Dr. Sonia Davidson, Contributor

Throughout history, all the major religions of the world have used prayer in healing. So compelling is the personal experience of individuals of faith (as well as the evidence derived from an emerging body of scientific literature) that there has been a movement towards formalising the use of prayer as a treatment modality.

Doctors such as Larry Dossey, M.D., author of Healing Words, and Bernie Siegal, M.D., author of Love, Medicine and Miracles, are leaders in the exploration of prayer and healing. The line is however, metaphorically 'drawn in the sand' as many researchers line up to prove and disprove the healing effects of prayer.

The Annals of Behavioral Medicine, the official peer-reviewed publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine, is sceptical. It asserts: "Popular claims that religious activity provides health benefits have virtually no grounding in the medical literature."

Research findings

This view is not shared by world-renowned Harvard cardiologist and mind-body researcher, Dr. Herbert Benson who, in December, will spearhead a conference to share the most recent research findings on the healing effects of intercessory prayer.

This is just one of many accredited conferences on spirituality and health which Dr. Benson and Harvard University have organised for medical professionals.

The placebo effect

Does prayer heal? Is it merely the placebo effect? In the past medical researchers believed that the placebo effect was imaginary.

The dilemma, which the scientific and medical communities face, is one they have faced historically; that is how to accept as fact a phenomenon they cannot explain. Remember when Christopher Columbus had to take that hazardous journey to prove to his detractors that the world was a sphere. Everyone who had eyes to see 'knew' that the world was a disc rushing around in space.

The findings of research such as a small double-blind study involving a coronary (heart) unit at San Francisco General Hospital continue to encourage those medical professionals, especially nurses, who have sat by their patients' bedside and prayed with them.

In this study, 192 coronary patients were assigned randomly to a group to receive prayer, while the remaining patients were put into a control group (no prayer). Home prayer groups consisting of five to seven people prayed for each person in the 'prayed-for' group without the person's knowledge and without the medical professionals knowing which were in the 'prayed-for' group.

The patients for whom prayers were said were found to be five times less likely to require antibiotics and three times less likely to develop pulmonary oedema (fluid in the lung tissue due to heart failure). No one in the 'prayed-for' group required any mechanical ventilator equipment, compared to 12 who needed the equipment in the control group and fewer patients in the 'prayed-for' group died during the period of the study than those who were not prayed for. These results were considered to be statistically significant.

Not all the studies have been as impressive and, therefore, some scientists opine that the jury is still out. Scientists, even those who are convinced that prayer works, ask the questions: How does prayer work? Why does it work sometimes and not at other times? What changes occur in the brain and in the rest of the body as we pray? Is prayer anything more than a placebo? Part Two of this article seeks to address these questions.

Dr. Sonia Davidson, M.D., general practitioner, advocate of integrative medicine and minister of religious science; email: yourhealth@gleanerjm.com.