hensylee
Well-known member
Found this today in my email news. Those of you who say you're going to pray, please do it as I believe it helps.
Does prayer have power to help heal?
November 4, 2001
BY JIM RITTER HEALTH REPORTER
On the day Cherryl Holt underwent surgery for breast cancer, Grace Episcopal Church in Oak Park held a nine-hour prayer vigil for her.
And during her recovery, a church group offered prayers for Holt every day.
Fifteen months later, Holt is in remission and feels great. She credits the prayers as well as her medical treatments. "I think they both work," Holt said.
A new and controversial field of research is reaching the same conclusion. At least four studies, including one published Thursday,have found that when people pray for patients, the patients do better. The practice is called intercessory prayer.
In the latest study, Duke University Medical Center researchers looked at the effects of prayer and other alternative treatments on heart patients. Seven prayer groups, including Buddhists, Catholics, Jews and fundamentalist Christians, prayed for one group of patients, while a control group received no prayers.
Twenty-six percent of the patients in the control group experienced insufficient blood flow and other complications. Only 13 percent of patients in the prayer group experienced such complications. The study was published in the American Heart Journal.
Lead author Dr. Mitch Krucoff cautioned that only 30 patients in the study received intercessory prayer. "It's a small group and not statistical proof," he said. "But it's intriguing."
A follow-up study that will include 1,000 patients from nine medical centers around the country should provide more definitive results, Krucoff said.
In September, a New York Presbyterian Hospital study found that among infertile women undergoing in vitro fertilization, 50 percent receiving intercessory prayer became pregnant, compared with 26 percent of women in the control group.
Authors of the study, published in the Journal of Reproductive Medicine, said results "should be interpreted as preliminary."
Two earlier studies, at St. Luke's Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., and San Francisco General Medical Center, found that heart patients who received intercessory prayer had fewer complications than those who didn't. However, intercessory prayer did not shorten the length of time patients were hospitalized.
All four studies were published in reputable medical journals. To reduce the possibility of bias, the studies were "double blind," meaning neither the patients nor the doctors who evaluated them knew who was being prayed for and who wasn't.
Perhaps because of their extraordinary results, intercessory prayer studies have received intense scrutiny and criticism. Skeptics suspect, for example, that in the Kansas City study, the patients who received prayers may have been healthier to begin with than those for whom prayers weren't said. And the San Francisco study might have been biased by a research assistant who might have known who received prayers and who didn't.
"The studies I have looked at carefully have very serious flaws," said Purdue University biologist Irwin Tessman.
Skeptics also note that several less-publicized studies found no benefits to intercessory prayer.
Perhaps what troubles skeptics the most is the lack of any scientific theory to explain how intercessory prayer might work. "I do not believe in supernatural phenomena," Tessman said.
Krucoff, the Duke researcher, responds that it's possible there is a scientific explanation--perhaps some sort of life force. We just don't know what it is yet.
Researchers who conducted the Kansas City study said scientists should be open-minded and willing to "objectively consider new or alternative concepts and hypotheses."
Experts also have expressed philosophical objections to intercessory prayer.
"I'm very uncomfortable using prayer to control outcomes," said Myles Sheehan, a doctor at Loyola University Medical School who's also a Catholic priest. "The point of prayer is to open us to God, not to attempt to control the universe."
At Grace Episcopal, some people pray for the sick in the hopes prayer will help them heal, said the Rev. Michael Johnston. Others pray to show their support.
Prayer vigils have become a tradition at the church. When someone has a medical crisis, at least one person is at the church praying at all times. When Johnston underwent surgery for stomach cancer last year, about 100 people prayed at various times between 4 a.m., when they saw him off, to 2 p.m., when he came out of surgery.
More than 25 church members also belong to a prayer group. Each month, group leader Ruth Harvey mails members a list of people who need prayers for health and other problems. About 80 people are on the list, and Harvey spends an hour every morning praying for them.
Holt, the breast cancer survivor, is among those for whom Harvey has prayed. Holt said receiving such prayers was one of the most "emotionally comforting experiences" of her life.
Does prayer have power to help heal?
November 4, 2001
BY JIM RITTER HEALTH REPORTER
On the day Cherryl Holt underwent surgery for breast cancer, Grace Episcopal Church in Oak Park held a nine-hour prayer vigil for her.
And during her recovery, a church group offered prayers for Holt every day.
Fifteen months later, Holt is in remission and feels great. She credits the prayers as well as her medical treatments. "I think they both work," Holt said.
A new and controversial field of research is reaching the same conclusion. At least four studies, including one published Thursday,have found that when people pray for patients, the patients do better. The practice is called intercessory prayer.
In the latest study, Duke University Medical Center researchers looked at the effects of prayer and other alternative treatments on heart patients. Seven prayer groups, including Buddhists, Catholics, Jews and fundamentalist Christians, prayed for one group of patients, while a control group received no prayers.
Twenty-six percent of the patients in the control group experienced insufficient blood flow and other complications. Only 13 percent of patients in the prayer group experienced such complications. The study was published in the American Heart Journal.
Lead author Dr. Mitch Krucoff cautioned that only 30 patients in the study received intercessory prayer. "It's a small group and not statistical proof," he said. "But it's intriguing."
A follow-up study that will include 1,000 patients from nine medical centers around the country should provide more definitive results, Krucoff said.
In September, a New York Presbyterian Hospital study found that among infertile women undergoing in vitro fertilization, 50 percent receiving intercessory prayer became pregnant, compared with 26 percent of women in the control group.
Authors of the study, published in the Journal of Reproductive Medicine, said results "should be interpreted as preliminary."
Two earlier studies, at St. Luke's Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., and San Francisco General Medical Center, found that heart patients who received intercessory prayer had fewer complications than those who didn't. However, intercessory prayer did not shorten the length of time patients were hospitalized.
All four studies were published in reputable medical journals. To reduce the possibility of bias, the studies were "double blind," meaning neither the patients nor the doctors who evaluated them knew who was being prayed for and who wasn't.
Perhaps because of their extraordinary results, intercessory prayer studies have received intense scrutiny and criticism. Skeptics suspect, for example, that in the Kansas City study, the patients who received prayers may have been healthier to begin with than those for whom prayers weren't said. And the San Francisco study might have been biased by a research assistant who might have known who received prayers and who didn't.
"The studies I have looked at carefully have very serious flaws," said Purdue University biologist Irwin Tessman.
Skeptics also note that several less-publicized studies found no benefits to intercessory prayer.
Perhaps what troubles skeptics the most is the lack of any scientific theory to explain how intercessory prayer might work. "I do not believe in supernatural phenomena," Tessman said.
Krucoff, the Duke researcher, responds that it's possible there is a scientific explanation--perhaps some sort of life force. We just don't know what it is yet.
Researchers who conducted the Kansas City study said scientists should be open-minded and willing to "objectively consider new or alternative concepts and hypotheses."
Experts also have expressed philosophical objections to intercessory prayer.
"I'm very uncomfortable using prayer to control outcomes," said Myles Sheehan, a doctor at Loyola University Medical School who's also a Catholic priest. "The point of prayer is to open us to God, not to attempt to control the universe."
At Grace Episcopal, some people pray for the sick in the hopes prayer will help them heal, said the Rev. Michael Johnston. Others pray to show their support.
Prayer vigils have become a tradition at the church. When someone has a medical crisis, at least one person is at the church praying at all times. When Johnston underwent surgery for stomach cancer last year, about 100 people prayed at various times between 4 a.m., when they saw him off, to 2 p.m., when he came out of surgery.
More than 25 church members also belong to a prayer group. Each month, group leader Ruth Harvey mails members a list of people who need prayers for health and other problems. About 80 people are on the list, and Harvey spends an hour every morning praying for them.
Holt, the breast cancer survivor, is among those for whom Harvey has prayed. Holt said receiving such prayers was one of the most "emotionally comforting experiences" of her life.
