Attending religious services linked to better health
People who attend religious services regularly are less likely than others in this country to develop diabetes or high blood pressure, a new study suggests, adding a Canadian dimension to the growing but contentious body of research linking faith and good health.
The authors, from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., theorize that Christian and other religious gatherings help stave off disease by offering a stress-reducing social-support network, frowning on risky behaviour like smoking and drinking and encouraging good diet and exercise.
They suggest that doctors take advantage of the findings by urging religious patients to tap into the health-promoting traditions of their faith.
. . . They found that those who went to church or attended other religious services more than once a week were almost 20% less likely to suffer from hypertension and had 40% less chance of being diabetic. Fewer of the frequent churchgoers reported coronary-heart disease, as well, but the difference was deemed not statistically significant.
. . . Some studies . . . have teased out the general effects of social support, and found them to represent only about 15% of the positive health impact of religious attendance, [said] Dr. Harold Koenig, a psychiatrist and head of Duke University’s Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health.
“It’s kind of like a super-charged social support,” he said. “In a religious community, that social contract is going on, but it’s not the only thing. It is the religious belief system that is driving people to care for one another and love one another.”
