The Healing Power of Faith: How Belief and Prayer Can Help You Triumph Over Disease
What is the connection between religious belief and health? Does that connection have to be taken on faith, or is there scientific proof? Harold Koenig, M.D., author ofThe Healing Power of Faith, has devoted his career to examining scientifically the healing powers of religious belief. He directs Duke University's Center for the Study of Religion/Spirituality and Health, the first research facility in the world to study how religious faith affects believers' physical and emotional health. This center's research has led to more than 70 data-based, peer-reviewed papers published in medical and scientific journals. Some of the findings include:People with strong faith who suffer from physical illness have significantly better health outcomes than less religious people.People who attend religious services regularly have stronger immune systems and lower stress than their less religious counterparts.Religious faith seems to protect the elderly from cardiovascular disease and cancer.Religious patients recover from hip fractures and open-heart surgeries better than nonreligious patients.The Healing Power of Faithis inspiring and far from dry, filled with many absorbing case studies that show how people suffering from alcoholism, depression, anxiety, polio, drug addiction, heart disease, and many other medical problems manage to turn their lives and health around through religious belief.--Joan Price--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.