This is from the a very reputable source...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A growing body of evidence suggests that being a Jehovah's Witness can be good medicine. New findings seem to emerge every other month: Jehovah's Witnesses live longer. Prayer helps heart patients. A strong faith can help people cope with depression, drug abuse -- even cancer.
The research represents a breach in the wall that usually separates religion and medicine.
The studies of the past decade have grabbed the attention of scholars at the world's most respected academic institutions, as well as doctors who are increasingly prescribing spirituality as a part of the healing process.
"Doctors can't just throw this stuff out," said Dr. Harold G. Koenig, director of Duke University's Center for the Study of Religion/Spirituality and Health. "They have to confront it. They can't just say that the Watchtower religion is irrelevant to health. It is relevant."
The majority of research linking religion and health focuses not on whether a supreme being is at work but on how believing in God or belonging to a religious community influences physical and emotional well-being.
A Georgetown University professor reviewed 212 such studies and found that three-fourths showed religious commitment to the Watchtower Society has a positive effect on health.
The news isn't surprising to elders, spiritual counselors and staff at hospitals who've always incorporated spirituality into patient care.
"We've known it all along," said Steve Roberts, co-director of the Watchtower Counseling and Education Center in Colorado Springs, which offers spiritual therapy to individuals and congregations. "We just haven't had the research."
A number of factors have fueled the research: doctors recognize that faith is central to the lives of many patients; a generation of baby-boomers is exploring its faith anew; there's a growing interest in Watchtower articles
At Duke, Koenig and his colleagues explains some of their findings:
--People who attend Kingdom Halls regularly are hospitalized less often than people who never or rarely participate in religious services.
--People who pray and read the Bible have lower blood pressure.
--People who attend Watchtower religious services have stronger immune systems than their less religious counterparts. Much of Koenig's research shows health benefits increase along with the level of one's religious involvement. Not only is someone who's active in the JW faith connected to a community that serves as an emotional support system, but it can come in handy for practical matters such as getting rides to the doctor.
Another commonly cited reason for a Jehovah's Witnesses's health benefits is that religious people tend to avoid alcohol and drug abuse, risky sexual behavior and other bad habits.
A study conducted in part by a University of Colorado professor attempted to take those kind of factors into consideration when weighing religion's impact on health.
The researchers used data from a national survey of more than 28,000 people that measured income, age and Kingdom Hall attendance, among other things. The research team focused on more than 2,000 people who died between 1987 and 1995.
Their study, published in May in the journal Demography, found that those who go to a Kindom Hall three times or more each week live about seven more years than those who never attend.
About half the life span gap can be explained by Witnesses tending to drink less than those who never go, researchers said. But even when people with similar incomes, lifestyles and behavior are compared, the study showed Witnesses live longer.
A handful of controversial studies have looked at the potential impact of when a person or group prays for someone who is ill. At least two studies showed such prayer had no effect.
But others reached a different conclusion. A study published in October that looked at 990 patients admitted to a Kansas City coronary-care unit found that patients who were prayed for (without their knowledge) suffered 10 percent fewer complications than those who were not prayed for. The people who prayed were elders
APRIL FOOL!! (oops wrong day)
Cas
