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RELIGION AND HEALTH
By Dr. Stephen JuanCAN A RELIGIOUS SACRAMENT CAUSE DISEASE?
Not really, but two U.S. doctors have found that disease-causing bacteria may be spread from person to person by sharing a common communion cup.
Communicants at a religious service may be sharing more than a religious experience.
Drs. Terrance Furlow and Mark Dougherty, both from Lexington, Kentucky, report in the Annals of Internal Medicine in 1993 that bacteria cling nastily to common communion cups. In order to prevent the spread of disease, they recommend that the communal cups be thoroughly disinfected after every use or, better still, only individual cups be used. They observe that the second of these is becoming a more common practice.
Drs. Furlow and Dougherty tested both silver and ceramic communal cups used during eight randomly selected religious services. There were sixteen cups in all. A culture was taken from each cup before the service and again ten minutes after. The entire rim of each cub was swabbed.
It was found that eight of the sixteen cups had significantly higher-than-normal levels of disease-causing bacteria. The two doctors found that “four of seven cultures taken from silver cups and four of nine cultures taken from pottery cups after the Eucharist were positive for pathogenic bacteria.”
According to Drs. Furlow and Dougherty, turning the cup or wiping it with a “purificator” after each person uses it does not eliminate bacteria from the rim. Neither does the alcohol content of the wine nor intinction. Intinction, refers to the act of dipping bread into wine before ingestion by the communicant. The two doctors note that “this method could result in the transmission of saliva between communicants.” Drs. Furlow and Dougherty point out that two of the sixteen cups tested positive before the church service.
Interestingly, research on this subject goes back almost 70 years. The first study appeared in the Journal of Infectious Diseases in 1943 by Drs. W. Burrows and E. Hemmons.CAN A RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCE OVERCOME DISEASE?
Yes, according to a 2006 study in the British Medical Journal. This study showed that “religious observance” was as effective as meningococcal vaccination for preventing meningococcal disease in adolescents in the U.K. The study was conducted by Dr. J. Tully and nine others from the Academic Centre for Child Health of the Queen Mary’s School of Medicine of the University of London.CAN A PRAYER A DAY KEEP THE DOCTOR AWAY?
Yes, according to a study comparing the health of people who regularly attend religious services with those who do not.
Dr. Kenneth Ferraro, a sociologist at Purdue University, headed the study appearing in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion in 1991.
After controlling for age, ethnicity, income level, and so on, the Ferraro team divided 1,473 subjects into “practicers” (those regularly attending religious services) and “non-practicers” (those who do not). They then asked subjects about their general health, including frequency of hospitalisation.
The researchers discovered that “practicers” were less than half as likely to report health problems as “non-practicers”. According to Dr. Ferraro as quoted in the March, 1993 issue of American Health, “we found that religion was almost as great an influence on health as age and social class.”
Interestingly, Dr. Ferraro theorizes that it may not be religious belief per se that is the most important factor in keeping people healthier. Rather, two factors may be at work. First, beneficial health practices are a part of certain religious denominations. Some religions require healthful behaviour such as avoiding cigarettes, alcohol, and other drugs, and insisting upon adherence to a day of rest per week.
Second, a person receives social support by virtue of their membership in a religious community. Many studies suggest that social isolation has negative health consequences. Membership in a religious group lessens social isolation. Furthermore, religious communities frequently look after families in the community who are in need. Thus, as Dr. Ferraro adds, “you have a group of people you can turn to in times of crisis.”
Interestingly too, Dr. Ferraro and colleague Cynthia Albrecht-Jensen have found evidence suggesting that people from more liberal religious denominations are generally healthier than those from more conservative ones.CAN A PRAYER A DAY KEEP PAIN AT BAY?
Yes, according to a 2004 study appearing in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. Dr. R.F. Palmer, D. Katerndahl, and J. Morgan-Kidd from the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio. They write “A randomized clinical trial found a significant reduction in the amount of pain in the intercessory prayer group compared to controls. In addition, the amount of concern for baseline problems at follow-up was significantly lower in the prayer group when the subject initially believed that the problem could be resolved. Those who did not believe that their problem could be resolved did not differ from controls. Better physical functioning was observed in the prayer group for those with a higher belief in prayer. However, better mental health scores were observed in the control group with lower belief in prayer scores.”CAN RELIGIOUS MUSIC, IMAGERY, TOUCH AND PRAYER HELP THE HEART?
Yes, according to a 2005 study in the Lancet. This study concluded that religious music, imagery, touch, and prayer combined to reduce “cardiac events” in a group of cardiac patients. According to the study conducted by Dr. M.W. Krucoff and fourteen others at the Duke Clinical Research Institute of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, “This double blind study used prayer in combination with music, imagery, and touch in four randomly assigned groups of cardiac patients. Intercessory prayer groups included Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and Buddhist religious traditions. Overall, the study found no significant effect of prayer. However, major adverse cardiac events were reduced in the prayer group (23 per cent to 27 per cent), as were death and readmission rates (33 per cent to 35 per cent). The inclusion of intercessors of multiple religious traditions may have reduced the effectiveness of prayer, especially since Buddhists (who do not believe in God) were included in the study.”CAN SPIRITUALITY IMPROVE PSYCHOTHERAY?
Yes, according to a 2004 study in Australas Psychiatry. As Drs. R.F. D’Souza and A. Rodrigo from the Koonung Community Mental Health Centre in Melbourne, the authors of the study write: “This study used spiritually augmented cognitive behaviour therapy in a mental health study. The study demonstrated that spiritually augmented cognitive behaviour therapy helped reduce hopelessness and despair, improved treatment collaboration, reduced relapse, and enhanced functional recovery.” They add that this form of therapy “can aid therapists in providing ‘whole person’ care and achieving better global outcomes for patients with psychological illness.”WHAT TYPE OF PERSON BECOMES A PSYCHIC HEALER?
Dr. Stephen Applebaum, a psychoanalyst in Prairie Village, Kansas, studied the personality patterns of 26 psychic healers and published his results in the Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic in 1993.
Dr. Applebaum's major finding is that psychic healers typically do not suffer from serious mental disorders. For example, they are generally not psychotic and not dangerous. However, they do tend to exhibit more delusional behaviours and rely upon fantasy thinking than normal. Furthermore, they seek the company of others who are also more prone to act and think in the same way.
It was found that, compared to the rest of us, psychic healers are far less inclined to use or value observable evidence or provable facts to check their beliefs. This is especially true for anything which challenges their “powers”.
Dr. Applebaum concludes that the typical psychic healer “basically tests reality accurately, but nonetheless is open to self-delusion through being less interested in checking ideas with reality than in having wishes supported by like-minded people.”
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