Want to Live Longer? Attend Church.
I read a good article tonight on Time.com about the “biology of belief.” For many years, scientists have studied the effect of prayer on health, and the results have proven to be very interesting. In fact, more than 6,000 studies have been published on the topic since 2000, and a growing body of scientific evidence seems to suggest that faith may actually provide improved health.
According to the article, “People who attend religious services have a lower risk of dying in any one year than people who don’t attend. People who believe in a loving God fare better after a diagnosis of illness than people who believe in a punitive God. No less a killer than AIDS will back off at least a bit when it’s hit with a double-barreled blast of belief.”
“Even accounting for medications,” says Dr. Gail Ironson, a professor of psychiatry and psychology at the University of Miami who studies HIV and religious belief, “spirituality predicts for better disease control.”
Other studies conducted by Robert Hummer of the University of Texas also show conclusive evidence of the link between faith and health. Hummer has been studying the health of regular churchgoers by following the same group of participants since 1992. He found that “those who never attend religious services have twice the risk of dying over the next eight years as people who attend once a week.” Another study conducted by Daniel Hall of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center showed that regular church attendance can add 2-3 additional years to your life, similar to regular exercise which can extend your life by 3-5 years.
Skeptics try to explain this phenomenon by saying that churchgoers have more support, more friends, and can rely on other churchgoers to get rides to doctor appointments. Frankly, I think those explanations are weak, and I’m not alone. The article states that even hard core scientists admit that those things aren’t the whole story and that there’s a constellation of other variables that are far harder to measure.
Regardless of how or why it happens, the facts speak for themselves. If you want to live a longer, healthier life, get involved in a local church and spend some quality time with God.
God: He does a body good!
