Rx: FAITH
By Enoch
There are something beyond the excellent medical care we received that we should credit and it's "faith". Everyone has a spirituality that basically gives our life a meaning and often rejected by rational minds (regardless of beliefs).
It is like "placebo effect" and it is sometimes prescribed by doctors. "Being sick or failing to recover is a product of insufficient religiousity" — Doctor Harold Koenig (Medical Centre Doctor in Durham).
Hundreds of research studies document the link between faith and health among positive effects of piety.
LONGER LIFE
A study of 21,000 people in the United States from 1981 to 1995 found a seven-year difference in life expectancy between those who never attend religious services and those who attend more than once a week.
OVERALL WELL BEING
In reasearch co-conducted by epidemiologist Jeff Levin, author of "God, Faith, and Health older adults who considered themselves religious had fewer health problems and functioned better than the nonreligious.
BETTER RECOVERY
Patients comforted by faith had three times chance of being alive after six months of an open-heart surgery than patients who found no comfort in religion, a 1995 Dartmound Medical School study found.
TOUGHER TICKETS
In a 1997 study in India, subjects -primarily Hindu - who prayed regularly were 70 percent less likely to have coronary heart disease.
LOWER BLOOD PRESSURE
In a 1989 study of 400 Caucasiam men in Evans Country, Georgia, Duke reasearchers found a significant protective effect against high blood pressure among those who considered religion very important and who attended church regularly.
GOOD MENTAL HEALTH
Attendance at a house of worship is related lower rates of depression and anxiety, reported a 1999 Duke University study of nearly 4000 older adults.
REDUCED STRESS
Humans under psychological stress experience raised blood pressure and heart and breathing rates, straining the body and lowering immunity says Dr. Herbert Benson of Harvard Medical School and author of "The Relaxation Reaponse". In many studies, Benson has found that an opposite response can be elicited by combining two steps: repeating a prayer, word, sound, phrase, or movement, and disregarding other thoughts. Medication, prayer, tai chi and yoga all provoke this healthful state.
©Sep 2001 issued article of Elena Serocki of Readers Digest.
For me, there are religious dogmas or laws that are sometimes rejected by most of the atheist that we all know which could also benefit us a better health. Bible teaches us not to commit adultery --that we should have only one spouse, we shouldn't get involved in internet porns, we shouldn't eat/digest blood because it is unhealthy and can lead to some serious complications: If you're not a vampire or bat, don't do it.
All the do's and dont's of religious dogmas that we've learned — that if we are just honest within ourselves; we’ve learned that people are risking their health if they get involved into those filthy things (AIDS, HIV, Erectal Malfunction, Heart Failure, etc.)
Whether it is just a bunch of stories or senseless laws, these rules and regulations are somehow helpful and beneficial to our social, physical, mental and spiritual health.
