A growing body of evidence suggests that religion can be good medicine.
Prayer helps heart patients.
A strong faith can help people cope with depression, drug abuse - even cancer. The research represents a breach in the wall that usually separates religion and medicine. The studies of the past decade have grabbed the attention of scholars at the world's most respected academic institutions, as well as doctors who are increasingly prescribing spirituality as a part of the healing process. They have to confront it. They can't just say religion is irrelevant to health.