-cord injuries tended to cope better with their health situation and their treatments if they had forgiven.

Charlotte vanOyen Witvliet, an associate professor of psychology at Hope College in Holland, Mich., decided to see what physical effects people exhibited when they remembered the transgressions against them. She focused on heart rate, blood pressure, facial muscles and sweat levels.

When people remembered the transgressions, the bio-markers showed elevated stress and tension. When she had them think about forgiveness, she says the results were significant. “It had this fascinating quelling effect,” she explains.

Witvliet also made headlines with a study of forgiveness involving 213 Vietnam military veterans experiencing post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Her team found that vets who had trouble with forgiveness experienced more problems with PTSD.

As for the immune system, the theory is that unforgiveness is a personal stressor, which means every time it is felt, it triggers a stress reaction. Cortisol, a hormone produced by the adrenal glands, rushes to the body's defense, contributing energy, suppressing inflammation and even regulating the deposition of fat in the body. Too much cortisol, however, can interfere with the immune system over time. “Our bodies aren't designed to operate that way,” is how Worthington puts it in an interview from Virginia.

Researchers aren't ready to pronounce forgiveness as a cure. While forgiveness seems to contribute to a healthier existence, mentally and physically, the field of research is still too young to know exactly what part it plays in the human jigsaw. “I think we've got a long way to go,” says Witvliet, the Hope College researcher.

This is particularly true about long-term research, which could better define the role of forgiveness and unforgiveness in cumulative health and disease.

But those who have toiled in this field the longest – psychologists such as Worthington in Virginia and Robert Enright of the University of Wisconsin Madison – are bullish.

In an e-mail from Northern Ireland, where he spent much of the summer working on a forgiveness curriculum for schoolchildren, Enright says he now is more impressed with the power of forgiveness to heal than when he began his research two decades ago.

Worthington also is adamant. “It is not going to be refuted,” he says. “It's going to be refined.”

Labels: forgiveness, health, Lewis Smedes, Sandi Dolbee, science

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Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Many Medical Schools Now Include Classes On Healing Power Of Spirituality

By Zulima Palacio
Washington
14 July 2008

For the past 20 years, western medicine in the United States has been exploring uncharted territory: the healing power of spirituality. Now, many medical schools include classes on the subject. And multiple studies point to spirituality as a key element in boosting immune functions and enhancing and accelerating the healing process beyond conventional medical treatment. Producer Zulima Palacio has the story. Carol Pearson narrates.

Praying, being part of nature, meditating or practicing yoga - practitioners say they all have a common element: a strong part of a person's spiritual life and, potentially, a great importance in health and well-being., Dr. Christina Puchalski has been studying the subject for more than 20 years.

"Would you say that your spirituality is important to you in they way you think about your health?” Dr. Puchalski asked her patient.

"Very important because, its like a bad feeling; if you get up in the morning with gloom and doom in your mind, you are bound to have gloom and doom all day," patient responds.

For two decades, 82 year old Vera Thompson has been a Buddhist with strong spiritual practices. Her case, as with many other patients, has provided Dr. Puchalski with great insight about the healing power of spirituality.

Regardless of religion, faith or practice, the positive effects of spirituality are now being proven in medical studies Dr. Puchalski says. "People who have spiritual practice tend to recover from depression a little sooner than those that do not. There are studies that look at blood pressure, incredible studies looking at meditation actually that affect blood pressure and resilience to stress."

Dr. Puchalski is the founder and Director of the George Washington Institute for Spirituality and Health. She also teaches spirituality and health at The George Washington University Medical School. She says the most significant role of spirituality in health includes the ability to cope with serious illness, with suffering and stress.

Two weeks ago her patient Gwenda Martin had a total mastectomy to treat breast cancer. Martin attributes her quick recovery to the power of positive thinking and the attention of her church community. "I think it had a lot to do with it because when I went into surgery I knew I was going to be fine," Martin said.

When meeting her patients, Dr. Puchalski asks them many non-conventional questions involving their physical, emotional, social and spiritual life. In many ways, she says, she is talking about the power of the mind, "If someone says that spirituality is like a placebo, I think it may be truth because what we are doing is engaging the power of our minds," Dr. Puchalski said.

Dr. Puchalski says she tries to keep the alliance between mind, body and spirit. She says studies done on Tibetan monks and brain imaging while meditating have established the positive effects of spirituality. However she recognizes that western society is dominated by technology and scientific methods that make wellbeing very hard to measure.
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Labels: Christina Puchalski, George Washington Institute for Spirituality and Health, health, medicine, spirituality, Zulima Palacio

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Tuesday, June 10, 2008

A Matter Of Belief or Evidence

By January W. Payne
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Page one of two: Please click on external source for complete article

An integral part of many people's lives, religion defines patterns of worship and socialization, but its impact, if any, on health is unclear. Some studies show a benefit to religious practice, while others -- including much of the research into prayer -- fail to prove its health value.

The question of the role something as unquantifiable as religious belief might play in health troubles some scientists in an age when mainstream medicine is turning ever more toward epidemiological science to define research protocols and to determine the validity of treatments.

That said, it's not hard to understand why being religious might be good for the body, experts say. Religious people often attend regular services; this puts them in a socially supportive environment, which has widely acknowledged health advantages. And some religions promote healthful diets and discourage unhealthy behaviors such as drinking alcohol and smoking.
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"Religions package many of the ingredients of well-being to make them accessible to people," said Richard Eckersley, a visiting fellow at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at the Australian National University in Canberra. And the "psychological well-being" that religion can promote is "linked to physical health through direct physiological effects, such as on neuroendocrine and immune function, and indirect effects on health behaviors, such as diet, smoking, exercise and sexual activity."

Interest in researching the impact of religion and spirituality on how we live seems to be surging. David Myers, author of "A Friendly Letter to Skeptics and Atheists" (to be published in August) and a professor of psychology at Hope College in Holland, Mich., did a database search to compare recent and past interest in the topic. Between 1965 and 1999, 1,950 study abstracts mentioned religion or spirituality, he found. Myers's search for the same terms in abstracts published between 2000 and 2007 came up with 8,719 hits, he said.

Among that research is some evidence that religion and spirituality offer health benefits and even longer life spans. A national survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and mentioned in Myers's book found that people who did not attend religious services were 1.87 times more likely to have died during an eight-year period than those who attended services more than weekly. The life expectancy for infrequent attendees was age 75, and it was 83 for those who attended frequently.

A 1996 study looked at the association of Jewish religious observance with mortality by comparing secular and religious kibbutzim in Israel. Belonging to a religious group appeared to prolong life, and the lower mortality rates seen in the religious group were consistent for all causes of death, the authors wrote. And a 2003 study published in Psychosomatic Medicine found that meditation might alter brain and immune function in positive ways, an effect similarly seen in research involving Buddhist monks.

But researchers have had trouble replicating such statistics in the randomized studies that are the gold standard for medical research. It's hard to show conclusively whether or how a belief system affects one's health; other life experiences might provide benefits to health so similar to religion and spirituality that it's hard to differentiate.

Despite the lack of scientific evidence, some common religious practices are widely thought to enhance health.

It's not unusual for people to pray for their own health and for that of others. In a 2004 survey of more than 31,000 people, 45 percent said they'd prayed for health reasons, 43 percent prayed for their own health, and 25 percent reported that others had prayed for them. About 10 percent said they'd participated in a prayer group for their health, according to the results, released by the National Center for Health Statistics and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

But science says that prayer might not help a person who is ill. A 2003 update to an earlier systemic review of clinical trials on distant healing found that intercessory prayer, which involves someone praying for the healing of a person located elsewhere, with or without that person's knowledge, probably doesn't offer specific therapeutic healing effects.

Any benefit seen from prayer might come from the fact that "knowing that your friends and family are praying for you is part of social support, . . . and [that is] probably really helpful to people, independent of if there is a higher being that answers those prayers," said David G. Schlundt, an associate professor of psychology at Vanderbilt University, who has researched the connection between faith and health.

Labels: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, David G. Schlundt, David Myers, faith, health, January W. Payne, prayer, religion, science

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Friday, May 23, 2008

'Faith and health go together,' Tutu tells U.N. in Geneva

By Peter Kenny, May 21, 2008

[Ecumenical News International, Geneva] Archbishop Desmond Tutu is a man known for speaking out about injustices from whatever side they come, and for his charismatic preaching peppered with heart-wrenching anecdotes. However, when he visited the United Nations in Geneva on May 20, he stressed the link between "faith and health."

Tutu won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 at a time when black South Africans were rising up in revolt against his country's apartheid racist system of white domination, and he was a vociferous opponent of the regime. Still, he also famously intervened to stop militants who were trying to kill a local member of a black community by setting fire to a gasoline-soaked tire and placing it around his neck, because he was suspected of being an informer.

The Nobel peace laureate said that people who were suffering under tyranny these days were in Zimbabwe, Burma and Tibet. The archbishop has condemned the totalitarian actions of the government of Zimbabwe led by President Robert Mugabe, and did so long before other Church leaders dared to. He also fights his government for what he has labelled as their heartless policies to those living with HIV and AIDS.

"It is a Godly coincidence that nearby the World Council of Churches is also celebrating its 60th anniversary," Tutu, who is 76, told his U.N. hearers. "Together, the WHO and WCC share a common mission to the world, protecting and restoring body, mind, and spirit.

The archbishop added that it was important that 2008 also marked the 40th anniversary of the Christian Medical Commission, whose values and experience in primary health care shaped the 1974 WHO Guidelines for Primary Health Care, which were reaffirmed at Alma Ata (the then capital of Kazakhstan) in 1978.

"You see, we -- faith and health -- have been together a very long time. Health is not only freedom from suffering and illness but, according to your Constitution, 'Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.' These words enshrine the fundamental reason you are here, and suggest something of what we share in our commitment to the world together," asserted Tutu.

He added, "Perhaps it would be good for us to include the recognition that there is an intrinsic relationship between God and humankind, which can be acknowledged as 'spiritual well being'? Perhaps one day this notion of well being can be included in the WHO definition of health?"

Labels: Desmond Tutu, faith, health, Peter Kenny, spirituality, United Nations

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Tuesday, May 06, 2008

More doctors recommending dose of God for their patients

Tribune staff report
May 2, 2008

You might think a hospital sounds like an odd place to launch a spiritual quest. But for some patients, that's precisely where they find religion.

In fact, some doctors even rely on divine intervention to assist them in the healing process.

Tribune reporter Joel Hood's story this week about a continuous prayer week held in Adventist Bolingbrook Hospital illustrated how some hospitals recognize and embrace their role as a spiritual destination.

Dr. Yong Kim was one of the staff recruited to pray. An elder at his Korean Methodist church, Kim spent several hours praying for his patients' recovery. He told Joel that prayer is vital to a patient's recovery.

Kim is one of a burgeoning number of doctors who factor prayer into treatment, said Dr. Robert Klitzman, an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center in New York. In interviews with 50 doctors, Klitzman learned that many are oblivious to patients' spiritual needs until they become patients themselves.

Has the threat of a serious illness prompted you to reassess your relationship with God? Do your doctors tend to your spiritual well-being too?

Labels: doctors, God, health, hospital, Joel Hood, prayer, spirituality

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Monday, March 17, 2008

Do your habits reveal what's important to you?

By MARK ANSHEL
DNJ Columnist

The determination to live a life that is meaningful, consistent with our values and reflects our passion about what really matters is called spiritual capacity. It is our spiritual side that should drive our behavior.

We often neglect our spiritual side, which is evident by not taking better care of our health. We forget there are others who love us, depend on us and want us to stay healthy for as long as possible.

In turn, we want to have the energy to enjoy our passion — what really matters to us, such as our family, friends, faith and achievements at work.

Writers refer to "spiritual capacity" as the force behind what we do — the energy of purpose, our values, and beliefs about what's really important — what defines our character.

Here is a profound (and challenging) question: How can we respect and honor the people we love if we dishonor ourselves by living a careless and unhealthy lifestyle?

We adapt to the storms in our life without consideration of the long-term consequences. Our stress-management program consists of eating large portions of high fat food, avoiding physical activity — just too uncomfortable and, oh, yes, not enough time and then wonder why we feel miserable — taking yet more medication and having little energy for doing what gives us the most pleasure.

Challenging question: Why would a person who loves his or her family, has a strong spiritual component and lists family, health, faith, work excellence and compassion toward others as his or her most important values, live a life disconnected from those values?

What areas in your life do you need to improve in order to expand your spiritual capacity? Take this test of "The Spiritual Truth" about you. Check the items that apply to you.

Those areas you check form your "story" that explain a lack of spiritual incentive to improve your health and live a life consistent with your values.

Think about it, and ask yourself this: What is your legacy after you are gone? How do want to be remembered?

Uncover your spiritual truth

Check the ones that apply to you.

Commitment/Passion

_ Not fully committed

_ Lacking long-term energy (perseverance)

_ Lacking passion for work

_ Lacking passion to improve my health and energy

Vision/Purpose

_ Lacking a strong sense of purpose (something greater then myself that drives my behavior)

_ My core values are not connected to my actions

_ I respond to demands based on short-term needs, not long-term consequences

_ I make expedient (quick-fix) rather than values-based decisions

Ethics

_ My actions are not consistent with my words

_ I do not lead by example

_ I do all I can to help others

_ I lack the incentive/energy to make important changes that will improve my quality of life

_ I place my needs first before the needs of others

Mark H. Anshel is a professor in the Department of Health and Human Performance at Middle Tennessee State University.

Labels: behavior, character, health, Mark Anshel, spirituality, values

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Friday, March 14, 2008

We need to learn how to survive being alive

By Dr. Dewall Hildreth, D.O.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Many physicians see a lot of patients who show illness, but only a few who express or portray sickness.

As expressed in a little booklet by Dr. Donald Dudley, for centuries, patient and physicians alike have attributed accidents or illnesses to bad luck or bad timing, or carelessness or an act of God.

Many of us see neighbors or close friends spend half their time running from doctor to doctor, week or month after month. Is their faith in hoping to find one doctor that is smarter than another rather than having faith in themselves and the doctor they have chosen?

Consider this startling fact. Again, and I extract from the same little booklet, medical records indicate 70 percent of those medical treatments and surgical procedures are administered to only 30 percent of us.

We all believe in something beneficial to our health or not beneficial to our health. As human beings we are incredibly complex with an endless stream of physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs that must be satisfied.

It is impossible for us to go from one minute to the next wondering if what I do every minute is going to make me sick or well.

We may or may not realize it, but a deep-seated love for ourselves and everything around us including the bugs, the viruses, and other good or bad challenges, is what keeps our immune system strong and all of internal organs working in harmony.

Love and confidence within ourselves is the key.

The important part of this is that we all must express the love that is in us from time to time to maintain good physical and mental health.

There is another excellent little book that I have enjoyed and have thought of from time to time when treating patients over the past 50-plus years.

It expresses more meaning to me now than 40 years ago possibly because I am in contact with more patients closer to my age now than before.

Most of us have some ongoing illness but few of us are expressing a sickness. Just remember to get a good physical from a physician that will look beyond just the laboratory studies and will take time to look, examine and talk to you about your concerns.

Ask questions and understand that changes are taking place in your body.

What deficiencies or alterations that possibly have taken place over the past few years in your body could be corrected or supported without synthetic drugs?

This may require physical adjustments such as exercise, nutritional changes, weight changes, and a host of others, or it could be mental or emotional changes such as relationships with your family, husband or wife, neighbors, or whoever may need to be addressed.

Last, and possibly the most important, is your inner spiritual realm. Are you happy? Do you love yourself?

If not, this will all be reflected through physical functions particularly in areas where time and age have already influenced function.

Love and be happy with yourself. Know and understand weaknesses that are taking place with age.

Correct or support that which you can do or have done naturally and use crutches in the form of drugs to support that which is showing failure.

Just remember that there are no synthetic drugs used that don't have side effects.

You can not support one system in an artificial way without altering or influencing another system of the body. Talk to your doctor about your concerns.

Love all parts of you and age gracefully.

Labels: Dewall Hildreth, doctors, Donald Dudley, happiness, health, love

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Tuesday, March 04, 2008

More schools teaching spirituality in medicine

Some medical schools require students to take at least one course examining the role faith plays.

By Bonnie Booth, AMNews correspondent.

March 4, 2008.

Christina M. Puchalski, MD, was a bit of a pioneer when she created a spirituality and health course in 1992 at George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C.

The course, offered as an elective, covered spiritual practices, including meditation, as well as topics such as humor and alternative medicine.

When Dr. Puchalski first began teaching her course, 2% of medical schools offered course work in spirituality. By 2004, the figure was 67%.

Now 100 of the approximately 150 U.S. medical schools offer some variation of spirituality-in-medicine course work. And 75 of those 100 require their students to take at least one course on the topic.

Dr. Puchalski can take some credit for the change. She and a colleague developed a program in spirituality and health at the National Institute for Healthcare Research. Funding by the John Templeton Foundation -- an organization that makes grants to research projects -- has given medical schools the opportunity to develop a spirituality curriculum of their own.

100 U.S. medical schools offer some kind of spirituality course.
Dr. Puchalski has worked with the Assn. of American Medical Colleges to define spirituality as part of the Medical School Objectives Project.

According to the MSOP, "spirituality is recognized as a factor that contributes to health in many persons. It is expressed in an individual's search for ultimate meaning through participation in religion, and/or belief in God, family, naturalism, humanism and the arts. All of these factors can influence how patients and health care professionals perceive health and illness and how they interact with one another."

76% of doctors believe in God, and 59% believe in an afterlife.

In recent years, more research has examined the links between faith and physicians. In 2005, a nationwide study found that 76% of physicians believed in God, and 59% believed in an afterlife. Physicians are more likely to attend religious services than the rest of U.S. population, said the study in the July 2005 Journal of General Internal Medicine.

Some experts said doctors don't know if it's appropriate to incorporate faith into medical practice. Doctors also might be unsure if they should address the topic of their patients' beliefs.

Research aside, social trends have led medical schools to consider spirituality in their curriculum planning, Dr. Puchalski said.

She said that during the mid-20th century, medicine shifted away from the physician-patient relationship and holistic care to a disease-centered model that focused more on advances in science and technology.

The switch to managed care, the diminishing doctor-patient relationship and public pressure brought demands for change. The increased criticism of the medical system as a whole, she said, also stimulated changes in medical education.

The goal today, Dr. Puchalski said, is to help medical students understand how they can be compassionate participants in their patients' lives.

Labels: Bonnie Booth, Christina M. Puchalski, health, medicine, spirituality

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Saturday, March 01, 2008

What Matters Most?

Dean Ornish M.D.

That simple question can play a powerful role in healing our lives.

One of two pages. Please click on external link for complete articleFeb 27, 2008

Friedrich Nietzsche once wrote: "He who has a why to live can bear almost any how." Rachel Remen, M.D., has spent much of her 40-year medical career helping patients and doctors find their why. A colleague of mine at the University of California, San Francisco, and founder of the Institute for the Study of Health and Illness, she has been a pioneer of integrative medicine, exploring the powerful ways in which our emotional, mental and spiritual states may directly affect our health. Dr. Remen is also the author of the best sellers "Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories That Heal" and "My Grandfather's Blessings: Stories of Strength, Refuge, and Belonging" (both from Riverhead Books). I spoke to her recently about how understanding and pursuing what matters most to us can help to heal both body and soul. Excerpts:

Dean Ornish: There is a lot of suffering in the world right now, and it's experienced on so many different levels—a lot of edginess, anxiety and fear. You often describe how suffering can be a catalyst for transforming our lives. In what ways?

Rachel Remen: Very negative experiences, including anxiety and fear, have the potential to cause us to question the way we've been living. They're a wake-up call. They make people think more deeply about things and ask themselves questions like: What's important? What really matters? How do I want to spend my time, my money, my energy? How do I live more deliberately according to the things that are important to me? Just a very simple two-word question—"What matters?"—can change your life and the lives of people around you.

Why?

Because most of us live by habit. We often spend our time and energy on things that, if we were to ask ourselves, "Is this really important to me?" the answer would be, "Not very." But we don't usually ask ourselves this question. We're not living our lives closest to what has meaning and passion and value for us.

Why not?

We get distracted. There are lots of pressures in life. We're multitasking a lot of the time. Many of us have become disheartened or depressed. We tend to want to numb ourselves out rather than go deep inside and find the well of renewal that is in every person. We spend a lot of time in front of the television set, maybe we tie one on over the weekend. And we're often looking for comfort rather than renewal, and those are two different things.

What's the difference?

Comfort is a temporary Band-Aid. But whatever you are trying to numb yourself from usually comes back. Renewal is healing. If you go deep within and look to live your life with greater integrity, closer to your genuine and authentic values, according to what is really true for you, then you permanently diminish the pain. You don't just numb it temporarily. Food is one of the ways we numb ourselves. Or we drink too much, or we go from relationship to relationship, constantly seeking something new.

A patient once told me, "When I get depressed, I eat a lot of fat—it coats my nerves and numbs the pain. It fills the void." Another said, "I've got 20 friends in this package of cigarettes. They're always there for me; nobody else is."
In the effort to heal our pain, we often numb it so we don't look at our lives. The real healing comes from asking ourselves what really matters and having the courage to let go of what doesn't matter and take hold of what does.

When people are diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, they often realize this, as well.

Yes. There is a moment of clarity where you know what's important to you. And it often isn't the way you've been living your life but something different than that. I've worked for years with people who have cancer, listening to their stories—the view from the edge of life is a lot clearer than most of us have.

In all those years, nobody ever said to me, "If I die of this disease, I'm going to miss my Mercedes." What really matters is who you've touched on your way through life, who has touched you and cared deeply, and what you're leaving behind you in the hearts and lives of those around you. We're so busy that we may not be present in our own lives. We don't see. We don't connect. And it's all here in front of us. Many are starving in the midst of plenty.

Labels: Dean Ornish M.D., health, M.D., Rachel Remen, spirituality

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Saturday, February 23, 2008

The power of prayer, in good times and bad

Friday, February 22, 2008

Christian Scientists rely on spiritual healing throughout their lives.

By BILL CUNNINGHAM
The Orange County Register

At Fullerton's First Church of Christ, Scientist, two speakers stood together at a wide podium. One read a passage from the Bible; the other read related words from Mary Baker Eddy's book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." The Sunday morning congregation listened quietly in the plain sanctuary. No crosses, no statues, no elaborate ornaments. Words and thoughts were emphasized, rather than symbols and rituals.

The two books, the Bible and "Science and Health," are considered to be the spiritual leader of the church. There is no ordained clergy.

Mrs. Eddy, who wrote about suffering with ill health since childhood before studying the Bible and discovering a method of curing herself and others, founded Christian Science in 1879. It was designed "to commemorate the word and works of our Master (Jesus Christ), which should reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing," states a church manual.

An estimated 1,600 congregations now exist in America, with hundreds more worldwide. Beyond the use of the word "science" in the name, it has nothing to do with Scientology.

Spiritual healing is an important part of the Christian Science religion. When practitioners are sick or injured they pray first, rather than head to a medical doctor.

"Spiritual healing probably has as many different faces as there are individuals that are applying it," said Donald W. Ingwerson, spokesman for Christian Science in Southern California and a church member for over 50 years. "Basically it's the power of prayer that heals. And that prayer is based upon inspiration from the Bible and from 'Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.' "

But if a church member with a broken bone or a severe illness feels the need for medical treatment, there's no stigma attached. "All Christian Scientists are free to go to a doctor any time they feel the need for it," said Ingwerson. "However, generally speaking, a Christian Scientist would pray first and see where that leads their thought and their need. And if they felt after that prayer, they needed to see a doctor, they should feel free to go see a doctor. But many find that they don't need to go to a doctor after they pray."

Although Mrs. Eddy was founder of the church and the author of one of its most important texts, she is not looked upon a saint or a prophet. "But she certainly has the deep respect of the world for the religion she created," said Ingwerson. "Mrs. Eddy herself said 'look for me in my works' and that's where she wants to be of value to us."

Each church reaches out to the community in several ways. There are practitioners, considered full-time professional healers, who can be called by anyone seeking treatment through prayer. And there are Reading Rooms open to the public throughout the county. These rooms have Bibles and Christian Science literature available for reading, borrowing or purchasing.

On Wednesday evenings, one-hour Testimony Meetings are held, at which individuals tell of personal experiences involving healing. At a recent meeting, several spoke of ailments that were resolved without medical assistance. One woman told of many healings, "physical, emotional and relational" over the years.

Unlike some individuals who live in fear or hope of an afterlife, Christian Scientists "don't believe in a literal sense of heaven and hell," said Ingwerson. "We don't think it's a place. We think it's a state of thought and it's right here. You're living in your own hell or heaven right now. It's not a place you go to later."

Labels: Bill Cunningham, Christian Science, Christianity, health, Jesus, Mary Baker Eddy, prayer, spiritual healing

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Wednesday, February 20, 2008

The road to forgiveness

A new documentary looks at how and when people choose to forgive

By LAURA LLOYD

Filmmaker Martin Doblemeier believes that forgiveness can transform the world. His new documentary, “The Power of Forgiveness,” which will be shown on public television stations beginning in March, explores that idea through interviews with people who have forgiven those who injured them.

Being able to let go of the bitterness that follows being hurt isn’t always easy, of course, whether for individuals or for nations. The difficulty in doing so is demonstrated powerfully on the film’s Web site, where Mr. Doblemeier recently posed a question, “How do you feel about a Garden of Forgiveness at Ground Zero?” Such a garden has been suggested by a New York City Episcopal priest, Mr. Doblemeier said.

“In 10 days we had 6,000 hits,” Mr. Doblemeier said. “Of the respondents, 97 percent said no to a Garden of Forgiveness and 3 percent said yes. Now, most of the people who go our Web site might be called progressive tree-huggers, faith-in-the-world types. Yet, they were not in favor of a Garden of Forgiveness.”

Mr. Doblemeier said America is “an angry culture, angry on the highways, angry in the movies. We’re a nation of people who are deeply hurt.” Still, in making his film he was able to find a wide array of people here and abroad who are making creative efforts to foster forgiveness.

“Forgiveness is a decision,” Mr. Doblemeier said. In other words, people don’t have to wait until they feel like forgiving to do so.

A Roman Catholic, Mr. Doblemeier is a veteran maker of documentaries with spiritual themes. The 25 movies he’s produced and directed include “Bonhoeffer,” a documentary about the well-known German pastor who resisted the Nazis, and “Final Blessing,” a film about the spiritual issues of the terminally ill. He decided to explore the topic of forgiveness in a variety of faith traditions and from a scientific perspective as well. He found out that almost all religions teach the importance of forgiveness, and some, like the Amish, make it a cornerstone of their faith. He also found that scientists are discovering that the ability to forgive can confer health benefits such as lower blood pressure and better cardiovascular health.

Forgiveness “is a wonderful virtue in itself and it’s also good for our health,” Mr. Doblemeier said.

He is happy that acts of forgiveness have health benefits, but he places greater value on the idea that corporate forgiveness can lead to a “transformation of the world.” His film focuses on such transforming acts as a school program in Northern Ireland that nurtures nonjudgmental attitudes between Catholics and Protestants and efforts to foster reconciliation between Germans and Jews affected by the Holocaust. These acts, he thinks, have the most power.

“Jesus, when he was on the cross and said, ‘Forgive them, they know not what they do,’ wasn’t forgiving because it was good for his health,” Mr. Doblemeier said.

Mr. Doblemeier left out of his film some stunning acts of forgiveness. They include the story of South Africa, where Archbishop Desmond Tutu counseled forgiveness of the white minority that had viciously oppressed the black population, and Pope John Paul II’s forgiveness of his unsuccessful assassin and his request for forgiveness from the Jewish people. For centuries, Jews had been persecuted and discriminated against by the Catholic world.

“The Power of Forgiveness” is already being used as a teaching tool. Susan Hendricks, a social worker who leads a group of women in the maximum security Camille Griffin Graham Correctional Institution in Columbia, S.C., has used parts of “The Power of Forgiveness” to encourage discussion about forgiveness -- both of the self and of others. “This film is so important,” she said. “It demonstrates to the women through stories how to forgive themselves and how to forgive others. A lot of them don’t recognize this, that a lot of times you have to forgive yourself for what you’ve done.”

Journey Films, Mr. Doblemeier’s production company, took “The Power of Forgiveness” to 25 special screenings in 2007, including one at a theater in Blacksburg, Va., the home of Virginia Tech, where a student gunned down 32 persons before killing himself, and another at the United Nations. The upcoming broadcast on PBS of “The Power of Forgiveness” is part of a strategy designed to spark conversations at both a national and local level about the ability of forgiveness to alleviate anger and grief. Groups who want to use study material for teaching “The Power of Forgiveness” can download them from the film’s Web site at www.journeyfilms.com.

Mr. Doblemeier, who has been present at many of the screenings of the film, often in churches or synagogues, is optimistic that “The Power of Forgiveness” will have a continuing impact on people’s lives through workshops and seminars. He has noticed that after the film is shown, people frequently come forward to talk to him. Sometimes they reveal they have been living with guilt and are in need of forgiveness themselves.

“I like the idea that the movie shows it is possible to have a positive resolution to a problem and for people to see others who are able to help,” Mr. Doblemeier said.

Laura Lloyd is a Kansas City, Mo., freelance writer.

Labels: anger, documentary, forgiveness, health, Journey Films, Laura Lloyd, Martin Doblemeier

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Saturday, February 16, 2008

Living Your Essence – A Global Perspective

Feb 15, 2008,

Why is it, with so much resource and opportunity in the world, the sheer volumes of information we have on the Internet, and the litany of spiritual venues available, that people would continue to be riddled with unhappiness and plagued by depression? Why do so many of us feel utterly powerless to make a significant difference in the world? Why does it seem like this mysterious force, “out there,” is in charge of what’s happening? And why do we continue to live in fear of one another? Most importantly, what can we do to overcome all of this?

To paraphrase Einstein though, “we will never be able to solve the problems of our current situation from the same consciousness that created it.” That is to say that fear cannot and will not overcome fear. You cannot fight terror with more terror; for all that does is compound the problem!

As we evolve, and our sense of discernment grows sharp, we must start to understand and take responsibility for our beliefs. Simply stated, our beliefs create the reality we live in. By allowing the burgeoning corporate interests and media empires to use propaganda, sensationalism, and psychological prowess to shape our opinions, we are living at the effect of what we see and experience on television. Quite frankly, our subconscious does not realize the difference between a real life experience and an experience it remembers from a picture.

In order to regain control, we have got to become more selective and fill our minds only with information that is useful and critical to our success!

Jack Trout, in his book, “Differentiate or Die,” expounded upon the number of messages that come at us on a daily basis. It is estimated that the average individual is exposed to 30,000 messages on any given day; quite an astounding number. On one level, we have a filtering mechanism that allows us to function despite this full frontal attack of messaging, however on another level, we have very little defense, unless of course, we live in a cave somewhere. It is virtually impossible to escape the proliferation of “Consumerism” and thus, we need to take proactive measures to live within our Essence.

Health can be directly correlated to your ability to process and subsequently stand clear of negative thought. Conversely, we typically pay dubious attention to the negative stories that run us and subsequently persist in ways that will seemingly resolve these negative thoughts - such as listening to negative banter on the news. Each of us, face lessons in life that make us bitter or they make us better. The real trick is to take each obstacle and process both the pain and the wisdom that goes with it. As we resist these lessons, they become imbedded in our consciousness and make us unhealthy and negative – we start to chase conversations that validate negative data. The point is not to deny our experience, resist it, or try to overcome it, but rather to embrace it, asking questions and finding answers that facilitate the highest and best wisdom. The same goes for concepts and words that clog our minds with negative meanings and unclear outcomes.

True discernment is the ability to assert Choice. When you let your negative reactions dictate the way you feel and act, there is no Choice, only reactive behavior. This reactive behavior is the biggest problem we have. Life can certainly be lived reacting to everything that goes on around us. We can try to build walls to keep out the evil forces and put guards at the gates, but at the end of the day, you really have to ask yourself, how much energy is that going to take? You see, ultimately you can never have enough energy to fight off and react to the consciousness of fear and therefore, it is a losing struggle. This is the underlying reason for depression. The alternative is simply to discard the fear based thought and regain Creative Choice, the underlying nature of Essence. Therein lay the answer.

It would be a disservice though, to write at length about what Essence is, Lord knows, the religions have been trying this for Ions and that is fine. We feel the approach best taken to your own Essence is to allow you to stand clear of your reactive fear based thoughts and listen. Listen for what calls to you. Listen for the synchronicity that life hands you every day. Acknowledge the spectrum of Choice at hand and allow yourself to just be still. Everything you need to live the Essence based life is right in front of you, and that is a promise.

Labels: choice, Differentiate or Die, health, Jack Trout, negativity

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Thursday, February 14, 2008

People in loving relationships are healthier

by The Times-Picayune
Tuesday February 12, 2008,
Chris Bynum
Staff writer

There's plenty of proof that love is good for your health. But even if Valentine's Day suggests that a direct hit with Cupid's arrow is required, health experts say that love's physiological benefits are not limited to heady romance and passionate highs.

"When I say love, I mean a deep emotional connection as opposed to being in love, " says Dr. Mark Liponis, medical director of Canyon Ranch in Lenox, Mass., and author of "Ultra-Longevity" (Little, Brown and Company, $25.99). "You can have a really deep emotional connection with friends, hobbies, children, pets, nature. We are social creatures. We have found that social interaction improves outcome."

Liponis points out one of the reasons people form or join support groups is to dissolve "negative emotions like anger, despair and anxiety." Such negativity, he says, can impact health adversely, elevating our levels of C-reactive protein, which weakens the immune system.

Love has been measured in blood tests, stress levels and psychological responses as scientists seek to measure love's impact on wellness. A Center for Disease Control and Prevention 2004 study indicated that married adults are less likely to be smokers or heavy drinkers and less likely to have sexually transmitted diseases. The same study concluded that a healthy marriage contains built-in stress reducers -- combined incomes translating to greater wealth over a lifetime, friends and family from both spouses serving as a ready support group, and a tendency toward more responsible behaviors.

Those who have experienced happy unions can attest to the intangibles that statistics don't always communicate. Local lawyer Orr Adams is one of those who has seen the benefits of a 22-year marriage.

"There's one obvious benefit: You have a partner to do things with, whether it's health-related, raising kids, working on the house, or learning to sail. Having someone there makes it more likely that you will do something and pursue it, " says Adams. "Some people are not shy at all, and they are willing to do things with people they don't know. But if you have a friend or spouse who will go with you, you get involved, and you stay involved."

Adams believes that stability is an important side effect of marriage, and that in turn has a positive effect on his overall quality of life.

"I am very much a creature of habit, and when I am in my comfort zone, I have more peace of mind and can go through the day with a greater sense of optimism, " he says.

Sean Johnson, founder of Wild Lotus Yoga Studio, has been conducting couples yoga classes for more than eight years. His observations corroborate what studies show.

"What I have witnessed in couples who have a healthy, loving relationship is that the love that exists in partnership radiates outward, illuminating other areas of life -- generating a positive, passionate and creative energy that is contagious, " he says. "What I see in these couples is that their love for each other gives them even more incentive to love and take good care of themselves individually."

Johnson says the value couples place on their relationship often translates into healthier spiritual, emotional and physical habits out of respect for their partners. "Partners believe in and support each other and are invested in each other's well-being."

There is, however, one documented negative health risk -- obesity -- that is greater among married people than singles.

The term "married" carries weight in other aspects of health.

"Those who live together may enjoy temporary health benefits, but they may not reap as high a benefit as those who take the plunge (and marry), " says Jack, citing the results of the CDC study.

While no one can dispute that unhealthy marriages carry negative side effects from stress to depression, there are some telltale signs early on as to how to steer the marriage in a healthy direction.

While Valentine's Day might feel like a doomsday barometer for singles who are currently not dating, Jack says the holiday should be put in its proper perspective.

"It's not a personal thing; it's a commercial holiday, " Jack says. "It's an opportunity for those in a relationship to recommit, but it is not a day for single people to beat up on themselves about past relationships. It is an opportunity to appreciate where they are in their journey."

Liponis sees love as much as an action as a feeling, an action that he says can be expressed multiple ways throughout the day. He suggests becoming an advocate -- putting any strong feelings of love or compassion in a positive direction, "whether it's animals, the environment or politics."

Working for your cause, whether as an advocate leading the charge or a volunteer living a passion, he says, is not only an expression of love, but provides a logical place to find a soul mate.

Labels: Chris Bynum, health, love, marriage, relationship, Valentines Day

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Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Speaker Stresses Values of People Doing Good

February 9, 2008

By Cary McMullen

To give credit where credit is due, Stephen Post attributes his scholarly work on altruism and the widespread recognition it has garnered to a simple bit of advice from his Irish mother. Whenever he was bored or morose as a kid, she would tell him, "Stevie, why don't you go out and do something for someone," Post told an audience at Florida Southern College on Friday.

Post is professor of bioethics, philosophy and religion at the School of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University and the author of "Why Good Things Happen to Good People." He delivered the keynote lecture at the annual meeting of the Florida Center for Science and Religion at FSC, which was devoted to the topic "Angels and Devils: The Theory and Praxis of Good and Evil in Science and Religion."

In a lecture that was by turns intellectual, inspirational and humorous, Post marshalled a host of data from scientific studies to support his thesis that unselfish actions toward others have mental and physical health benefits. Or, as Post put it, "It's good to be good, and science says so."

Post cited one study in which a researcher followed people who had high indications of anger on a psychological profile test. Their mortality rate by age 50 was 20 percent. For those in the lowest quartile of indications of anger, the mortality rate was 2 percent, he said.

Post was tapped by British-American philanthropist Sir John Templeton several years ago to found the Institute for Research on Unlimited Love, which facilitates studies on the interface of science, health and love. Post devoted a good bit of his lecture to questions of happiness and love. The key to happiness, he said, lies in practicing altruistic virtues, such as helping others and practicing forgiveness. Noble purposes and actions yield more enjoyment of life, he said.

"I believe even in the deserts of life, if you plant a rose and stick with love, in the long run you're going to be better off and be blessed for your efforts," he said.

Responding to a question, Post said people should not pursue altruism just so they can be healthier.

"If you're getting into religion for self-benefit, that would be inauthentic. All science can give us is statistics, not promises. We 'do unto others' because they're deserving of it," he said.

Post called the late 20th-century "an intellectual hellhole" because of ideas that cast suspicion on notions of unselfishness. He mentioned existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre and biologist Richard Dawkins, author of "The Selfish Gene" and one of several recent writers who have written harsh critiques of belief in God. Attributing the moral category of selfishness to the biochemical process of reproduction was "ridiculous," he said.

"In our contemporary society, for a lot of people, the gene has taken the place of the soul. If you want to know your ultimate essence and destiny and nature, it's your genotype, baby. ... So don't get to be feeling too genuine about yourself," Post said, describing Dawkins' views.

Labels: altruism, Cary McMullen, happiness, health, Institute for Research on Unlimited Love, Stephen Post

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Friday, February 08, 2008

Gratitude improves health

Monday | February 4, 2008

Health and happiness are two of the universal goals of all people. Many philosophers, spiritual teachers, the world's major religions, including Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, have prized gratitude as a spiritually beneficial emotional state. Now doctors and psychologists have joined in the chorus.

Medical research indicates that there is something you can do each day to be healthier and happier, and it will cost you nothing and take very little time. Be grateful. Dr Michael McCollough, of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, and Dr Robert Emmons, of the University of California at Davis, say their scientific study indicates that gratitude plays a significant role in a person's sense of well-being.

A Healthier Lifestyle

Grateful people: Those who embrace gratitude as a permanent trait rather than an occasional state of mind have an edge on the not-so-grateful when it comes to health.

Stress Buster

"Gratitude research suggests that feelings of thankfulness have tremendous positive value in helping people cope with daily problems, especially stress," the researchers say.

Immune Booster

Grateful people tend to be more optimistic, a characteristic that the boosts the immune system. Dr Lisa Aspinwall, professor of psychology at the University of Utah, reported on some very interesting studies linking optimism to better immune function. In one, researchers compared the immune systems of healthy, first-year law students under stress. They found that students who were optimistic (based on survey responses) maintained higher numbers of healthy blood cells that protect the immune system, compared with their more pessimistic classmates.

Optimism also has a positive health impact on people with compromised health. In separate studies, patients diagnosed with AIDS, as well as those preparing to undergo surgery, had better health outcomes when they maintained attitudes of optimism.

Heart Health

Clinical psychologist Blair Justice, PhD, professor emeritus of psychology at the UT School of Public Health at Houston, states, "A growing body of research supports the notion that rediscovering a sense of abundance by thinking about those people and things we love lowers the risks of coronary events."

GRATITUDE STRATEGIES

Practise: Start each day by simply focusing on three to five things for which you can be grateful. This will increase your health and happiness. Everyone has something to be grateful for. Just being alive is a big one. Being able to breathe, or having enough money for lunch, or a roof over your head are all things we can be grateful that we have, but we often take these for granted.

Express your gratitude to someone else for an even stronger dose of health and happiness. Holding the thought of gratitude and expressing that gratitude to the friend will benefit both of you.

Record your gratitude. Some people have found even greater rewards from practising gratitude when they make a daily list of things they are grateful for in a 'gratitude journal'. This practice is made even more powerful when they find time to reread their gratitude lists.

Share your gratitude. Gratitude becomes infectious. Look for ways to share your blessings. It can express itself in simple ways like with a smile, a blessing, a prayer, a note or phone call. Just do it.

Thank you for reading this; I'm so grateful that you did.

Labels: gratitude, happiness, health, immunity, Michael McCollough, Robert Emmons, stress

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Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Fasting seen as tool for health, spirituality

February 5, 2008

By JANET ST. JAMES

The history of fasting goes back thousands of years to Hippocrates, Socrates, Plato.

Jesus did it for 40 days for spiritual renewal.

Debbie Ragsdale of McKinney does it once a month, for about the same reason.

Far from starving, a growing number of studies show a periodic fast can do as much for the body as it does for religious beliefs.

After years of being told to eat many small meals a day to rev up the metabolism, research shows giving it a one day rest, once a week or once a month -- may also be beneficial.

Research shows depriving the body of food -- for 24 hours, drinking only water -- can give the heart arteries and pancreas a rest.

"If you're able to fast all day long, except for water, and reduce your insulin secretion," says Baylor University Medical Center Dr. Brian Welch. "There may be some metabolic advantage to that as long as it's not followed by binge eating."

Dr. Welch, a practicing endocrinologist, says there's even evidence partial fasting can extend the lifespan, because eating less sends a message to the brain and cells to use energy more efficiently.

Scientists have seen the proof in rat studies and in real life.

A study recently presented to the American Heart Association looked at Mormons. The study showed Mormon's hearts are much healthier than the average American's -- and not just because their religion forbids smoking and drinking.

Gordon Wright, a Dallas attorney who also happens to be Mormon, has fasted regularly his whole life.

"The appetites that we typically have and just set them aside and focus on more spiritual things. It allows us to focus on things other than the body and the things that drive us day to day," he said.

And Wright says when the fast is over, he's suprisingly not ravenous or obsessing about food. That's because research also suggests that supressing insulin may also reduce the taste for sugar.

Reducing sugar cravings can lead to weight loss over time.

Ragsdale also tries to eat healthy. Once a month, she and friends gather to cook and share a light, healthy lunch, as part of that endeavor.

And, she never misses her monthly fast, for body and soul.

Doctors say fasting more than a day at time breaks down muscles, instead of helping the body. And diabetics should talk with their physician before attempting even a one day fast.

Labels: fasting, health, Janet St. James, Mormonism, religiosity, spirituality

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Monday, February 04, 2008

Heart Health

By Sam Manger
Epoch Times Australia Staff Jan 29, 2008

Emotions play an important role in our health.

"Heartbroken" and "heart-warming" have long been considered simple expressions with no significant medical meaning. However, research from the National Heart Foundation of Australia has clearly shown that depression, social isolation, and lack of quality social support are three significant risk factors for the development of coronary heart disease. [1]

Heart disease takes one Australian life every ten minutes, and is the leading cause of death in Australia. In 1993–1994 alone, the health system costs for coronary heart disease were around AU$900 million.

Had a patient asked a doctor twenty years ago whether they believed there was any association between the heart and love, they might have received a chuckle and a pat on the head. However, recent research indicates that joy and interaction are necessities to a healthy heart and body.

Many spiritual and alternative health philosophies have been oriented around the idea that disease is a physical manifestation of a corresponding damaged emotional or psychological condition. It has long been thought that parts of the body represent certain emotions or conditions. For example, the heart represents love; the back represents support, and so on. These ideas have generally received limited support from mainstream medicine, but are they really so far-fetched? Recent research would suggest not.

According to the World Health Organisation, by the year 2020 depression will be the second most prevalent health condition in the world. It is reported that the rate of childhood depression in the United States is increasing at a rate of 23 percent per year. This reflects the situation in Australia—rates of depression are highest in younger age groups, especially females. About half of those affected do not seek medical attention.

In 2001, Australian GPs reported that depression was the fourth most common illness in their practices. GPs have increased their number of prescriptions of antidepressants. The Age Online states that 250,000 antidepressant prescriptions were issued to children and adolescents alone in 2003—an increase of 30,000 from 2002. The statistics call for government and health professionals to take a different approach.

Antidepressants have various adverse effects, including violent and suicidal behavior. Most importantly, pills alone do not address the underlying cause of depression.

Faced with this, health professionals in the future may have to change their traditional approach and begin to incorporate apparently alternative paradigms. We may soon welcome a new age in wholistic medicine.

Labels: emotion, health, heart disease, Heart Foundation of Australia, love, Sam Manger, spirituality

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Friday, January 25, 2008

Mind-body connection

A study published in the January issue of Journal of General Internal Medicine explores the connection between the mind and body.

The study found that 45 percent of Chicago internists surveyed have prescribed a placebo at some time during their clinical practice. The authors surveyed 466 internists at the University of Chicago, Northwestern University and University of Illinois-Chicago, 50 percent responded.

The authors also noted that a growing number of physicians believe in the mind-body connection, which means what a person thinks can impact the health and well-being of the body.

The survey also inquired about whether there might be psychological or physiological benefits to meditation, yoga or relaxation techniques, and prayer or spirituality among other questions.

The concept of prayer as part of the healing process for a physical illness is something that doctors in Tuscaloosa as well as elsewhere have been exploring for some time. In the Chicago survey, the authors reported that the majority of physicians believed in both psychological and physiological benefits.

Labels: health, mind-body connection, prayer, Sarah Jones, spirituality

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Saturday, January 19, 2008

Experts: Spiritual practice can improve health

By Shari Rudavsky
The Indianapolis Star

Numerous studies have suggested that spirituality can confer a wide range of benefits.

It can lower blood pressure, reduce anxiety and confer a general sense of well-being, says Dr. Malcolm Herring, physician liaison for mission services with the Seton Cove Spirituality Center of St. Vincent Health in Indianapolis.
For instance, a 2005 study of 3,050 elderly Mexican-Americans found that those who attended church weekly or more regularly had a 32 percent reduction in mortality. A 2006 study of Danish adults yielded a similar result.

And it isn't just at the end of life that such behavior appears to have an effect. A 2006 study of British teenagers found that religious observance lowered youths' risk of developing a meningitis-like disease just as much as a vaccination did.

It's not clear that any of this is directly attributable to religion or inner peace. But in general, the calmer and happier people are, the less frequently they fall prey to infections, hypertension, headaches and nervous stomach, says Indianapolis psychiatrist Dr. Marvin Miller.

"Having a sense of meaning, which is often derived from having a set of spiritual beliefs, is really important," says Miller. "Almost every culture in our world that's been examined has some evidence of people searching for that higher power and the search to attach meaning to their lives, and I think that is healthy."

The definition of what constitutes that spirituality varies, experts agree.

For one person, it might be regular attendance at church or another form of worship. For another, it may be something else that provides a connection with others, such as volunteering.

For Nikki Myers, owner of Cityoga, a Downtown yoga studio, that tranquility has come through the popular activity that combines exercise with relaxation.

She first tried yoga more than three decades ago. But life sidetracked her, and she didn't get back into it until the early 1990s, after a debilitating case of sciatica sidelined her. Her doctor recommended she try yoga to de-stress.

Within three or four months, her sciatica had disappeared almost altogether, and Myers, now 54, had made yoga a part of her life.

For her, yoga and inner peace go hand in hand. "I know when my life is in balance, one of the key things that shows up is a sense of peace," Myers says. "Stress is such a huge factor in taking us out of balance."

Even before someone falls ill, religion or spirituality may help ward off disease, numerous studies suggest. Research has shown that older adults who attend church regularly are at lower risk of losing the ability to care for themselves over time. A 2005 study found that middle-aged and older Israeli adults who lived in communities that had more people with religious affiliation had a lower mortality rate than their less religious counterparts.

Labels: church, health, meaning, peace, religion, Shari Rudavsky, spirituality, yoga

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Sunday, January 13, 2008

Spiritual Reflections: Change perspective to hold yourself together

By Lynne Silva-Breen, Spiritual Reflections

Every January it’s the same thing. Magazine covers, newspaper articles, and radio shows devoted to keeping those health-focused New Year’s resolutions.

Whether its weight loss, smoking cessation, decreasing alcohol use, or improving your overall mood, there’s a program, a drug, a class you can join to fix it all in several easy steps.

So: How’s that going for you?

I believe that that pattern of idealism, attempt, failure and self reproach are harmful to our spiritual and emotional health. All this “self improvement” effort makes our bodies into a kind of lifelong construction project. Is there something else we can do instead?

I would like to suggest a different way of thinking and behaving around these efforts to improve our body’s health. Rather than looking at ourselves as if we were two separate beings, one being as the mind, the other as the body, we might attempt to live life as a whole self; a whole, complex, embodied self.

While Judaism and Christianity assume a person’s embodied self, religious views of human life have given way recently to more utilitarian and objective points of view.

We commonly do invasive things to our bodies unimaginable a couple of generations ago (deep brain surgery, in vitro fertilization, cancer treatments, to name a few) without attending to the emotional and spiritual aspects of these interventions. Our medical advances have outstripped our ethical and emotional reflection on our abilities.

It’s no wonder many of us don’t think of ourselves as the bodies we are. We have begun to treat our bodies like repair projects.

Our cultural mind/body split is at the heart of several rapidly increasing mental health disorders, including those around food and eating, body image, sexuality and gender, and mood disorders. I worry that we have trained ourselves to believe that all it takes is the right pharmaceutical product – the right prescription drug – to fix the body.

Though we know this is not true, both instinctively and factually, we have convinced ourselves of the superiority of technology over our most human of problems.

I invite you to take a step back from the cultural avalanche of body problem solutions this month, and attempt to view yourself as a whole being.

What would that understanding of yourself do when you imagine trying to lose weight, or manage your diabetes, or calm your sleeping problem? How would it shape your next visit to the doctor, or to the gym? We are not just a jumble of parts, but an amazing whole.

May that perspective find its way into your New Year, and help hold you graciously together.

(Rev. Lynne Silva-Breen, M.Div., M.A., has been a Lutheran pastor since 1984, is a family therapist/pastoral counselor and can be contacted at www.inspiringchange.us. She is one of several area pastors who write columns for "Spiritual Reflections.")

Labels: health, Lynne Silva-Breen, mind-body connection, religion, resolutions, spirituality, wholeness

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Saturday, January 12, 2008

Prayer and spirituality said to aid healing

Posted on Sat, Jan. 12, 2008
By REBECCA ROSEN LUM
Contra Costa Times

Scientists are taking a hard look at the value of faith as an instrument in healing -- including the "intercessory" or healing prayers said on behalf of others.

Numerous studies show a link between faith and outlook, faith and well-being, faith and healing times.

Scientists at such prestigious institutions as California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, Duke University in North Carolina, and the George Washington University Institute for Spirituality and Health in the nation's capital are exploring the relationship of prayer and faith to healing.

More than half of physicians in an April survey by a group at the University of Chicago said that religion and spirituality significantly influence patients' health.

But the exact mechanism by which it works remains elusive.

Religion can help those with chronic conditions, including traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, stroke and arthritis, say the authors of a study at the University of Missouri at Columbia.

Yoga, reading of religious texts, meditation or the laying of hands have value in a clinical setting, the researchers concluded.

Hospital officials have long left patients' spiritual needs in the hands of chaplains, but they increasingly are reaching out to faith communities.

Official recognition

Parish nursing, or faith-community nursing, which combines spiritual and health services, has exploded since the American Nursing Association recognized the specialty in 2005.

Today, an estimated 10,000 faith-community nurses work in American congregations.

In San Francisco, a leading researcher in mind-body medicine found a positive link between intercessory prayer and the well-being of people with AIDS.

Prayed-for patients in a study by late University of California-San Francisco professor Elizabeth Targ had fewer setbacks and lived longer than a comparison group. A follow-up study found the same results. Targ later found a link between spirituality and well-being among women with breast cancer.

THE CONFLICT

Some academics recoil at the blurring of the line between faith and healthcare, saying prayer, meditation and other faith practices resist definition or measurement.

Far more studies show no link between religious belief and healing than a positive one, said Richard Sloan, a Columbia University behavioral medicine professor and the author of Blind Faith: The Unholy Alliance of Religion and Medicine. Suggesting one can mislead people and put an unfair burden on them, he said.

"Look, nobody disputes that religion and spirituality bring comfort in a time of difficulty, but when spirituality is brought into medical care, it is another issue entirely," he said.

"It can do all sort of harm because it causes people to confuse medical care with other aspects of their lives," he said. "It can lead them to avoid conventional medical care. And it can lead them to believe their health problems are from inadequate faith and devotion."

Labels: American Nursing Association, faith, healing, health, intercessory prayer, Rebecca Rosen Lum, science, spirituality

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Friday, January 04, 2008

Book Review: The Cure Within - A History of Mind-Body Medicine

By Anne Harrington
Jan 2, 2008

(HealthNewsDigest.com) - Scientific studies, social trends, and pop culture show that we are endlessly fascinated by the magical notion of mind over matter. News headlines claim that reducing stress leads to a stronger immune system and a longer life expectancy. There are miraculous stories of tumors disappearing with the help of visualization techniques. Accordingly, many are embracing practices such as acupuncture, yoga, and transcendental meditation. Interest in alternative sources of health and wellness indicate that even with the advances of medicine, many recognize the mind’s role in healing the body.

In her new book, THE CURE WITHIN (W. W. Norton & Company; January 21, 2008; $25.95 cloth), Anne Harrington, historian and chair of Harvard’s Mind Brain and Behavior Initiative, unravels the mystery of “mind cures” – the mind’s role in healing the body and the notion that the mind exerts an influence on our well-being. Superbly researched, enlightening, and original, THE CURE WITHIN is the first cultural history of mind-body medicine. Beginning in the early days of Christianity, when notions of possession dominated the church and medicine, Harrington moves to the secularized mind cures of Freud’s psychoanalysis, explores the deep-seated Christian roots of our modern self-help vernacular, and probes today’s designer blending of Eastern and Western wellness medicines.

Harrington reveals the deep historical and cultural roots that underlie our notions of healing. She chronicles faith and religion’s historical role in curing illness from early Christian times, to the 17th and 18th century exorcisms sanctioned by the church as an effective treatment for what was deemed “demonic possession,” to the persistence of religion today in more modern examples of faith-healing, including pilgrimages to sites such as Lourdes and the laying in of hands. She traces the origin of the power of positive thinking to Mary Baker Eddy, the 1879 founder of The Church of Christ, Scientist, whose advocacy of spiritual healing above medicinal treatment remains the accepted doctrine of today’s Christian Scientists. Harrington also explores secular influences on mind-body healing—from Freud’s techniques for curing illness and hysteria to today’s stress management and visualization techniques popularized by figures likes Dr. Herb Benson, whose ground-breaking study of Transcendental Medicine sparked a tremendous interest in spiritual and holistic health practices.

Both religion and science have something to say about the seemingly real effects of the mind’s role in shaping, harnessing, and controlling disease. Harrington expertly navigates historical cases that demonstrate these influences, punctuating her story of psychosomatic medicine with an examination of neuroscience’s role in confirming the influence of mind over body. THE CURE WITHIN is an absorbing, enlightening investigation of our cultural notions of mind cure from ancient times to the present.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Anne Harrington is Harvard College Professor for the History of Science, specializing in the history of psychiatry, neuroscience, and the other mind sciences. Also a visiting professor for Medical History at the London School of Economics, she is the author of Reenchanted Science and the editor of The Placebo Effect and the The Dalai Lama at MIT. Currently she serves on the Board of the Mind and Life Institute, an organization dedicated to cross-cultural dialogue between Buddhism and the sciences. She lives in Watertown, Massachusetts.

TITLE: THE CURE WITHIN: A History of Mind-Body Medicine
AUTHORS: Anne Harrington
PUBLICATION DATE: January 21, 2008
PRICE: $25.95 cloth
PAGES: 354
ISBN: 978-0-393-06563-3

www.HealthNewsDigest.com

Labels: Anne Harrington, health, mind-body connection, religion, science

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Thursday, January 03, 2008

Is forgiveness divine for body?

Researchers note possible health benefits for people who absolve wrongdoers, but others express skepticism

By Melissa Healy
January 3, 2008

Forgiveness - a virtue embraced by almost every religious tradition as a balm for the soul - may be medicine for the body, researchers suggest. In less than a decade, those preaching and studying forgiveness have amassed an impressive slate of findings on its possible health benefits.

They have shown that "forgiveness interventions" - often just a couple of short sessions in which the wounded are guided toward positive feelings for an offender - can improve cardiovascular function, diminish chronic pain, relieve depression and boost quality of life among the very ill.

Like proper nutrition and exercise, forgiveness appears to be a behavior that a patient can learn, exercise and repeat as needed to prevent disease and preserve health.

Psychologist Loren Toussaint of Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, and colleagues were the first to establish a long-term link between people's health and their propensity to forgive.

Their national survey, published in the Journal of Adult Development in 2001, found forgiveness rare enough: Only 52 percent of Americans said they had forgiven others for hurtful acts. But willingness of young respondents to forgive showed no link to health; that propensity began to make a difference as respondents approached middle age. The survey found that those 45 and older who forgave others were more likely to report having better overall mental and physical health than those who did not.

Efforts to put forgiveness to a rigorous scientific test have been funded largely by a pair of philanthropies long associated with research on faith, religion and science: the Michigan-based Fetzer Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation of Pennsylvania, which effectively created the field in 1997 with a pledge of $2 million for research on forgiveness.

These origins raise discomfort and controversy among both scientists and those who help the physically and mentally wounded heal.

To many in mental health who fear that traumatized patients face pressure to forgive when doing so is premature or ill-advised, the new science of forgiveness is deeply worrisome.

"The whole Christian, 12-step mentality has permeated our culture, and the emphasis on forgiveness is part of that," says Jeanne Safer, a New York psychoanalyst and author of Must We Forgive? "For many patients, forgiveness is a double-whammy: First someone [hurts] you, and then it's your fault you don't want to embrace them in heaven. I'm not against forgiveness; I'm against compulsory forgiveness with no choice. And I'm against 'forgiveness lite,' which keeps you from feeling the intensity of the experience, from deeply grappling with what's been done to you."

Clinicians skeptical of forgiveness as a necessary endpoint of therapy say many of those who are quickest to forgive others do so because they blame themselves for the bad things that have happened to them. Others forgive too quickly because they are unwilling to acknowledge their general feelings of shame and anger or simply because they feel unworthy of better treatment.

Safer calls this "fake forgiveness." It allows victims to continue blaming themselves, she says. And it's a dangerous side effect of what Safer sees as a bid to sell forgiveness as a panacea.

Jeffrey R., a Maryland man whose father sexually molested him and three siblings as children, acknowledges that self-blame and denial after the abuse has exacted a terrible cost on his family. The Sun does not report the names of sex abuse victims.

After nine suicide attempts and decades of contending with crippling temper and suspicion toward others, Jeffrey says he's not ready to forgive the father who did it, the mother who looked the other way or the aunts and uncles who, after the abuse came to light, refused to discuss it. His sister, who was raped by her father at 5, has embraced forgiveness, says Jeffrey, telling her brother God will judge their father. Jeffrey says he's let go of the anger and bitterness caused by his abuse, and it "has saved my life."

But forgiveness on the same level as his sister's? "I'm not really there yet," he says.

Labels: Fetzer Foundation, forgiveness, health, John Templeton Foundation, Loren Toussaint, Melissa Healy

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Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Science taking hard look at healing power of faith

By Rebecca Rosen Lum, STAFF WRITER
Article Last Updated: 12/18/2007

Science is taking a hard look at the value of faith as an instrument in healing — including the intercessory or healing prayers said on behalf of others.

Numerous studies show a link between faith and outlook, faith and well-being, faith and healing times.

Such prestigious institutions as California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, Duke University in North Carolina, and the George Washington University Institute for Spirituality and Health in the nations capitol are exploring the relationship of prayer and faith to healing.

More than half of physicians in an April survey by a group at the University of Chicago said religion and spirituality significantly influence patients health.

But the exact mechanism by which it works remains elusive.

Religion can help those with chronic conditions, including traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, stroke and arthritis, say the authors of a study at the University of Missouri at Columbia.

Religion is infrequently discussed in rehabilitation settings and is rarely investigated in rehabilitation research, said Missouri health psychologist Brick Johnstone. To better meet the needs of persons with disabilities, this needs to change.

Yoga, reading of religious texts, meditation or the laying on of hands have value in a clinical setting, the researchers concluded.

Hospitals have long left patients spiritual needs in the hands of chaplains, but increasingly are reaching out to faith communities.

Parish, or faith community nursing, which combines spiritual and health service, has exploded since the American Nursing Association recognized the specialty in 2005.

Today, an estimated 10,000 faith community nurses work in American congregations.

In San Francisco, a leading researcher in mind-body medicine found a positive link between intercessory prayer and the well-being of people with AIDS.

Prayed-for patients in a study by the late UCSF professor Elizabeth Targ had fewer setbacks and lived longer than a comparison group. A follow-up study found the same results. Targ later found a link between spirituality and well-being among women with breast cancer.

Some academics recoil at the blurring of the line between faith and health care, saying prayer, meditation, and other faith practices resist definition or measurement.

Labels: faith, health, prayer, religion, science

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Sunday, September 02, 2007

Doing Good, and Feeling Better

Why Giving Back Could Make You Happier … and Healthier

By John Stossel and Sylvia Johnson
Aug. 20, 2007

How good would it feel if someone just gave you $1,000?

Last fall, Oprah Winfrey thrilled audience members with these words: "You will each go home with $1,000."

Then she said there was a catch: "You have to spend the money on someone other than your family."

They still applauded, but the smiles looked a little forced.

Yet maybe she did her audience a favor, because even though the audience had to give the money away, it could get back even more than they gave.

Stephen Post explains why in his new book, "Why Good Things Happen to Good People."
He reveals that new science shows giving -- money or time -- not only feels just as good as getting, but can actually improve your health.

"Giving is as good for the giver as it is for the receiver. Science says it's so. We'll be happier, healthier, and even -- odds are -- live a little longer if we're generous," Post said.

"Public health isn't just about bugs and staying away from lead. It's about doing unto others, and at the right dose, science says it's very good for you," he said.

Arthur Brooks, author of the new book, "Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism," also knows a lot about the current research on charity.
Brooks said, "There's evidence that it helps people with their asthma, in cardiovascular disease, weight loss, insomnia. When people have a lot of happiness, they do a lot better in their health as well."

Helping Others, Healing Themselves

That was true for former heart patients at Duke University Medical Center.
They were asked to visit current heart patients -- no particular agenda, just to listen and lend support. By doing that, the volunteers had better health after their heart attacks.

A similar study at the University of Miami by Dr. Gail Ironson followed HIV patients who volunteered, like Katherine Marshall Scott, who talks to teenagers about avoiding infection, and Stephen Baker, who counsels fellow HIV survivors.
These and other HIV patients who helped others had lower stress levels and higher immune resistance.

Scott's disease-fighting cells went up, from 200 to 800.

Baker says he could feel how volunteering improved his health.

"To get involved with someone else's problems makes your problems look a lot less," he said.

Service Learning

Many high schools require their students to volunteer.

It's called service learning. And oddly, even though the charity is forced, it still brings happy results. Teachers say students who volunteer raise their grades, and get higher SAT scores.

Abington High School student Jeff Rohrback said, "After service learning started, I got so involved into it, I started paying attention more, picked up my grades."
So "20/20" decided to see whether we could find a similar effect.

We put an ad on Craigslist recruiting people who were not currently volunteers. We introduced them to Post, and asked them to try it for one week.

But first, Post had them fill out a questionnaire that asked how they felt about life, like how often during the week they felt calm and peaceful.

Children for Children, whose mission is to get children involved in giving, agreed to help us, as did the Salvation Army, which has many different programs, from soup kitchens to after-school activities for kids.

Then off they went -- bringing donated books to children at an elementary school, then reading to the kids and making scarves with the kids. One spent time in a truck handing out food to the poor. All four worked at a Harlem soup kitchen.

One week later we had them answer that questionnaire again.

This time their answers about how often they felt "calm and peaceful" changed from some of the time to most of the time.

The Helpers' High

"The helper's high has been measured physically," Post said. "We know there's an actual physiological state. It's quite euphoric."

The helper's high shows up in MRI brain scans.

People who give money show brain activity that's associated with feel-good chemicals like dopamine -- the same brain activity that happens when you receive money.
National Institutes of Health neuroscientist Jordan Grafman showed us the brain scans.

"Those brain structures that are activated when you get a reward are the same ones that are activated when you give. In fact, they're activated more," he told us.
We asked our volunteers after their week of service who had gotten more out of the experience: the people they helped, or they themselves?

Volunteer Daniel Smith didn't hesitate with his answer. "No brainer. Me, definitely."

Lelani Clark also felt renewed from her single week of volunteering.

"I just felt energized," she said. "We were so caught up in this energy of helping that it was like a buzz -- like a spiritual buzz."

Winfrey's audience members reported that, too. After a week of giving money away, many said they were changed.

Maybe we should call it selfish to help others, because it seems to help the givers more.

"If you want to define selfishness so widely as to include the warm glow that people feel in the aftermath of selflessly giving to others, guess what, we need more of it, not less of it," Post said.

So try it.

Get out and give your money or your time. You'll help someone else. … And you'll feel good, too.

This story originally aired on December 1, 2006.

Labels: 20/20, Arthur Brooks, charity, generosity, health, John Stossel, Oprah Winfrey, Stephen Post, students, Sylvia Johnson

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Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Holistic medicine adds tools to cancer fight

Holistic medicine adds tools to cancer fight

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the Institute of Health has issued some facts on complementary and alternative medicine, or CAM. These facts might bring up more questions than they will provide answers, but I hope we all think holistically.

Some familiar tools for the treatment of cancer are chemotherapy, radiation and surgery provided by physicians. Holistic medicine expands the tools with which to work and adds mental, social and spiritual aspects to physical needs.

Conventional medicine includes medical doctors and doctors of osteopathy, plus physical therapists, physiologists and registered nurses. Integrative medicine offers diverse medical and health-care systems, practices and products that are not yet considered to be a part of conventional medicine.

Integrative medicine combines both conventional medicine and CAM without distinguishing which is primary.

CAM is used by 36 percent of adult Americans. But when megavitamin therapy and prayer for health reasons are included when defining CAM, that figure grows to 62 percent. The use of integrative medicine was especially high among those who had a serious illness like cancer.

These statistics are from a 2002 National Health Interview Survey, supported by NCAM and the National Center for Health Statistics, a part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the December 2004 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, 88 percent of the 102 people with cancer who participated in research at the Mayo Comprehensive Cancer Center had included at least one CAM therapy. This research showed that of these who used CAM, 93 percent used supplements such as vitamins and minerals, 53 percent used prayer/spiritual practices or chiropractic care and almost 47 percent used both.

Some CAM therapies are now used as cancer treatments, not so much as a cure, but as a therapy which can help one feel better or recover faster. Acupuncture can help with the side effects of chemotherapy and to relieve the pain which follows surgery.

"I used to believe that we must choose between science and reason on one hand, and spirituality on the other, in how we lead our lives. Now I consider this a false choice. We can recover the sense of sacredness, not just in science, but in perhaps every area of life." Dr. Larry Dossey wrote in Reinventing Medicine. Dossey's research, intended to dispute the power of prayer, revealed that prayer has power. Both he and his wife, Dr. Barbara Dossey, are authors and pioneers in the field of holistic healing and provide a broader view and better understanding through their books.

People of all ages, from all walks of life and every culture, do healing work. Many live here in Acadiana. Holistic practitioners are nurses, traiteurs, massage therapists, acupuncturists, nuns, refloxologists, priests, counselors, lay people, iridologists, psychologists, trained in Reiki and healing touch.

Tell your doctor if you are working with a CAM practitioner. Ask the same questions you would of a physician when looking for one. Ask for what you want. It might be within you.

Becca Begneaud is a traiteur and two-time cancer survivor and regularly coordinates this column.

Labels: Becca Begneaud, health, holistic, National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, prayer, religion, spirituality

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Friday, August 10, 2007

The Dilemma of Spiritual Healing

If only my mother would remember that she's God's perfect child--and so is her doctor--maybe she wouldn't feel so guilty.

By Susan Sherman

I lay in the dark with a headache, praying to know that it wasn't real. My mother told me I was God's perfect child, made in His likeness. I was His reflection, she said, like an image in a mirror. I couldn't have a headache because God couldn't have a headache. I fell asleep, and the headache lifted. I was three.

Spiritual healing has long been part of my family on my mother's side. It was normal for my mother and grandmother, who had continued the family drift away from Judaism, to talk about illness as error, an illusion, to "un-see" anything negative because God could never have made it. My mother followed my grandmother into Christian Science, the religion founded in 1879 by Mary Baker Eddy, a New England woman who was healed of a serious injury by studying the way Jesus healed--seeing the allness of God and the nothingness of evil.

Although the church does not directly prohibit anyone from getting medical help, in reality there's a good deal of social pressure not to seek it. If you're under a doctor's care, you can't visit a Christian Science practitioner or hold church office, and you feel guilty even sitting in church or doing the weekly lesson readings. You're not radically relying on God, and it's your own fault that you're not being healed. As Mrs. Eddy writes, "If patients fail to experience the healing power of Christian Science, and think they can be benefited by certain ordinary physical methods of medical treatment, then the Mind-physician should give up such cases, and leave invalids free to resort to whatever other systems they fancy will afford relief." (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures page 443). Emphasis on "think" and "fancy."

For years, we had many healings in my family. And sometimes we didn't.
My grandmother died of breast cancer in 1968. Years later, at age 67, my mother developed lymphoma. When the tumor grew noticeable, she went to a doctor, who told her unequivocally, "This is fatal if not treated." Fearing to go through what my grandmother did, she was treated medically. She didn't die. But her guilt at becoming ill in the first place (through the sin of false belief), and then resorting to materia medica for healing, brought on a serious depression and panic disorder. It was an agitated kind of depression that raged for five years, wreaking as much havoc in her life and ours as the cancer. The depression abated for 12 years, then returned full force following another treatable bout of cancer this year.

My mom has tried desperately to get her faith back. At times she will renounce medicine, then obsessively worry about minor symptoms and go to the doctor. She will take half-doses of antidepressants and then read her Bible. She will call her Christian Science practitioner many times a day, but the words offered by this saintly woman don't sink in. Swinging back and forth between medicine and spiritual healing, never feeling confident in either, she has become undone by guilt. Constantly denying and "un-seeing" material conditions are too great a strain on her mind.

This story doesn't have a happy ending (yet). But for me, it does have a big lesson. I've learned that having to choose "either/or" cuts us off from the manifold blessings of God. I believe now that God created us, body and soul; that God created many kinds of healers--physicians, nurses, medical researchers, massage therapists, medical intuitives, acupuncturists, and psychotherapists, as well as purely spiritual healers. Why is it OK to accept all the scientific advances of the 21st century, except in the field of medicine? Because Jesus was evolved enough to heal without drugs? Jesus also said that the lilies of the field don't toil or spin. Yet we still work and wear clothing.

I believe in spiritual healing, and sometimes I can get to a deep place within, that place that I first located as a child when I had a headache. I get there by closing my eyes and picturing myself diving down, down into a vast ocean beneath the pain, and just resting there in God's arms. I call it "my place of healing." But if I can't get there, I don't feel guilty about reaching for an aspirin.

Labels: Christian Science, health, illness, Susan Sherman

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Monday, July 23, 2007

America Goes Kosher

Madonna drinks Canaan wine, Paris Hilton orders kosher steaks, Bono eats sushi under the supervision of the Beth Din, Donald Trump holds his meetings at one of Manhattan’s kosher restaurants – and everyone burns calories to the tunes of Sarit Haddad and Eyal Golan. Kosher is trendy in the USA

Yaniv Halili Published:
07.06.07

This latest American trend has celebrities enquiring about the coveted kashrut seal before letting a morsel of food touch their mouths. Apart from Madonna (who has a private room at the Prime Grill), many others are rushing around in search of steaks from cows that were slaughtered under the supervision of a rabbi.

A not very trendy 3300 years late, Americans are discovering that kosher food is both healthy and spiritual. The subject is complex, but it is encouraging to realize that we were right all these years and that it was worth insisting on manna in the desert. New kosher restaurants are opening all the time in big cities throughout the United States, offering dishes that have not been boiled to death. Kosher products are finding themselves on supermarket shelves and major producers in the dairy industry are strict about having the kosher stamp on their product labels, knowing that the “gentiles” want kosher products too. Even Hollywood is slowly turning kosher: the current most popular restaurant is a kosher meat and sushi bar where paparazzi photographers have a permanent place at the entrance.

Kosher Buddhism

Until recently, the words “kosher food” would have the average person running away rather than meet the dubious culinary experience. These days the two words mean prosperity. In Manhattan, kosher Chinese, French, Japanese, Indian and Iranian restaurants have opened. There is even a kosher Buddhist restaurant - indeed, Buddha spent his youth in a yeshiva.

In the last decade, kosher food sales in American supermarkets have reached a growth rate of 15 percent as opposed to a four percent growth rate for food that is not kosher. Eleven million Americans buy kosher food, and they are responsible for a yearly turnover of $9 billion. What’s interesting in all this data is that there are only just over six million Jews in America and even fewer keep kosher. Slowly but surely the kosher food market is being taken over by non-Jewish Americans who are on the lookout for kosher food that is not just gefilte fish and matza.

So, have the gentiles finally realized that Judaism is cool? Not necessarily so. In a recent survey carried out by Mintel International, 55 percent of kosher food consumers do so because they believe that kosher food is healthier, not due to religious reasons. The health merits attached to the kashrut seal are welcomed by mouths wide open: this last year Americans have had to swallow avian flu, mass poisoning and E.Coli bacteria.

The American Health Department’s statistics are scary: 76 million people - one in four Americans - suffer each year from diseases caused by spoiled food. As the numbers of diseases rise, so does people’s awareness and conscious consumers are on the look out for alternatives.

Kosher food is popular mostly amongst health food fans and strict vegetarians who can eat at a dairy restaurant and be sure that no suspicious pieces of meat will find their way into their plates and that they won't meet chunks of smoked bacon in their salads.

Americans like the fact that kosher food is prepared under the watchful eyes of supervisors, often more than one, and kosher restaurants in Manhattan are proud to announce that “all the food here is prepared under strict supervision”. This impresses the customers, even if the watchful eyes are those of a kashrut supervisor who is only making sure that the dairy and meat utensils stay separate from each other.

A survey published just before Independence Day shows that Hebrew National sausages made of 100 percent beef is the highest selling brand in America. Muslims and Christians too are among Americans who eat kosher food. Certain Christian groups follow a diet that is prepared “in the spirit of the Bible.”

And for dessert Eyal Golan

The kosher trend in New York got a big push last year when Madonna arrived in the city for her Confessions tour. After each show, she packed up her dancers and musicians and took them all to the Prime Grill for a steak. These intimate gatherings got a lot of coverage by the local press and the fashion police raised an eyebrow at the relatively unknown establishment that Madonna chose to eat and party at. Madonna doesn’t come to this restaurant only for its food; the owners play Israeli music and are sure that the songs of Sarit Haddad will make the desserts taste even sweeter. Madonna finds it hard to contain her excitement.

Madonna is a sure bet for kosher food, but a rather more unexpected personality who has found her happiness in kosher land is Paris Hilton. The idea that the young heiress finds solace in something that is not studded with diamonds has young Hollywood girls rushing to the Prime Grill in Beverly Hills. The tabloids and entertainment TV shows were amazed when Hilton chose to celebrate her birthday at the kosher sushi and meat bar. She invited 40 of her closest friends, but 200 guests showed up. “She loves our sushi”, admits the owner. “Before her birthday she asked us to prepare a lot of sushi, but she was most concerned about us baking a cake for her.”

Even now, from the heights of the garbage dumps she’s in, Hilton doesn’t forget where she came from and who fed her. Although her plea to bring kosher catering to her jail cell didn’t come through, two weeks ago during the embarrassing fiasco when she was under house arrest, she celebrated her temporary freedom feasting on kosher catering.

But even the huge amounts of kosher food that are going into Hilton’s mouth still don’t qualify it as trendy. So Sasha Baron-Cohen (“Borat”) steps in to help. The English star probably leaves half his monthly salary at the Prime Grill. Baron-Cohen is seen so often at the Hollywood branch of the Prime Grill that the sight of a fork is rarer.

“Sasha eats only kosher food, so he has no choice”, says the owner. “He loves steaks and eats a lot, often complementing his meals with expensive, kosher Israeli wine. He celebrated his Oscar nomination here with his fiancée and a few friends. But for Sasha, a meal is not a meal if it doesn’t have Eyal Golan, Kobi Peretz or Shlomi Shabbat singing in the background. He says these songs remind him of Tel Aviv.”

Signing deals over steaks

The celebrity-watch website TMZ.com reported that Donald Trump has connected to his lost roots, and not the roots of his hair: Trump has turned the Manhattan kosher restaurant Solo into his boardroom. Bono also pops in from time to time, and when he’s not snacking on flies in Africa, he keeps to his ideals and eats only kosher or organic. When he dines at Solo he insists on ordering the salmon in miso and at the Prime Rib he eats kosher sushi.

But, in spite of the star dust being sprinkled over kosher foods, some claim that making kosher trendy is not a kosher thing to do. Most in the Jewish community are not swayed by star dust and are against turning Judaism into “a modern, trendy cult,” says one of the heads of the rabbinical committee in America, who choose to ignore the phenomenon. “This is just a fashion that will soon disappear”, he says. “Everything Jewish is suddenly popular, but after the noise has quietened down and the storm has passed, only the core will remain, but anyway, the core is what’s important in Judaism.”

There are also some who understand that the phenomenon is typical of the American society, which adopts a new ritual every 15 minutes, heralds it as the new king and discards it when the next trend starts to bloom. “Obviously Madonna has played her part in making kosher trendy, but there is a wider issue of self-searching at hand,” says David Deutsch. “After Scientology and Buddhism, it’s now Judaism’s turn. Judaism has been around for a long time and that makes people ask how it’s managed to last so long and wonder what its secret can be. It’s like a closed family where people want to peep inside and see the beauty.”

But why kosher food now?

“The kosher trend fits in with modern life. Like the Kabbalah, it combines the old with the new. Kosher food meets spirituality and health in one plate, and that’s what people are looking or today: a little spirituality with an everyday practicality. Add to that the celeb quality and the fact that Hollywood has many famous Jews that people want to imitate. It’s very easy being Jewish in America today.”

Labels: America, food, health, Judaism, kashrut seal, kosher, Madonna, Paris Hilton, spirituality, Yaniv Halili

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Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Most Physicians Will Agree: Religion Does A Body Good

By Melissa Stee
Religion News Service Posted: 4/27/07

CHICAGO (RNS)—Most physicians say religion and spirituality have a significant impact on health, according to a new study, while just 6 percent of doctors believe religion or spirituality changed "hard" medical outcomes.

The survey, part of a University of Chicago study published by the Archives of Internal Medicine, showed more than half (54 percent) of doctors said "God or another supernatural being" can intervene in a patient’s health.

The questionnaire asked medical professionals to estimate how often their patients mention religion and spirituality issues, how much those factors influence health and how that influence is manifested.

"Consensus seems to begin and end with the idea that many, if not most, patients draw on prayer and other religious resources to navigate and overcome the spiritual challenges that arise in their experiences with illness," Farr Curlin, John Lantos, Marshall Chin and Sarah Sellergren wrote in the Archives.

Compared to those with low religiosity, physicians with high religiosity are substantially more likely to report that patients often mention religion and spirituality issues, 36 percent to 11 percent, the study showed.

According to Curlin, that response shows that "with respect to what physicians bring to the data, that has as much influence on their interpretation as the data itself."

Most respondents, however, interpreted those factors positively rather than negatively.

"Although the great majority, 85 percent, believe that the influence of religion and spirituality is generally positive, few, 6 percent, believe that religion and spirituality often changes hard medical outcomes," Curlin and colleagues wrote in the Archives.

The results showed that three out of four physicians believe religion and spirituality help patients cope, and the same number credit those factors for giving patients a positive state of mind.

Of the 2,000 physicians who received the survey, 1,144 responded. The overall study has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

Labels: God, health, Melissa Stee, physicians, religion, spirituality

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Thursday, April 12, 2007

Survey: Most Doctors Believe Religion, Spirituality Have Positive Effects on Illness

Doug Huntington
Correspondent

Wednesday, Apr. 11, 2007 Posted: 10:00:AM PST

Nearly 6 out of 10 physicians believe religion and spirituality have much or very much influence on health, according to a study featured in the Apr. 9 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, a bi-monthly international peer-reviewed professional medical journal.

Over half of physicians believe that religion and spirituality has a major impact on patient wellness, according to a new study. It also revealed that 2 out of every 5 doctors feel that it also helps prevent bad outcomes.

From a random sample of 2,000 doctors around the United States, the University of Chicago also found that 2 out of every 5 respondents felt that religion and spirituality (R/S) can help prevent bad outcomes such as heart attacks, infections and even death. The results comes one year after another study had disputed the positive effect of therapeutic prayer.

Last year, a $2.4-million study conducted by the Dr. Herbert Benson of Harvard Medical School and other scientists found that having people pray for heart bypass surgery patients had no effect on their recovery and that patients who knew they were being prayed for had a slightly higher rate of complications. Although some scientists had hoped the long-awaited and rigorously investigated prayer study would close the book on the debated effects of therapeutic prayer, for much of America’s faithful majority it had not.

In the latest report, Dr. Wayne Detmer, an internist at Lawndale Christian Health Center, noted that all doctors have experienced patient recoveries "that don't make sense based on our current understanding of physiology or medicine."

And although only 6 percent of doctors in the survey believed that R/S often changed "hard" medical outcomes, most doctors believe that R/S helps patients cope with their illness (76 percent), gives the patients a positive state of mind (75 percent), and provides emotional support from their religious community (55 percent).

Also, while several doctors expressed drawbacks to R/S, saying that patients will be more likely to prematurely leave medical therapy as well as have negative emotions such as guilt that will increase suffering, still 85 percent responded that it is overall a positive aspect.

The research also concluded that those health professionals with religious backgrounds were more likely to report significant impacts of R/S on health than non-religious ones (82 percent vs. 16 percent) as well as positive aspects for it.

As Detmer explained, since Jesus miraculously cured people in the Bible, "[i]t's not so much of a stretch to believe He can still do it."

Labels: Doug Huntington, health, Jesus, physicians, prayer, religion, spirituality