The following guest blog is written by my friend, Steve Graham. Much of his career as an editor has been centered on spiritual reporting. He writes from his home in Natick, MA.
The National Institute for Healthcare Research has joined the crowd. According to an article by WebMD, the NIH “refused to even review a study with the word prayer in it four years ago.” But that has recently changed. For the first time the private nonprofit agency funded a study on prayer and healing.
Overall, research on the effectiveness of prayer in healing illnesses has seen a twofold increase over the past decade, says WebMD.
The article tells about one cardiovascular specialist at Duke University School of Medicine, Mitchell Krucoff, MD, who has been studying prayer and spirituality for 15 years. He explains that early studies were anecdotal, “small and often flawed.” But that these days “we’re seeing systematic investigations—clinical research—as well as position statements from professional societies supporting this research, federal subsidies from the NIH, funding from Congress.”
More to the point, Krucoff goes on to say that “all of these studies, all the reports, are remarkably consistent in suggesting the potential measurable health benefit associated with prayer or spiritual interventions.” Continue reading
