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Religion, Spirituality and Health


This one was a reader request that I talk about the link between health and the value of support groups and religion.

I got interested in this long ago when I was a medical student and was pulled into a Southern Baptist prayer circle by a patient with his preacher and family in the inpatient psychiatric ward (a pretty new experience to me, and felt like a bit of an honor at the time too).  The positive change I saw then and have seen since then have made this resonate with me.  Getting data on this was actually easier than I thought as there was a very large paper published a few years back that looked at all the research to date on this link.

They equated religion and spirituality as being the same thing and I think overall looked more at the effect of voluntarily belonging to a larger group with a uniting set of goals and principles.  Not too surprisingly, they found a ton of benefits for people with a commitment to religion/spirituality including

- increased happiness and well-being, self-esteem and hope

- decreased incidence of depression, anxiety, suicide, substance abuse, and social problems

- increased personal health and well-being (lower smoking rates, increased exercise, healthier diets, lower weight)

- less health problems (heart disease, hypertension, strokes, dementia, pain and mortality)

Pretty impressive right?  The underlying thinking is that by having a good support system, people who can help with problem-solving and serve as motivators of positive change, as well as having general rules that you're following along with others that usually lead to stable and healthy habits, everything usually works out for the best.

Even outside the mainstream, a few years back I remember seeing something about how a group of committed heavy metal fans from the 70's ended up seeing the same types of benefits.  I completely forgot which band it was for and couldn't find the info again but I did find something similar noting:

"we examined 1980s heavy metal groupies, musicians, and fans at middle age, using snowball sampling from Facebook. Online surveys assessed adverse childhood experiences, personality, adult attachment, and past and current functioning in 377 participants. Results revealed that metal enthusiasts did often experience traumatic and risky “sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll” lives. However, the “metalhead” identity also served as a protective factor against negative outcomes. They were significantly happier in their youth and better adjusted currently than either middle-aged or current college-age youth comparison groups. Thus, participation in fringe style cultures may enhance identity development in troubled youth."

I think the overall takeaway point is that we are generally herd-animals and tend to live better when we are in supportive communities, whatever that community may be.
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