Susan Biali

When I was in med school, I wasn't really a very spiritual person, as far as I can remember.  As with many other people, it took a crisis for me to turn to something bigger than myself. Actually, for me it was a long series of crises!  During that time, when I was lost in my life and totally miserable, I also developed multiple physical illnesses.  Miraculously, these conditions cleared up once I got onto the right track with my life.  From my own experience, and from observing similar patterns in patients, I developed an interest in the connection between the mind and the body.  This led me to discover all kinds of existing research about the link between your spiritual practices/beliefs and your health.

Mind-body-spirit, as the cliche goes - but when I use this phrase, I'm not referring to a person's own personal "spirit", but a bigger "higher power" that's out there, somewhere, cleaning up and reorganizing the mess we humans often make of our own lives.

Studies have shown that regular “religious attendance” (e.g. going to church), is significantly associated with general well-being, healthy social functioning, and good mental health.  One study that looked at cardiac transplant patients found that the presence of religious beliefs and practices before surgery predicted better post-transplant physical function; the religious transplant patients also demonstrated less general anxiety.  Another study of almost 100,000 people linked weekly church attendance to 50% fewer deaths from coronary artery disease, 56% fewer deaths from emphysema, 75% fewer deaths from cirrhosis (severe liver disease), and 53% fewer suicides.

Prayer, meditation, or simply a belief in a Higher Power or a higher order to life, likely also protects your health.  A study in HIV positive men showed that a variety of religious activities (prayer or meditation, religious attendance, spiritual discussions, or reading religious or spiritual literature) were all associated with significantly higher CD4 counts (these are the immune cells which are often life-threateningly low in people with HIV).  Another cardiac study showed that heart surgery patients with higher than average personal religious beliefs had post-surgery hospital stays 20% shorter than those with lower than average belief scores.  

I love reading about this stuff.  When people get sick, they often feel like they’ve lost control of their lives and their ultimate outcomes.  This type of research shows that we – and something “higher” than us – have a lot more potential to personally impact our outcome, and our overall well-being, than most of us realize.

If you’d like to read a fascinating and highly persuasive book on this subject, check out Dr. Larry Dossey’s classic, The Power of Prayer and the Practice of Medicine.  Dossey, an M.D., is one of the world’s top experts on the role of religion and spirituality in healing.  In one of my favourite parts, he discusses our natural tendency to see illness as a type of curse or unwelcome affliction.  When we get sick, we often ask “Why me?”, “Why did this happen?”, or “What did I do to deserve this?”.  

According to Dossey, “there may be a higher purpose to the illness that we simply cannot grasp because we do not know the ways of the Absolute…the meaning of a particular disease may be opaque and hidden to us mortals, known only to the Divine. On balance, this warns against equating spiritual and physical health, and cautions us against attributing shallow, superficial meaning to all illness.” 

In my personal and professional experience, when times get tough and hope seems obliterated by the dark, when my body or life seems to be letting me, or a patient of mine, down, it’s comforting to think that something bigger is at work, the benevolent logic of which may not be apparent for some time, if ever.   The best part is that simply believing this to be true – which I do – seems to be all that’s required for me to enjoy the resulting benefits: acceptance, improved health, and peace of mind and spirit. 

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