Skeptics say, "We all have heard such
pronouncements, "faith heals," but how do we
know if it really is true?" Skeptics can now
refer to medical studies which explore the relationship
between recovery from an illness and psychosocial aspects
such as education, personality, social support, family,
and religion. One such study was done by Thomas
Oxman at Dartmouth Medical School in New Hampshire which
focused on the role religion might play in health and
recovery of elderly people. He took 232 patients
over 55 years of age who had open-heart surgery.
Oxman's finding which should be of great interest to
young and old alike is this: those who derive at
least some strength and comfort from their religious
faith are three times more likely to survive than those
who don't.
This has an even greater
significance for elderly because it highlights the
benefits of faith. Let's face it, we all assume
that in old age everything declines, our muscles, health,
wealth, wisdom and whatever else we have, except our
faith. Faith, instead of weakening, should
strengthen. For all other losses, we can blame
someone else, but for faith, we are responsible .
The buck stops here.
In this column, I have written several articles and
cited studies that show that connectedness to others,
social support, helping others, and quality of intimate
relationships have positive benefits for wellness, and
for recovery from illness and surgery. However, the
reality is that in old age, social support systems and
close relationships generally diminish for reasons such
as death of spouse and children moving away. So
what is available for seniors? Faith. Nothing
can take away the comfort, security, support, and
strength we can draw from faith.
If we are becoming more spiritual and stronger in
faith, it means that we are aging right: this does
not mean that we should become close-minded, rigid, or
judgmental about people who are different from us.
Those attitudes of mind increase stress and generate
toxic emotions. On the other hand, spirituality and
faith make us more open, flexible, and somewhat playful,
the kind of parents and grandparents every child wants to
have.
Coming back to the study, Oxman also confirms the
positive benefits of social support and
involvement. Those who participated in social and
community groups, such as church, local government,
supper clubs, senior center, etc., had three times the
survival rate of those who did not participate in any
organized social activity. Now, aren't you curious
to find out what can happen if you combine the two, that
is, if you are strong in faith and also involve yourself
in your community? Here are the facts from this
study: those who derived support and comfort from
their faith and also took part in the organized community
groups of some kind, had a ten times higher survival rate
than those who deprived themselves of both strengths,
that of religion and of
community.
Note that feelings of comfort and support from one's
faith are more important to health than religious
activity. For instance, according to this study, if
one goes to church twice or thrice a week but does not
derive any support and comfort from his or her faith,
he/she is not likely to reap any significant
benefits. Likewise, participation in organized
groups has significantly more benefits than just visiting
friends and relatives.
Other studies suggest that faith benefits believers in
cases of high blood- pressure, heart disease, and
cancer. How does faith work? At this point,
we can only conjecture. Faith may have an overall
calming and relaxing effect. Faith offers hope and
cuts down on negative emotions, such as anger, anxiety,
and depression that often trouble people when they have
serious and/or chronic illnesses. Perhaps, when we
are afflicted with pain and suffering, faith shields us
from emotional suffering. As a result of that, we
may suffer physically but not emotionally. Perhaps,
faith provides a meaning to our illness and suffering and
helps us to make sense of it all. In absence of
faith, we may endlessly ask the proverbial question,
"Why me?" and lock up our energy in asking the
question rather than finding answers and devising actions
to strengthen our recovery process. According to
Dr. Larry Dossey who authored the book, "The Healing
Words," and a cassette album, "Power of
Prayer," meaning of illness is very important
in whether and how soon we recover from a disabling
illness.
In this column, in another article, I have written on
the positive effect of prayers on sickness. Add
prayer, faith, and social support in equal measures, and
you have a potent recipe.
