PSC 126 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Harold G. Koenig, Heart Rate, Calmness
Spirituality & health
● Religious epidemiology
○ Religious & spiritual factors in health & illness
○ How are religious & spiritual beliefs & behaviors related to health?
○ What are the mechanisms linking faith w/ health outcomes?
● Why spirituality & medicine now?
○ An acknowledgment of the limits to scientific medicine (a single - minded
emphasis on statistics & machines)
○ The results of well - controlled studies of the impact of religious practice on health
care outcomes
● US beliefs - faith, prayer, & health
○ 79 % - believe spiritual faith can help one recover from illness, injury, or disease
○ 56% - belie their faith helped them recover from illness, injury, or disease
○ 63% - believe doctors should talk to patients about their spiritual faith
○ 82% - believe in healing power of personal prayer
○ 77% - believe that GOd can intervene to cure those with a serious illness
○ 73% - believe that praying for another can help cure their illness
● The faith factor
○ Coping with stress
○ Longevity & religious participation
○ Forgiveness
● “Life is suffering” - Buddha
● A transcendent way of seeing
○ Spiritual reframing
■ The event - a spiritual opportunity or lesson
■ The person - what can i do about this?
■ Personal / impersonal force - God or karma
● ADC (after death communication)
○ Ex: widow finding coins that match dates of important events in her deceased
husband’s life
● Living longer - epidemiologic mortality
○ Study sample - 5 year follow up of 2,025 residents of Marin Country who were
e55 years and older
○ Study results
■ For each sex, weekly attendees with the lowest mortality & non -
attendees had the highest mortality
■ Other social support activities (ex: ROtary Club of hospital auxiliaries) not
with same mortality benefit
○ Study sample - national sample of 21, 000 US adults with 10 year follow up
○ Study results
■ Life expectancy gap between those who attend more than once a week &
those who never attend is over 7 years
○ Attendees live longer
Document Summary
Religious & spiritual factors in health & illness. An acknowledgment of the limits to scientific medicine (a single - minded emphasis on statistics & machines) The results of well - controlled studies of the impact of religious practice on health care outcomes. Us beliefs - faith, prayer, & health. 79 % - believe spiritual faith can help one recover from illness, injury, or disease. 56% - belie their faith helped them recover from illness, injury, or disease. 63% - believe doctors should talk to patients about their spiritual faith. 82% - believe in healing power of personal prayer. 77% - believe that god can intervene to cure those with a serious illness. 73% - believe that praying for another can help cure their illness. The event - a spiritual opportunity or lesson. Personal / impersonal force - god or karma. Ex: widow finding coins that match dates of important events in her deceased husband"s life.
