Faith and Health: What's the Relationship?

 

Drug companies' stock prices would skyrocket if religious faith could be packed in a pill. Religion, not just spirituality, is a powerful health predictor. Spiritual activities, like many pharmaceuticals on the market, can lower blood pressure, improve the immune system, and help prevent some of the symptoms of mental illness. In fact, not being religious is about as bad for you as smoking a pack of cigarettes every day for 40 years. If your health is important to you, you should begin routinely attending church and praying. Take a look at these five ways faith can help you.

Healthy Habits are Encouraged by Faith

"Don't drink, smoke, or chew, and don't hang around with girls who do." That phrase was considered archaic even by the standards many of the fundamentalist churches that I have attended. Nonetheless, changing your conduct because of religion lessens your odds of dying. Although your spiritual community may not urge you to consume organic, non-GMO, plant-based, local, and slow foods, it is likely to have a positive impact on the habits you develop and the activities you participate in. In this anecdote from a Christian microfinance organization in Cambodia, we can see a clear example of this in action. Microfinance is a type of lending that tries to assist individuals get out of poverty by providing modest loans for the start-up of small companies. One loan client, a fisherman, shared his experience that acquiring discipline from the small group of loan clients he met with on a regular basis was what truly benefited him. He became a Christian because many of them were. They assisted him in quitting drinking, resulting in a healthier family atmosphere for his wife and children. Religion didn't help him get out of poverty or fix his life. Faith, on the other hand, established an atmosphere in which this could happen in his life by regular exposure to a group with healthy lifestyles and behaviors.

Faith is a Stress Reliever

Stress has a direct negative impact on your immune system, diminishing your cells' ability to fight disease within the body. Religion has been found in studies to relieve stress in a variety of ways. Prayer, in particular, can help to lower stress-induced high blood pressure. Modern life's anxieties and stressors increase the body's fight or flight reaction. By strengthening the body's relaxation reaction, prayer, worship, and other spiritual activities can help to balance out this stress response. Furthermore, religious people have a tendency to think in healthy ways. Faith provides people with a feeling of purpose and meaning in life, which has been linked to improved health. Because the brain regulates every part of our bodies, how we think has an impact on how they function. Religious persons, on the other hand, are less likely to feel depressed. True, faith-filled Christians, of course, suffer from depression and other mental illnesses. While faith isn't a panacea for any mental disease, it does appear to provide an extra layer of protection against its worst effects.

Emotional Health is Improved by Community

It is beneficial to have buddies. It's much better if you have religious friends. According to Harold Koenig, the Director of Duke University's Center for Spirituality, "church membership was the only type of social involvement that predicted greater life satisfaction and happiness." (All of this research is detailed in his book Medicine, Religion, and Health.) Another study indicated that informal social interactions with church members had the same impacts – but not other friendships. Another study of older adults in Iowa found that those who regularly attend church were 68 percent less likely to die over a 12-year span. As Christ-followers, we develop ties that supply us with more than simply a social calendar. They are a necessary network that keeps us healthy by fostering strong bonds that promote our psychological and emotional well-being.

Helping Others Makes You Happier in Life.

Faith makes you healthier and happier because it connects you to a community that is more likely to help you when times are tough. The world's first hospitals were founded by Christians, and professional health care has long been a crucial component of missions and poor-relief work. But don't worry if you're not situated among the nurses or doctors in the pew. Faith has a larger health benefit for people who assist others. According to sociologist Christian Smith, those who tithe, or give away 10% of their income, are 10 percentage points more likely to be very pleased with their lives. In one study, researchers wanted to see which of two alternative ways would help patients with multiple sclerosis the most, but they discovered that MS sufferers who were delivering support, not simply receiving it, benefited the most. Religious people are more inclined to donate money to charity and volunteer, which means they are more likely to benefit from the health benefits of helping others. Another way to look at this is from Jesus’ own words, “Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.” Luke 6:38 NLT.

Make Room for the Miraculous

We have no reason to question God's ability to heal, sometimes in astonishing ways. Over three-quarters of Americans believe that prayer may help people recover from injuries and diseases. A similar number of doctors stated they believe in miraculous healings in a survey. The reality of Christianity has been put to the test of its miraculous results in countless cases, and it has been shown to be true. This was true in 9th century Egypt, when one monk said that no one had become a Christian "save for proofs that they have witnessed, signs that they have known, and miracles that they have acknowledged, which compelled them to surrender to it and practice it." In many locations today, the same is true. In China, between 80 and 90 percent of converts claim to have become Christians as a result of supernatural healing. More Pentecostal Christians in Brazil claim to have been healed than to have spoken in tongues. Those who claim faith can find health for both body and soul in God, whether through prayer, laying on of hands, or some other miraculous intervention. Some have hypothesized that miraculous healings are the result of a "placebo effect," in which Christian faith stimulates the body to heal faster—and it's true that several studies have found a link between a happy perspective and effective recovery. But the truth remains: there are health benefits to believing that God has power over your health, whether through the placebo effect, supernatural intervention, or some other combination that we don't fully understand. Faith was never intended to be a medicine, and the Bible is not a workout manual, so we must be cautious when touting its benefits. Christians who are faithful and trust in God get sick and live lives that are afflicted by disease or physical ailments (many scholars believe the apostle Paul himself spent his life battling some sort of physical handicap). However, if we think that God's authority extends to both the physical and spiritual realms, we can accept that He can express that authority in both our physical and spiritual health.

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Article inspired by: https://relevantmagazine.com/life5/surprising-links-between-faith-and-health/