If you want to live longer and better, try religion. At least that’s the advice given by a leading researcher at Duke University who has written widely about the connections between religious practice and good emotional and physical health.

Harold Koenig, M.D., is both a psychiatrist and a research scientist whose studies of faith/health connections have brought him a wide reputation. Director of  Duke University’s Center for the Study of Religion/Spirituality and Health, Dr. Koenig has carried out many projects that compare people for whom religion is important with others who do not find it so meaningful.

In his latest book, The Healing Power of Faith: Science Explores Medicine’s Last Great Frontier, Dr, Koenig summarizes his findings, not for fellow scientists, but for a popular readership. Of course, he is talking about faith that is genuine, not embraced simply for its therapeutic benefits.

People who worship with others once a week fare the best of all. There is something about being part of a religious congregation that contributes to good health. Appearing regularly in a church, synagogue, mosque or other place of worship can have demonstrably good effects on one’s bodily life.

Here are some of the specific ways in which better health finds expression. Religious people have stronger immune systems than others. Thus they are not so vulnerable to disease and after surgery tend to recover faster.

Religion offers strong protection against depression. Since depression plays a large role in bringing on disease of many sorts, staving depression off has great importance for the wellbeing of everyone. Also faith protects against the dangers of suicide, a growing danger for both adolescents and elders.

A commitment to religious practice can reduce blood pressure and keep it within bounds. Since elevated blood pressure often causes strokes, restraining it should be a high priority for everyone.

The practice of religion can also act as a powerful force in helping people cope with disease. Studies show, for example, that people recover faster and more assuredly when they have the support of a religious community behind them.

Throughout his book, Dr. Koenig makes a careful distinction between curing and healing and he shows how one differs from the other. Many cancer patients cannot be cured of their disease; cancer may remain in their bodies.  However, they can be healed, that is, helped to live with the disease both hopefully and vitally.

Throughout Dr. Koenig’s research he finds abundant testimony to the power of prayer. Sometimes just knowing that other people, especially members of one’s own parish or other religious congregation, are praying for a patient undergoing surgery can make a dramatic difference in how confidently the patient faces the operation and how quickly he or she recovers afterwards.

The beauty of Dr. Koenig’s presentation lies in the real people whom he describes. He introduces many men and women who have discovered in religion the power to change their lives for the better. Some of them have been entangled in the addictions of alcohol and other drugs; religion has enabled them to find a way out of their misery.

Admittedly, many physicians have been reluctant to accept the benefits of religion for human health and remain skeptical about claims made under the cover of science. Dr. Koenig likes to think this situation is changing. He cites hospitals where doctors want chaplains be part of the health-care team and to take an active part in patient care.

He himself takes pains not to claim too much. These studies, he readily concedes, do not prove the truth of religion. Nor can they demonstrate divine intervention, the hand of God in the lives of human beings.

In the last chapter of the book Dr. Koenig makes a series of recommendations grouped according to one’s openness to religion. For those already active religiously, he recommends regular attendance at community worship and more faithful practice of prayer and other devotions.

For those open to religion but still lukewarm, he suggests deeper investigation of religion’s claims and into what faith can do for them.

Finally, for those indifferent or completely opposed to religion, he proposes the benefits in “non-religious meditation” and other spiritual exercises. He also urges such people to talk with friends who do believe and to reconsider religion’s values.

Richard Griffin