Prayer, our oldest form of mind/body medicine, is also the most popular. According to a 2004 University of Rochester study, over 85 percent of people facing a major illness pray—a far higher percentage than those taking herbs or using other alternative healing modalities. Prayer is perhaps our most deeply human response to disease, and more and more evidence shows that praying has health benefits.
Since 1993, when medical doctor Larry Dossey wrote his ground-breaking book on the connection between prayer and medicine, Healing Words, scores of respected research has been conducted on the subject. The data documenting the value of prayer is impressive.
When polled, 40 percent of Americans say they’ve experienced significant health improvements as a result of prayer. In a study funded by the National Institute of Health, those who prayed daily were shown to be 40 percent less likely to have high blood pressure. Other studies have shown that prayer boosts the immune system and helps to lessen the severity and frequency of a wide range of illnesses.
While it is a mystery how prayer actually influences the body, the theories about the health benefits of prayer are compelling. Harvard Medical School professor and researcher, Dr. Herbert Benson’s most recent research suggests that daily prayer as a spiritual practice may help to deactivate genes that trigger inflammation in the body. The idea that the mind can impact the expression of our genes is gripping evidence for how prayer may affect the body at its most fundamental level.
It used to be believed that it is impossible to really quantify the effects of prayer on the one praying, but with the extraordinary advances made in our ability to take sophisticated scans of the brain, that is changing. Dr. Andrew Newberg, Director of the Center for Spirituality and the Mind at the University of Pennsylvania, conducted a study of Franciscan nuns in prayer and this showed increased activity in the frontal lobe of the brain which is responsible for good judgment. Dr. Newberg also found that prayer increases levels of dopamine, which is associated with states of well being and joy.
The medical research documenting the positive health benefits of prayer, along with prayer’s ability to create a deeper sense of connection and peace, provides compelling motivation for developing a consistent prayer practice.
