Power of Prayer
By Theodore Fischer
December 2006/January 2007
Recent studies have linked prayer and religion to increased longevity and better health. The many Hispanics who believe in the power of prayer are now free to say, “I told you so.”
A Duke University study found that older adults who prayed lived significantly longer than those who didn’t pray. Research conducted at the University of Texas showed that older Mexican Americans who attended church regularly, compared to those who never attend, had a 32 percent lower risk of mortality during an eight-year period. Another University of Texas study of older Mexican Americans found that churchgoers had a much slower rate of cognitive decline—loss of memory or concentration, for example—than non-churchgoers.
But while many Americans believe prayer is good medicine—43 percent of the participants in a National Institutes of Health survey said they had prayed for their own health—science offers no proof that prayer can cure.
“We understand from a vast amount of research that many people derive tremendous benefit from prayer, and some people seem to be healed in ways that we can’t understand,” says Dr. Harold Koenig, director of Duke University’s Center for Spirituality, Theology, and Health. “But science is not in the business of proving that prayer works through some kind of supernatural mechanism.”
There’s also no proof that praying for others can heal: a Harvard Medical School study indicated that heart surgery patients who unknowingly received prayers on their behalf from others fared no better than patients who didn’t.
Still, don’t expect people to stop praying. “It’s nothing a doctor can prescribe,” says Koenig, “but religion does seem to offer a package of things you don’t find elsewhere that influences behavior and beliefs and physical health.”
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