No, I'm not a nun. Don't get any ideas.
I just read a small article on the questioning of prayer's effect the patient's process of healing/recovering.
Can Prayer Heal the Sick?
85 percent of physicians polled believed religion and spirituality (including prayer) have a positive influence on health and recovery.
By Robert Shmerling, M.D., Harvard Health Publications
It's an appealing and comforting thought. Friends, family and even total strangers pray for you when you're seriously ill. When you recover, you may be grateful for those prayers. But did they contribute to your recovery? How would you know? Is it a question even worth asking?
Does prayer work?
Praying on another person's behalf to improve their health is called "intercessory prayer." And, believe it or not, researchers have attempted to scientifically study its effects on health and recovery from disease. The results are intriguing:
A 1988 study found that when patients in the hospital with heart disease had prayers said for them, they had less breathing trouble and required less antibiotic therapy than otherwise similar patients for whom prayers were not said.
A study published in 1998 suggested that prayer improved the health of AIDS patients. Although those receiving prayers had no change in an important measure of immune function over the six months of the study, they did have fewer serious illnesses, fewer doctor visits and better mood than those who were not prayed for.
In 1999, patients in a Missouri intensive care unit recovered faster after prayers were said for them compared with those who did not have prayers said. This study was unique due to its size—nearly 1,000 patients—and neither the patients nor their doctors knew which patients had prayers said for them.
A 2001 study published in the Journal of Reproductive Medicine supported intercessory prayer for women who were infertile. In that study, women for whom others prayed became pregnant twice as often as those who were not the recipients of prayer.
Skeptics criticize these studies, suggesting that the study designs were flawed or that something other than prayer could explain the findings.
Several of the best studies of intercessory prayer in recent years have come to the conclusion that it doesn't work. For example:
A 2005 study from researchers at Duke University showed no benefit from distant prayers for patients undergoing high-risk heart procedures.
In 2006, perhaps the largest study of intercessory prayer to date showed no benefit of prayer for 1,802 heart bypass surgery patients. The complication rate was actually a bit higher for those who knew others were praying for them.
My guess is that when a person is ill, it may be comforting to know that others are praying for him or her. Similarly, people praying may feel that they are at least doing what they can to help.
A recent survey of more than 1,100 U.S. physicians found that 85 percent believed religion and spirituality (including prayer) had a positive influence on health and recovery. But, only 6 percent of these doctors believed it had any effect on the "hard" medical endpoints, such as speed of recovery or death. About three-fourths of these doctors thought religion and spirituality helped people cope and maintain a positive outlook. As you might expect, more religious doctors endorsed the value of religious resources, such as prayer, more readily than non-religious doctors.
The bottom line
Is the value of intercessory prayer a myth? Maybe it is. I doubt there will ever be consensus on how to answer this question. But I don't think that's such a problem.
Compared with many other unproven remedies, there is little cost or risk associated with prayer. And at the least, it provides some measure of comfort to both the people praying and the people they are praying for.
I believe that the decision to pray or not pray should be decided by individuals and those praying for them, not researchers. If I controlled the world's research funding, I'd spend it on something other than assessing the value of intercessory prayer. This will never be easily settled. And I'm not sure it should be.
The article is longer than what I posted, I just didn't want to cause people to wait too long to read it and get bored. The main premise of the article is that a (supposed) majority of physicians believe in some form of religion, and that there have been studies that "prove" intercessory prayer is effective.
Although being a Christian myself, I have to say my main concern is this: why even bother? What I'd be arguing are basically the final lines of the article itself,
...the decision to pray or not pray should be decided by individuals and those praying for them, not researchers. If I controlled the world's research funding, I'd spend it on something other than assessing the value of intercessory prayer. This will never be easily settled. And I'm not sure it should be.
I think if you yourself are religious, you put prayer above normal priorites when it comes to its usefulness in healing. And even if you retain a non-religious input, I'd assume the premise would be the comfort gained from knowing people are wishing patients well and hoping they will recover would be of significance to them in some way, which is probably why they would need less therapy or other aids to their mental being.
But again, I think at the end of the day it's not something that should be a major medical focus, since in reality, it's not something that's likely to be proven or disproven anytime soon.
So, thoughts? Do you think it has a religious effect? A mere mental effect? No effect(s) at all?
Do you think prayer is more powerful than people usually assume? Are you on board with Christian Science? (No, you're not, I know you aren't, I won't let you.)
Or are you like me, religious or non-religious, accepting that it's not of medical significance or of concern of medical research?
Just a side-note as well, I haven't figured out how to enable or even use SpellCheck after my laptop hardrive update, so try to ignore spelling/grammar errors, I tried my best to Google some words and even use an SC in a different window, but I don't think I made too many errs.
^Is just to avoid people calling me a hypocrite for transforming Grammar-Nazism into SpellCheck-Nazism recently.
Peace, love, and pie to you all.
Disclaimer: Except the Jews. Freakin' *mumbles* 9/11... *mumbles* Holocaust was a lie... *mumbles*
Disclaimer's Disclaimer: Nah, I love the Jews.
Disclaimer's Disclaimer's Disclaimer: But not the gays.
