For a long life, have faith - Telegraph

An interesting article by James LeFanu appeared in the UK's Telegraph back on the 18th August.


For a long life, have faith
Religious faith remains by far the best predictor of a long, healthy life

It is encouraging for those reluctant or unable to engage in vigorous exercise that the splendidly named Dr Duck-chul Lee, of Iowa State University, should have found, as reported in this paper last month, that jogging for as little as five minutes a day should be beneficial, dramatically cutting the risk of dying early.

Still, as Richard Scott, a family doctor, notes in this month’s British Journal of General Practice, religious faith remains by far the best predictor of a long and healthy life.
 

When convalescing recently from a gruelling schedule of chemo and radiotherapy for a tumour of the bowel, Dr Scott, a Christian, read the scholarly Handbook of Religion and Health, whose survey of the research runs to 700 pages.
 

The positive influence of church attendance is well recognised, but the findings of this overview are, he observes, “quite extraordinary”, with faith reducing the risk of a heart attack by two-thirds and being associated with improved survival of a stroke or cancer.
 

For mental health, the statistics are even more dramatic: those with depression recover faster, and those with schizophrenia function better, while alcohol and drug misuse is reduced.
 

“Faith in God,” he says, “is relevant to all diseases yet studied.” That belief could be, as so many nowadays maintain, illusory, but the beneficial effect in conferring “greater happiness, morale, optimism and meaning in life” is indisputably for real.

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If you are sceptical about the benefits of religious belief (i.e. Christian faith for the most part) just take a quick tour through the Health and Medicine section of ScienceDaily and you will find many articles that talk about the health benefits of religious (again Christian faith for the most part) belief. One of the most recent is here: Believers consume fewer drugs than atheists.

Alternatively, if you would like to read about it in a more lay friendly book (lets face it, the Handbook of Religion and Health is a bit pricy). The can I recommend Beyond Well Being.