THE HEALING POWER OF PRAYER

WHILE no one can absolutely prove that prayers cure illnesses, many doctors cite cases of recovery that can't be attributed to any other reason. What we do know, though, is that religion and spirituality can reduce stress and boost the immune system. "When I started interviewing elderly patients for a study when I was an undergrad," says Colleen McClain Jacobson, a researcher at Fordham University in New York City, "it seemed that people for whom religion had played a major role throughout their lives were ageing better than those who weren't religious. A handful of studies have looked at spirituality and immune function and found a connection." * In a 1997 study of older adults by Dr Harold Koenig, professor of psychiatry and behavioural sciences at Duke University Medical Centre, those who frequently attended religious services were less likely to have undesirably high levels of inter- leukin-6, a protein involved in immune response and inflam-matory factors, signalling healthier immune systems, than those who did not attend. In a 1998 study of 4 000 adults, Dr Koenig found that those who prayed daily and attended religious services weekly had 40% less hypertension than those who didn't pray or go to services. A 2004 study at the University of Iowa linked church attendance with living longer. * In a 2001 study of women with metastatic breast cancer, S. E. Sephton, assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, found that the women who rated spirituality as important had greater numbers of circulating white blood cells and total lymphocyte counts, reflecting stronger immune systems, than those who did not. * A 2002 study of Aids patients published in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine found that the most religious patients had the lowest levels of the stress hormone cortisol, and that frequency of prayer was signifi- cantly related to longer survival. - Readers Digest, April 2006