Let me preface this article by saying that this is not an attempt to start a religious debate or entangle readers in a fight over whether or not God exists or which religion is right. Regardless of your individual religious or non-religious beliefs, surely there is room to acknowledge that prayer and other religious observances have long been held by those who use them and believe in them to help reduce or manage stress. This article seeks to bring some of the scientific evidence to light that shows that, at least for these people, prayer and religion works as they say it does.
A Canadian Study
A 2009 study out of the University of Toronto, Canada, studied a group of believers and nonbelievers in an attempt to evaluate how belief in God relieves anxiety and decreases feelings of stress. The subjects’ reaction times to performing assigned tasks (Stroop task) were measured by electrodes monitoring the ACC or anterior cingulated cortex which is a part of the brain involved in emotion control and behavior modification during stressful situations.
The study found that those who considered themselves religious showed less ACC activity and therefore less anxiety over their task performance than those who claimed to be non-religious. Further, the stronger a believer’s zeal and the stronger their faith in God, the less ACC activity was observed.
It’s not within the realms of the study and its results to declare that belief in God actually causes less stress or less anxiety. It may be just that the perception of the ultimate negative impact of a situation is lessened or a person feels less threatened by that situation. Obviously, not all anxiety is eliminated, but for many people prayer and belief in God brings a peace and helps them think more positively, or at least keeps them from dwelling on the negative--which as we’ve looked at in other articles can be detrimental to overall mental and physical health.
A Heart Issue
We’ve all read about how prolonged periods of unrelenting or unresolved stress can affect heart function and blood pressure. Two American studies set out to try to monitor how prayer and faith actually affected such bodily systems.
A 20-year-old study looked at 393 patients in San Francisco General Hospital’s Coronary Care Unit. Participants were randomly selected by computer. None of the patients or doctors knew which patients had been selected, or whether the patients had been assigned to the to-be-prayed-for group or the control group. It was accepted by study conductors though that those in the control group may have had family and others praying for them. There was no way to eliminate that. The study revealed that those in the prayed-for group needed less CPR, mechanical ventilators, diuretics and antibiotics, and experienced less incidents of pulmonary edema and death. Taking into account all other possible medical factors and treatment, prayer remained the only action implicated in the findings.
A similar study conducted by Duke University Medical Center (Durham, NC) in 1998, looked at over 4,000 participants aged 65 and older. Their study found that those who prayed and attended religious services regularly had lower blood pressure and were less likely to experience high diastolic pressure or diastolic hypertension than those who didn’t attend religious services, pray or study their scriptures.
Clearly, there is a physiological and psychological reaction to prayer and belief in God, or at least something or someone other than ourselves. Perhaps it is the comfort of forgiveness, of knowing we can make a mistake and yet not be eternally condemned for it--we get a second chance to get it right. Perhaps it is the relief that we don’t have to carry on through life on our own. Everyone’s faith story is different.
It is highly unlikely that science will be able to pinpoint such a subjective and ultimately unmeasureable effect on a person’s body. But then, that’s what faith is. Those who believe don’t believe because science has unequivocally traced the neuron impulses back to some section of the brain. If we knew everything about everything and everyone…there wouldn’t be room for faith.
Sources: CTV.ca (http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Health/20090304/reigion_anxiety_090304/); San Francisco Medical Society (http://www.sfms.org/AM/PrinterTemplate.cfm?Section=Home&TEMPLATE=/CM/HTMLDisplay.cfm&SECTION=Article_Archives&CONTENTID=2343)