As a physician who professes Christianity, I often encounter situations where religion and medicine intermingle with one another. These situations pose unique challenges and opportunities. During these times, the science half of me require some type of randomized controlled trial to verify that a particular treatment or medicine will be beneficial. The spiritual side of me, however, believes that even when the facts do not add up, miracles and healing can occur.
Recently there have been studies and discussions regarding the role of prayer, spirituality, and religion in current day medicine. Doctors and scientists are trying to prove if prayer changes medical outcomes. Do patients recover faster following surgery, do patients have fewer complications, and do patients feel more at ease?
Greater than 50 percent of doctors believe that their faith influences their practice of medicine. A very modern example are those practices that refuse to write prescriptions for birth control or refuse to refer patients or their spouses for sterilization procedures. In addition, there are entire health systems based upon that group’s particular belief system. For example, every morning here in St. Louis, one local hospital begins each day with a brief prayer broadcasted across the entire facility.
Combining spirituality with medicine are not novel inventions. Artifacts from the Egyptian era have shown that they believed mental and physical illnesses were the result of some type of demonic or evil spirit. During the Mesopotamian period, treatments were spiritual or some natural method using leaves, roots, or a mixture of animal parts. For some individuals during these ancient time periods, physicians were simply a luxury of the rich. Some of those wealthy families actually hired doctors to live with them. In contrast, common people often relied upon the priests for healing.
Nevertheless, there are those who would have you believe that faith or religion should be separate from everything: government, education, and medicine. Although, I personally agree that no one should force their individual beliefs on anyone. However, I do believe that prayer is an underutilized weapon in the physician’s doctor bag.
I believe that there is something very humbling about a physician who can admit to a patient that he or she does not have all the answers or a crystal ball to predict the outcome of the patient’s particular ailment. Patients respect that type of frank honesty. Physician/patient rapport would probably improve if more physicians would accept a posture of humility.
Now, just because I believe that prayer and faith have their proper places in the overall treatment of the patient, I am not discrediting the role of medication, surgery, or other interventions. I believe that these treatments work synergistically. They complement each other.
For example, several months ago I was extremely ill. On the day of my admission, I was in so much pain and distress during the registration procedure that the registration clerk decided to take me to my hospital room personally. That was not her responsibility but she could not bear to see me like that. While on the elevator, she kindly asked if she could pray for me. The skeptics would probably ask at that point: “How could prayer help me?” It helped a great deal: my heart rate came down and I had a sense of peace knowing that this stranger cared so much about me.
The effects of prayer did not stop there. There was a point in my care that my treating physicians said that I had received all of the standard care for my particular condition and there was nothing more they could do for me. I was still in pain, my infection had not cleared, and I could barely walk. For me, I had to remind myself that there was another more powerful medicine that I had stored away in my own personal cabinet: prayer. I relied on the many biblical stories of healing told by one of the writers of the Gospel: Luke. Luke so happened to be a physician himself so I could relate. Once I understood how powerful prayer was, I was able to go home the next day!
So in my practice, it is not uncommon for me to ask my patients if it is ok that I pray with them. Some have politely refused and others have been extremely grateful for my willingness to do so. I believe prayer works alongside medicine. For me, prayer and faith are the electrical currents that give modern medical advances its ability to be effective. Therefore, stay well and don’t forget to add prayer to your pill boxes.
Yours in Service,
Denise Hooks-Anderson, M.D.
Assistant Professor
SLUCare Family Medicine
yourhealthmatters@stlamerican.com
