Prayer's power over your heart - Healthy Lifestyles - Brief Article

Think of treatments for heart disease, and what comes to mind? Intense diet and exercise? Bypass surgery? Angioplasty? Multiple drugs?

Chances are you didn't say prayer, meditation or touch therapy. But if the results of some new studies prove to be true, maybe you should.

In some of the latest research, doctors at Duke University Medical Center analyzed 150 heart patients undergoing various treatments, including angioplasties. They divided the patients into five groups. All received medical treatment, but four groups also got one of the following: touch therapy, relaxation training, lessons in using guided imagery or being prayed for without their knowledge.

Results? Patients who received any of the additional therapies were 25 to 30 percent less likely to develop complications from their medical treatment than those who recieved nothing extra.

"We know from past studies that relaxation exercises, meditation and being gently touched and cared for can have profound effects on the heart. These activities reduce blood pressure, heart rates and stress hormones," says Harold G. Koenig, M.D., internist, psychiatrist and director of the Center for the Study of Religion, Spirituality and Health at Duke. "But in this case, the group with the lowest complication rates was the one being unknowingly prayed for. There's no scientific explanation for that."

This is not an isolated finding in heart health. The results echo a similar study done last year at St. Luke's Hospital in Kansas City, Mo. Doctors there looked at 990 patients who had been admitted to a cardiac-care unit. About half of their first names were given to an outside group that prayed for them for a month. The patients were unaware of what was happening, but they had 11 percent fewer cardiac complications, and the complications tended to be less serious than in those patients who weren't prayed for.

So what does all of this mean? "We don't know," says William S. Harris, M.D., professor of medicine at the University of Missouri in Kansas City, who headed the St. Luke's study. "At the moment, we've only shown that an association exists between being prayed for and having an improved outcome. How it works is way beyond anyone's understanding fight now. But I think these studies show that research on nonphysical methods of healing is legitimate and can be done objectively and scientifically."

The Duke researchers are planning a large nationwide study in hopes of replicating their findings. Meanwhile, doctors emphasize that these treatments were always used in addition to--not instead of--proven medical care. "People shouldn't stop taking any medication because someone is praying for them," says Koenig. "Nor should doctors push religion on patients or pray with them without their requesting it. But if patients want to pray on their own, I think we should encourage it. It's also reassuring to know that if we're praying for someone to get well, we just may make a difference."

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