August, 1999

The Health Benefits of Faith

I found this article on the Internet. It gives you a good reason to attend church . . . if you need one! - Dave

Religious Have Lower Blood Pressure
By Gary D. Robertson
© August 11, 1998, the Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – Another study has linked good health with religion. The latest shows lower blood pressure among older people who have faith. The new Duke University study of 4,000 North Carolinians ages 65 or over found those who participated in religious activities were 40 percent less likely to have high blood pressure, which can increase the risk of heart disease.

While the study doesn’t prove a causal relationship between belief in a higher power and good health, it does provide evidence of another benefit of religious activity, study co-author Dr. Harold Koenig said.

"We’re becoming more aware that religious beliefs or practices is not negative for a person’s health," Koenig said. "In fact they could be very positive." Research has shown that religious people are less depressed, have healthier immune systems and deal better with addictions than the nonreligious. In the Duke study, released in this month’s issue of the International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine, Koenig’s team measured their subjects’ blood pressures and adjusted for race, age, gender and other differences.

They found that older residents who attended religious services at least once a week had consistently lower diastolic readings, as did those who read the Bible or prayed regularly. The diastolic reading measures blood pressure when the heart relaxes. The average diastolic reading was about 78 millimeters of mercury for people who attended church regularly and prayed frequently or read the Bible daily, compared with nearly 81 mm for those who didn’t.
High diastolic readings are associated with heart attacks and strokes.

"There are studies that show if you could reduce the diastolic reading by 2 to 4 millimeters you could cut cardiovascular mortality by up to 20 percent," said Koenig, a professor at Duke Medical Center and director of Duke’s Center for the Study of Religion/Spirituality and Health. The effect of religious activities appeared to be strongest in blacks and people between 65 and 75. Religion may provide the faithful with comfort or a loving community in their golden years, thereby lowering stress and blood pressure, Koenig said. The effect may be more marked in blacks because historically they have closer ties to church.

Dr. Herbert Benson, president of the Mind/Body Medical Institute and associated with Harvard Medical School, said the Duke study presents further evidence "that belief is inexorably connected to body as body is to mind. The documentation has never been as quite effective as in Dr. Koenig’s study," Benson said.