Prayer: An Effective Alternative Medicine Therapy

Prayer does affect healing and the outcome of illness even when the patient does not know they are being prayed for. This has been shown in many research studies over the past few years.

But should prayer be considered an alternative medicine therapy? The answer is yes, if you research the subject and the research study results over the past years.

Let us first look at the definition of alternative medicine. The definition of alternative medicine states it is, "A variety of therapeutic or preventive health care practices, such as homeopathy, naturopathy, chiropractic, and herbal medicine, that do not follow generally accepted medical methods and may not have a scientific explanation for their effectiveness." Does prayer therapy fit into this definition? Let's explore that question now.

Does Prayer affect the healing process? Has this been proven in valid, double blind research studies? Yes, it has.

There have been many research studies conducted and all of them showed that the practice of religious activity and prayer improves health, healing outcomes and longevity. This effect is seen even when other social and lifestyle factors are examined and ruled out.

The first research study that is considered important was in the later part of the 1980's by Dr. Randolph Byrd who practiced cardiology in San Francisco. His ten month research study was published in The Southern Medical Journal in 1988. His research results showed that patients who were prayed for did better than patients who were not.

In the two groups, the group that was prayed for did 10 percent better than the group who was not. This study was a true double-blind research study with two groups involved: one set of patients who were being prayed for and the other group was not. The nurses, doctors, and patients did not know to which group each patient belonged. Each patient had from 5 to 7 people praying for them. The results were conclusive:

The group of patients who were prayed for were 5 times less likely to need antibiotic treatments, were 3 times less likely to develop pulmonary edema, did not need breathing assistance as the patients in the control group. There was no doubt that the prayer therapy was successful.

There was another famous research study done in 1998 at St. Luke's Hospital in Kansas City and was published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. The study involved 900 patients in a double blind study. The research team was composed of many medical doctors, as well as the hospital chaplain and a reverend. The patients all were suffering from different serious disease conditions. The study involved 35 different health issue factors and the results were impressive with the prayed for group doing better overall by 11 percent than the patients not prayed for.

There has also been much research performed on plants by an organization called Spindrift located in Salem Oregon. Their whole goal is to better understand prayer and how it can be more effective. Their research showed over and over that plants prayed for sprouted more quickly and were healthier than the control plants.

It has been shown in many research studies that people who included religion and prayer in their life style were healthier, less subject to stress, dealt better with stress, handled hospitalization better, and were overall less depressed.

Does prayer follow accepted medical methods? No

Prayer does not follow generally accepted medical methods so it does fit that part of the alternative medicine definition.

Does prayer have scientific explanation for its effectiveness? No, not at this point

The effectiveness of prayer does not have hard evidence that cannot be disputed.

Does prayer fit in with the goal of alternative medicine therapies to do no harm to the patient?

The worst than can happen when you pray for a person is that is does not help.

Is the effectiveness of prayer a placebo effect?

When there is a double blind study with a control group, the effectiveness of prayer cannot be part of the placebo explanation.

In alternative medicine, you have therapies such as the laying of hands, psychic healing, remote healing which I have experienced firsthand and other forms of healing that are hard to scientifically prove. They operate on a level that science does fully understand at this point, but they exist and are effective. These forms of healing are special gifts.

Prayer, I think fits beautifully into this area of alternative medicine. I know I have seen miracles using prayer. Most of the time the people did not have any idea I was praying for them. In many cases, the odds of the prayer working would seem pretty dreary. I would challenge you to investigate the links to the research below and open your mind to a new idea. You may find it might save your life one day.

References:

http://www.faith.com/community/prayer/articles/f_lib_article_hc_effective.html

http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/religionhealth.html#iC5XRUVEvPeu