Page 78 - Time Special Edition Alternative Medicine (January 2020)
P. 78
Can God and
Medicine Work
Together?
Science and religion argue all the time, but
they increasingly agree on one thing: a little
spirituality may be very good for your health
BY JEFFREY KLUGER
needy creatures that We are, humans have true that our brains and bodies contain an awful lot
prayed over the millennia for a nearly endless num- of spiritual wiring. Even if there’s a scientific expla-
ber of things, from the sublime to the ridiculous. But nation for every strand of it, that doesn’t mean we
there is likely nothing we pray for more than health, can’t put it to powerful use. And if one of those uses
the miracles of modern medicine notwithstanding. can make us well, shouldn’t we take advantage of
So, while we believe our medicine is strong and our it? Says Andrew Newberg, a professor of radiology,
doctors are wise, we put faith in our prayers as well. psychology and religious studies at the University of
Here’s what’s surprising: a growing body of sci- Pennsylvania and the co-founder of Penn’s Center
entific evidence suggests that faith may indeed for Spirituality and the Mind: “The way the brain
bring us health. People who attend religious ser- works is so compatible with religion and spiritual-
vices do have a lower risk of dying in any given year ity that we’re going to be enmeshed in both for a
than people who don’t attend. People who believe in long time.”
a loving God fare better after a diagnosis of illness For most believers, the element of religious life
than people who believe in a punitive God. No less that intersects most naturally with health is prayer.
a killer than AIDS will back off at least a bit when Very serious theologians believe in the power of so-
it’s hit with a double-barreled blast of belief. “Even called intercessory prayer to heal the sick, and some
accounting for medications,” says Gail Ironson, a very serious scientists have looked at it too: thou-
professor of psychiatry and psychology at the Uni- sands of studies on the topic have been published
versity of Miami who studies HIV and religious be- over the past two decades.
lief, “spirituality predicts for better disease control.” As long ago as 1872, Francis Galton, the man
That’s undeniably true up to a point. But it’s also behind eugenics and fingerprinting, reckoned that
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