The Subtle Energies of Spirit: Explorations in Metaphysical and New Age Spirituality

Notes:

• This is a very interesting article about the history of spirituality, or spirit, as a term and a practice. The author explores H. Emilie Cady's Lessons in Truth throughout the article to discuss her points.

The Self-Perception and Relationships Tool (S-PRT): a novel approach to the measurement of subjective health-related quality of life

Tags:

• Adaptation, Psychological
• Adult
• Aged
• Attitude to Health
• Female
• Focus Groups
• Holistic Health
• Humans
• Life Change Events
• Male
• mental health
• Middle Aged
• Psychometrics
• Quality of Life
• Religion and Psychology
• Self Concept
• Semantics
• Sickness Impact Profile
• spirituality

Notes:

• The Self-Perception and Relationships Tool (S-PRT) is intended to be a clinically responsive assessment of patients’ subjective Health Related Quality of Life (HRQL). Methods: Patient samples included individuals involved with renal, cardiology, psychiatric, cancer, chronic pelvic pain, and sleep services. In Phase I, five patient focus groups generated 128 perceptual rating scales. In Phase II, a refined item pool (88 items) was administered along with measures of health status (SF-36) and spiritual beliefs (Spiritual Involvements and Beliefs Scale--SIBS) to 160 patients. Results: Factor analysis of S-PRT results produced a surprisingly clean five-factor solution (Eigen values> 2.0 explaining 73.5% of the pooled variance). Conclusion: Evidence supports the validity of the S-PRT as a generally applicable measure of perceived health status and HRQL.

Trends in Publication of Spirituality/Religiosity Articles in Critical Care Populations

Notes:

• Research on spirituality and religion (S/R) is receiving more attention as healthcare staff recognize the importance of treating the whole person. This is especially pertinent in critical care, where patients and families deal with a multitude of issues. As not all research comes exclusively from theologically educated authors, this study explored publication trends of S/R articles in critical care. Findings indicated medically credentialed professionals, not chaplains and/or pastoral care staff, constituted the majority of authors in S/R articles.

The Development and Validation of an Outcome Measure for Spiritual Healing: A Mixed Methods Study

Notes:

• The authors of this article aim to develop a valid and reliable outcome measure that captures the experience of individuals receiving healing (healees) and is not burdensome to complete to see the effects of healing.  The result: they produced a psychometrically sound healing impact questionnaire that is acceptable to healees, healers and researchers for use in future evaluations of spiritual healing.

Spiritual role in healing. An alternative way of thinking

Tags:

• Adaptation, Psychological
• Attitude to Health
• Chronic Disease
• Faith Healing
• Humans
• Physician-Patient Relations
• Quality of Life
• spirituality
• United States

Notes:

• Research shows convincingly that patients with serious medical illnesses commonly use spiritual methods to cope with and manage their illnesses. This reliance on spirituality seems to be associated with a range of positive outcomes in the form of an enhanced sense of well-being, improved feelings of resiliency, and decreased adverse physical symptoms (e.g., pain and fatigue) and psychologic symptoms (e.g., anxiety). The methodologic flaws and limitations of this literature, however, make more research necessary before confident conclusions can be made regarding the objective, biologic benefit. Further efforts should focus on identifying the potential mechanisms through which spirituality enhances both subjective and objective outcomes. Care should be taken to use reliable, valid spirituality assessment measures and more advanced methodologic designs, such as prospective, longitudinal studies, and randomized, controlled trials.

Determining relationships between physical health and spiritual experience, religious practices, and congregational support in a heterogeneous medical sample

Mindfulness, spirituality, and health-related symptoms

Tags:

• Adaptation, Psychological
• Adult
• Aged
• Female
• Follow-Up Studies
• Humans
• Male
• Meditation
• Middle Aged
• Personality Inventory
• Religion and Psychology
• Sick Role
• Somatoform Disorders
• spirituality
• Stress, Psychological

Notes:

• Objective: To ascertain whether participation in the mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) program was associated with increases in mindfulness and spirituality, and to examine the associations between mindfulness, spirituality, and medical and psychological symptoms. Methods: Forty-four participants in the University of Massachusetts Medical School’s MBSR program were assessed preprogram and postprogram on trait (Mindful Attention and Awareness Scale) and state (Toronto Mindfulness Scale) mindfulness, spirituality (Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy--Spiritual Well-Being Scale), psychological distress, and reported medical symptoms. Results: There were significant improvements in spirituality, state and trait mindfulness, psychological distress, and reported medical symptoms.

Religiosity/spirituality and mortality. A systematic quantitative review

Tags:

• Adaptation, Psychological
• Humans
• Meditation
• Psychophysiology
• religion
• spirituality

Notes:

• Methods: We searched general bibliographic databases: Medline, PsycINFO, Web of Science and PubMed (up to 20 March, 2008). Two reviewers independently extracted data on study characteristics, quality, and estimates of associations. Random effects meta-analyses, subgrouping, and sensitivity analysis were performed. Results: There were 69 studies (28 articles) and 22 studies (11 articles) investigating the association between religiosity/spirituality and mortality in initially healthy populations and diseased populations, respectively. The results of the meta-analyses showed that religiosity/spirituality was associated with reduced mortality in healthy population studies (combined hazard ratio = 0.82, 95% CI = 0.76-0.87, p <0.001), but not in diseased population studies (combined hazard ratio = 0.98, 95% CI = 0.94-1.01, p = 0.19). Notably, the protective effect of religiosity/spirituality in the initially healthy population studies was independent of behavioral factors (smoking, drinking, exercising, and socioeconomic status), negative affect, and social support.

Church Attendance and Health

Notes:

• Associations between church attendance and health were investigated. Previous studies that mention church attendance as a health-related variable are reviewed, and the results of a 1963 survey of residents of Washington County, Maryland, that included a question on church attendance are analyzed. The results show that the risk of dying from arteriosclerotic heart disease is about twice as high among infrequent church attenders as in frequent church attenders, and death rates from emphysema, cirrhosis, and suicide are also appreciably higher among infrequent attenders.

Spirituality and health: towards a framework for exploring the relationship between spirituality and health

Tags:

• Health
• Humans
• Models, Nursing
• spirituality

Notes:

• The aim of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework which can be used to explore the relationship between spirituality and health. Methods: The concept-indicator model was used to analyse spirituality in the literature. The literature was searched for empirical indicators or what are taken as essential attributes of spirituality.. Findings: The analysis identified three approaches (a trichotomy) to spirituality in the literature. These were termed the transcendent, the value guidance and the structuralist-behaviourist approaches. Conclusions: The framework (or trichotomy) will enable practitioners to understand better the connection between spirituality and health.

What are the benefits of mindfulness? A practice review of psychotherapy-related research.

Tags:

• literature review
• Meditation
• Mindfulness
• Psychotherapy

Notes:

• Research suggests that mindfulness practices offer psychotherapists a way to positively affect aspects of therapy that account for successful treatment. This paper provides psychotherapists with a synthesis of the empirically supported advantages of mindfulness. Definitions of mindfulness and evidence-based interpersonal, affective, and intrapersonal benefits of mindfulness are presented. Research on therapists who meditate and client outcomes of therapists who meditate are reviewed. Implications for practice, research, and training are discussed.

Exploring spirituality and consciousness with an expanded science: beyond the ego with empiricism, phenomenology, and contemplation

Tags:

• Consciousness
• Culture
• Health promotion
• Humans
• Philosophy
• Psychosomatic Medicine
• religion
• Spiritualism

Notes:

• The difficulty in addressing the concept of spirituality is related to both its association with denominational religion and our cultural emphasis on the material realm. However, some scholars are now associating spirituality with the development of human consciousness beyond the ego level. It has been suggested that the scientific investigation of this development beyond the ego may be possible with empirical and phenomenological, as well as with traditional contemplative methods. It may then be possible to more easily integrate spirituality into educational settings and health enhancement programs.

Six pillars of energy medicine: clinical strengths of a complementary paradigm

Tags:

• Complementary Therapies
• Energy Metabolism
• Faith Healing
• Holistic Health
• Mind-Body Relations (Metaphysics)
• Neoplasms
• Quality of Life
• spirituality

Notes:

• The current status of energy medicine and its increasing challenge to the biochemical paradigm that has dominated conventional medicine are reviewed. Although energy medicine represents only a small fraction of 1% of the $2.2 trillion healthcare industry, 6 properties of energy medicine give it strengths that could augment conventional health care models.

Does Religion Influence Adult Health?

Notes:

• The effect of religion on health status was examined with a national sample of noninstitutionalized adults. Particular attention was given to assessing the effects of religious affiliation and religiosity -- especially practice -- on subjective health status. Respondents of all ages with a more conservative religious affiliation manifested poorer health than did those with a more liberal affiliation. However, higher levels of religious practice were positively associated with better health, regardless of age. The results show that religion may have both positive and negative effects on health, although in this research the positive effect was stronger.

Religious Seeking among Affiliates and Non-Affiliates: Do Mental and Physical Health Problems Spur Religious Coping?

Notes:

• The purpose of this research is to determine if there are differences between religious affiliates and non-affiliates in whether physical or mental health problems spur religious seeking. Data from a national longitudinal survey, Americans’ Changing Lives, Waves I and II, were used to examine whether physical and mental health problems precipitate religious consolation and attendance at religious services. While non-affiliates were generally less likely than affiliates to seek religious consolation, those with a stronger religious identity increased their religious seeking over time. The findings provide little evidence, however, that physical or mental health factors increase religious consolation and attendance.

Religious Consolation among Men and Women: Do Health Problems Spur Seeking?

Notes:

• Data from a national longitudinal survey, “Americans’ Changing Lives, Waves I and II”, were used to examine whether physical and mental health problems precipitate seeking religious consolation. The findings indicate that seeking religious consolation is most likely among those who identify with and practice a religion suggesting that religious consolation intensifies among religious persons. The results reveal clearly that women are more likely than men to seek religious consolation, but men seek religious consolation for a wider range of health and situational problems (e.g., unemployment).

Religion and Well-Being among Canadian University Students: The Role of Faith Groups on Campus

Notes:

• Social science research examining the relationship between religion and health has produced equivocal results, although evidence from more recent studies points toward a link between inward or intrinsic religion and both mental and physical well-being. This study offers a further examination of this emergent association by comparing the health status of two specific respondent groups drawn from a population of Canadian university students.The results of the study reveal a positive relationship between faith group involvement and various aspects of health status, and thus support previous positive findings.

Spirituality, religion, and health: a critical appraisal of the Larson reports

Tags:

• Culture
• Health
• Humans
• Peer Review, Research
• Qualitative Research
• Religion and Medicine
• Research Design
• spirituality

Notes:

• The four-volume corpus The Faith Factor, and Scientific Research on Spirituality and Health: A Consensus Report by Larson et al constitute the largest English-language review of research on spirituality and health. We have done a critique of the 329 systematic analyses of peer-reviewed research papers presented therein. We conclude that their results cannot be generalized to other religious and cultural settings; that there is a need for more research focusing on age groups, cultures, religions, and clinical settings; and that the need for more qualitative research methods justifies a detailed analysis of the use of qualitative methods in the studies reviewed by the Larson group.

Frequency of attendance at religious services and mortality in a U.S. national cohort

Tags:

• Adult
• Cohort Studies
• Female
• Humans
• Longitudinal Studies
• Male
• Middle Aged
• mortality
• religion
• spirituality
• United States

Notes:

• Objective: We test the hypothesis that weekly attendance compared with nonattendance at religious services is associated with lower probability of future mortality in such a study. Methods: Data were analyzed from a longitudinal follow-up study of 8450 American men and women age 40 years and older who were examined from 1988 to 1994 and followed an average of 8.5 years. Conclusions: In a nationwide cohort of Americans, predominantly Christians, analyses demonstrated a lower risk of death independent of confounders among those reporting religious attendance at least weekly compared to never. The association was substantially mediated by health behaviors and other risk factors.

Spirituality and health: an exploratory study of hospital patients' perspectives

Empirically supported religious and spiritual therapies

Notes:

• This article evaluated the efficacy status of religious and spiritual (R/S) therapies for mental health problems, including treatments for depression, anxiety, unforgiveness, eating disorders, schizophrenia, alcoholism, anger, and marital issues. Religions represented included Christianity, Islam, Taoism, and Buddhism. Some studies incorporated a generic spirituality. Several R/S therapies were found to be helpful for clients, supporting the further use and research on these therapies. There was limited evidence that R/S therapies outperformed established secular therapies.

What do you think is a non-disease? Diet, lifestyle, exercise, spirituality, and the search for meaning are ignored at our peril

Tags:

• Attitude of Health Personnel
• Diagnosis
• Disease
• Health promotion
• Humans
• Life Style

Notes:

• This is a collection of responses by the editors of the British Medical Journal to questions regarding medicalisation and non-diseases.

Mindfulness predicts sleep-related self-regulation and well-being

Religious involvement, religious context, and self-assessed health in europe

Extending Religion-Health Research to Secular Minorities: Issues and Concerns

Notes:

• Claims about religion’s beneficial effects on physical and psychological health have received substantial attention in popular media, but empirical support for these claims is mixed. Many of these claims are tenuous because they fail to address basic methodological issues relating to construct validity, sampling methods or analytical problems. A more conceptual problem has to do with the near universal lack of atheist control samples. We illustrate the importance of including an atheist control group whenever possible in the religiosity/spirituality and health research and discuss areas for further investigation.

Spirituality predicts outcome independently of expectancy following flower essence self-treatment

Tags:

• Adolescent
• Adult
• Attitude to Health
• Child
• Female
• Flowers
• Humans
• Male
• Medicine, Traditional
• Middle Aged
• Phytotherapy
• Prospective Studies
• Psychological Theory
• Self Administration
• spirituality

Notes:

• To determine whether absorption and spirituality predict the placebo response independently of expectancy. Method: This was an open study of self-treatment with self-selected Bach flower essences. Participants’ expectancy of the effect of flower essences, attitudes to complementary medicine, holistic health beliefs, absorption, and spirituality were measured prior to treatment. Results: Spirituality and absorption together predicted additional variance compared with a cluster of expectancy measures comprising expectancy, attitude to complementary medicine, and holistic beliefs (increment in R(2)=.042, P=.032), and spirituality alone (but not absorption alone) predicted more additional variance than did the expectancy cluster (increment in R(2)=.043, P=.014). Conclusion: Our data are inconsistent with conventional explanations for the placebo effect. The mechanism underlying the placebo response is not fully understood.

Religion and differences in morbidity and mortality

Tags:

• health risks
• Life Style
• morbidity
• mortality
• religion

Notes:

• Religion and its effects on morbidity and mortality (with particular emphasis on mortality) are reviewed as are special issues which have in the past made the study of religion and death difficult. The morbidity and mortality experience of various religious groups is portrayed. Studies of religious effects on morbidity and mortality have broadened to include the study of social support, religious participation and health-related attitudes. Gaps in the literature are identified and a preliminary model of religion’s effect on morbidity and mortality is discussed.

Attachments

• ScienceDirect Snapshot

Spirituality, religion and health outcomes research: findings from the Center on Religion and the Professions

Tags:

• Adaptation, Psychological
• Chronic Disease
• Female
• Health Status
• Humans
• Male
• Missouri
• Pilot Projects
• religion
• spirituality

Notes:

• The Spirituality and Health Research Project of the MU Center on Religion and the Professions is investigating the relationships that exist among religion, spirituality, and health for persons with heterogeneous medical conditions. Pilot studies indicate that spirituality and congregational support are related to health outcomes, but religious practices are not. Additional research indicates that spiritual experiences are related to diminished right parietal functioning, which is associated with decreased sense of the self.

Effect of four voluntary regulated yoga breathing techniques on grip strength

Tags:

• Hand Strength
• Humans
• Male
• Respiration
• yoga

The effects of mind-body training on stress reduction, positive affect, and plasma catecholamines

Predictors of university students' willingness in the USA to use clergy as sources of skilled help.

Tags:

• Clergy
• CLINICAL sociology
• COLLEGE students
• Psychotherapy
• United States

Does Religious Observance Promote Health? Mortality in Secular vs Religious Kibbutzim in Israel

Tags:

• Behavioral & Social Sciences

Notes:

• In a 16-year historical prospective study of mortality in 11 religious and 11 matched secular kibbutzim in Israel, 268 deaths occurred among 3900 men and women 35 years of age and older during 41 347 person-years of observation. Mortality was considerably higher in secular kibbutzim. Cox proportional hazards analysis was used to adjust for age and the matched design;. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis of birth cohorts confirmed the association. Conclusions: Belonging to a religious collective was associated with a strong protective effect not attributable to confounding by sociodemographic factors.

Meditation acutely improves psychomotor vigilance, and may decrease sleep need

Stress, inflammation, and yoga practice

A prospective study of church attendance and health over the lifespan

Tags:

• Adolescent
• Adult
• Health Status Indicators
• Humans
• Life Style
• Male
• Middle Aged
• Prospective Studies
• religion
• Urban Population
• Young Adult

Notes:

• The objective of the current study was to help clarify the previously ambiguous results concerning the relationship between church attendance and later physical health.

Religion, spirituality, and medicine: a rebuttal to skeptics

Tags:

• Health Status
• Humans
• Mental Healing
• Physician-Patient Relations
• Religion and Medicine

Notes:

• This article, although academic, makes a strong case for the relationship to faith and health. It functions, in part, as a response to an artcle by Sloan et al. that presented the skeptical side in the scientific debate on the religion-health relationship. The authors assert that Sloan et al. provide an overly negative review of many published studies.

On "spirituality," "religion," and "religions": a concept analysis

Cohort profile: The biopsychosocial religion and health study (BRHS)

"And let us make us a name": reflections on the future of the religion and health field

Tags:

• Faith Healing
• Forecasting
• Humans
• Religion and Medicine
• Research
• spirituality
• Theology

Notes:

• After years of marginality, research on religion and health is entering the academic mainstream. Scholarship on this topic has evolved into a large, productive field. Different opinions exist as to which constructs should be researched. Words like religion, spirituality, faith, and prayer, and health, healing, medicine, and healthcare, imply different things. This article argues for a welcoming approach open to the widest range of research subjects.

Esoteric healing traditions: a conceptual overview

Tags:

• Complementary Therapies
• Evidence-Based Medicine
• Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
• Holistic Health
• Homeopathy
• Humans
• Medicine, Traditional
• Meditation
• Mind-Body Therapies
• Naturopathy
• Religion and Medicine
• Shamanism
• spirituality

Notes:

• This paper presents a comprehensive scholarly examination of the history and principles of major traditions of esoteric healing. After a brief conceptual overview of esoteric religion and healing, summaries are provided of eight major esoteric traditions, including descriptions of beliefs and practices related to health, healing, and medicine. These include what are termed the kabbalistic tradition, the mystery school tradition, the gnostic tradition, the brotherhoods tradition, the Eastern mystical tradition, the Western mystical tradition, the shamanic tradition, and the new age tradition. Commonalities across these traditions are summarized.  The implications of this survey of esoteric healing are discussed for clinicians, biomedical researchers, and medical educators.

Is there a religious factor in health?

Notes:

• This paper reviews epidemiological studies employing religion as an independent construct, and finds that most epidemiologists have an extremely limited appreciation of religion. Well over 200 studies are reviewed from nine health-related areas: cardiovascular disease, hypertension and stroke, colitis and enteritis, general health status, general mortality, cancer of the uterine corpus and cervix, all other non-uterine cancers, morbidity and mortality in the clergy, and cancer in India. Finally, an agenda for further research is proposed.

Attachments

• SpringerLink Snapshot

Is frequent religious attendance really conducive to better health?: Toward an epidemiology of religion

Tags:

• epidemiology
• Measurement
• methodology
• religion

Notes:

• Although hundreds of published studies have addressed the effects of religion on morbidity and mortality, many investigators may be unaware of this literature. Upon identifying several pervasive epistemological, methodological, and analytical problems with these studies, however, this paper shows that there is insufficient evidence to conclude that religious attendance is positively and significantly related to health. Nevertheless, the authors present a theoretical basis for expecting such associations.

Attachments

• ScienceDirect Snapshot

Quantitative Methods in Research on Complementary and Alternative Medicine: A Methodological Manifesto

Notes:

• This article summarizes the deliberations of the Quantitative Methods Working Group convened by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in support of the NIH Office of Alternative Medicine.  This article shows how the working group produced a "methodological manifesto," a summary list of seven recommended methodological guidelines for research on alternative medicine.  The authors conclude that established methodologies and data-analytic procedures are quite satisfactory for addressing major questions related to alternative medicine.

Rescuing the Baby from the Bathwater: Continuing the Conversation on Gender, Risk, and Religiosity.

Tags:

• RELIGION -- Research
• RELIGION & gender
• RELIGIOUS behaviors
• SEX differences -- Religious aspects
• SEX differences (Psychology) -- Research
• SEX role -- Religious aspects

Transformative practices for integrating mind-body-spirit

Tags:

• Attitude to Health
• Controlled Clinical Trials as Topic
• Holistic Health
• Humans
• Mind-Body Relations (Metaphysics)
• Quality Assurance, Health Care
• Quality of Life
• Research Design
• Self Care
• Spiritual Therapies
• spirituality

Notes:

• This paper explores the clinical use of transformative practices that arose from the varied religious traditions of the world. Examples include prayer, meditation, mantra, affirmation, tai chi, and yoga. The purpose of these practices was to lead the practitioner to long term spiritual transformation toward an enhanced awareness of spirit, and a corresponding diminishment of identification with the mental and physical aspects of life. Currently, there are a number of well-designed studies that attest to the health-enhancing and suffering-reducing benefits derived from religiously transformative practices.

Religious Orientation Among a Random Sample of Community-Dwelling Adults: Relations With Health Status and Health-Relevant Behaviors.

Tags:

• Body Mass Index
• Health Behavior
• Health Status Indicators
• RELIGIOUS institutions
• SURVEYS

Religious Commitment and Health Status: A Review of the Research and Implications for Family Medicine

Notes:

• The empirical literature from epidemiological and clinical studies regarding the relationship between religious factors and physical and mental health status in the areas of prevention, coping, and recovery was reviewed. A large proportion of published empirical data suggest that religious commitment may play a beneficial role in preventing mental and physical illness, improving how people cope with mental and physical illness, and facilitating recovery from illness.

Attachments

• HighWire Full Text PDF
• HighWire Snapshot

The relationship between a patient's spirituality and health experiences

Tags:

• Adult
• Analysis of Variance
• Attitude to Health
• Female
• Health
• Health Status
• Humans
• Interviews as Topic
• Male
• Middle Aged
• Pain
• Physician-Patient Relations
• Religion and Medicine
• Sex Factors
• Suburban Health

Notes:

• This study is a preliminary investigation into the relationship between a patient’s experience of overall health, physical pain, and intrinsic spirituality. Methods: We used a stratified, random sample of 462 patients at a family practice residency clinic. The Index of Core Spiritual Experiences (INSPIRIT) measured intrinsic spirituality, and Dartmouth Primary Care Cooperative Charts measured overall health and pain. Pearson correlations tested the association between health, pain, and spirituality. Results: We found significant correlation between patient health and spirituality.

Perceptions of clinical athletic trainers on the spiritual care of injured athletes

Personal values and medical preferences: postmaterialism, spirituality, and the use of complementary medicine

Tags:

• Adult
• Aged
• Attitude to Health
• Christianity
• Complementary Therapies
• Educational Status
• Female
• Humans
• Male
• Middle Aged
• Religion and Psychology
• Social Values
• Switzerland

Notes:

• This article aims to throw light on the specific question of whether materialistic or postmaterialistic values and spiritual preferences correlate with the use of unconventional medical methods. Method: 3,077 and 2,276 Swiss residents were interviewed by telephone in 1995 and 1996, respectively, about their use of the medical system as well as about their attitudes towards materialism and spirituality. Results: Postmaterialists and interviewees who tended to agree with neoreligious statements used complementary medicine significantly more frequently than materialists and interviewees who tended to disagree with neoreligiosity or who tended towards traditional Christian values.

How is well-being related to membership in new religious movements? An application of person environment fit theory.

Tags:

• autonomy
• Independence (Personality)
• Membership
• mental health
• needs
• new religious movement membership
• Person Environment Fit
• person-environment fit theory
• relatedness
• RELIGIOUS groups
• Theories
• well being
• Well-Being

Biblical framings of and responses to spousal violence in the narratives of abused Christian women.

Tags:

• Bible
• Biblical framings
• Christian women
• Christians
• Coping Behavior
• partner abuse
• religion
• SPOUSES

Associations between different dimensions of religious involvement and self-rated health in diverse European populations.

Tags:

• attendance
• cross-sectional
• Europe
• Health
• Involvement
• prayer
• religious involvement
• Religious Practices
• religious services
• self-rated health

The social, cultural and medicinal use of kava for twelve Tongan born men living in Auckland, New Zealand

Tags:

• Adult
• Aged
• Beverages
• Culture
• Health Behavior
• Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
• Humans
• Interpersonal Relations
• Kava
• Male
• Middle Aged
• New Zealand
• Plant Preparations
• Qualitative Research
• Risk-Taking
• Social perception

Mortality among Japanese Zen priests.

Notes:

• A cohort study was done on 1396 deaths seen among 4352 Japanese male Zen priests during a follow up period from 1 January 1955 to 31 December 1978. Taking regional mortality differences into account, the cohort was divided into two subcohorts--that is, the priests living in eastern Japan and those in western Japan. Both subcohorts showed a highly significantly smaller SMR than unity for all causes of death.

Attachments

• HighWire Snapshot

God and the Just World: Causal and Coping Attributions to God in Health Situations.

Tags:

• GOD -- Attributes
• GOD -- Incomparability
• GOD -- Simplicity
• religion
• SUFFERING of God
• SUPERNATURAL beings

Notes:

• Accession Number: 4899411; Source Information: Jun86, Vol. 25 Issue 2, p193; Subject Term: GOD -- Attributes; Subject Term: GOD -- Incomparability; Subject Term: GOD -- Simplicity; Subject Term: SUFFERING of God; Subject Term: SUPERNATURAL beings; Subject Term: RELIGION; Number of Pages: 15p; Illustrations: 2 charts, 2 graphs; Document Type: Article

• This study points to the rich and varied ways that attributions to God are integrated into attempts to maintain meaningful views of the world and to cope with the world. A sample of 124 undergraduates was presented with four health-related situations depicting responsible or irresponsible behavior followed by a positive or negative outcome. As predicted, attributions to God’s will, God’s love and God’s anger were greater in noncontingent/ unjust, positive outcome, and negative outcome situations respectively

Spiritual absence and 1-year mortality after hematopoietic stem cell transplant

Exploring Types of Prayer and Quality of Life: A Research Note

Notes:

• A review of social science literature reveals that, although most Americans claim to pray, little interest has been shown by researchers in the relationship between types of prayer and quality of life. Survey data that focus on subjective perceptions of quality of life and items measuring the frequency of prayer and forms of religiosity are used to investigate the influence of types of prayer on five quality of life indices.

Attachments

• JSTOR Full Text PDF

Religious domains and general well-being

Notes:

• Data measuring subjective perceptions of well-being for various domains of life were used to form a number of domain scales. Relationships between the multidimensional concepts of well-being and religiosity are explored and the importance of religiosity in defining well-being is tested. Religious satisfaction was found to be important for general life satisfaction and existential well-being.

Attachments

• SpringerLink Snapshot

Religion and spirituality. Linkages to physical health

Tags:

• Cardiovascular Diseases
• Confounding Factors (Epidemiology)
• Cross-Sectional Studies
• Death
• Disease Progression
• Health Status
• Humans
• morbidity
• mortality
• Neoplasms
• Religion and Medicine
• Risk Factors
• spirituality

Notes:

• Evidence is presented that bears on 9 hypotheses about the link between religion or spirituality and mortality, morbidity, disability, or illness. In healthy participants, there is a strong, consistent, prospective, and often graded reduction in risk of mortality in church/service attenders. Evidence fails to support a link between depth of religiousness and physical health. In patients, there are consistent failures to support the hypotheses that religion or spirituality slows the progression of cancer or improves recovery from acute illness but some evidence that religion or spirituality impedes recovery from acute illness.

"Moved by the spirit": does spirituality moderate the interrelationships between subjective well-being subscales?

Correlates of self-perceptions of spirituality in American adults

Tags:

• Adult
• Aged
• Attitude
• Educational Status
• Female
• Health Status
• Health Surveys
• Humans
• Male
• Middle Aged
• Religion and Medicine
• Self Concept
• Sex Factors

Notes:

• After adjustment for religiousness, self-perceptions of spirituality were positively correlated with being female (r = .07, p < .01), having a higher education (r = .12, p < .001), and having no religion (r = .10, p < .001) and inversely correlated with age (r = -.06, p < .05) and being Catholic (r = -.08, p < .01). Self-perceptions of spirituality were associated with high levels of religious or spiritual activities, low cynical mistrust, and low political conservatism (both r = -.08, p < .01). We conclude that sociodemographic factors could confound any observed association between spirituality and health and should be controlled.

Effects of external qi of qigong with opposing intentions on proliferation of Escherichia coli

Tags:

• Breathing Exercises
• Escherichia coli
• Escherichia coli Infections
• Humans
• Intention
• Qi
• Random Allocation

Notes:

• The authors of this study examined the effects of qigong healer’s intent on the proliferation of bacteria in cultures. The healer’s intent appeared to have a measurable effect, but this result was unable to be replicated in later studies.

Contextualizing Alternative Medicine: The Exotic, the Marginal and the Perfectly Mundane

Notes:

• In this article an anthropologist takes account of developments in alternative medicine.  The author acknowledges a diversity in approaches of alternative medicine and considers ways to classify healing practices, always maintaining what she calls the "suspicious" hermeneutic of the anthropologist.

Practicing the awareness of embodiment in qualitative health research: methodological reflections

Who is willing to use complementary and alternative medicine?

Tags:

• Adult
• Attitude to Health
• Choice Behavior
• Complementary Therapies
• Cross-Sectional Studies
• Ethnic Groups
• Female
• Health Behavior
• Humans
• Male
• Middle Aged
• Patient Acceptance of Health Care
• Patient Satisfaction
• Questionnaires
• Self Care
• United States

Notes:

• A questionnaire was administered and the relationship between individual differences and the willingness to use CAM was examined using correlation and multiple regression analyses. The sample consisted of 276 undergraduate students (64% female) of diverse ethnicity. Measures: The willingness to use 16 types of CAM was assessed for six categories. The individual differences assessed included age, gender, income, ethnicity, the Big Five personality characteristics, optimism, spirituality, religiosity, and three aspects of emotional intelligence. Results: The individual differences accounted for approximately one fifth of the variance in overall willingness to use CAM.

A Comparative Survey of Aotearoa New Zealand and UK Social Workers on the Role of Religion and Spirituality in Practice

Notes:

• This article analyzes the role of spirituality in social work in Aotearoa New Zealand and the United Kingdom and considers specifically social worker's attitudes about the role of spirituality in their practice. 

Frequent Attendance at Religious Services and Mortality over 28 Years

Tags:

• Behavioral & Social Sciences

Notes:

• The association between frequent attendance and mortality over 28 years for 5286 Alameda County Study respondents was examined. Frequent attenders had lower mortality rates than infrequent attenders. Results were stronger for females. Health adjustments had little impact, but adjustments for social connections and health practices reduced the relationship. During follow-up, frequent attenders were more likely to stop smoking, increase exercising, increase social contacts, and stay married.

The Effect of Divorce Experience on Religious Involvement: Implications for Later Health Lifestyle

Effects of a Brief, Comprehensive, Yoga-Based Program on Quality of Life and Biometric Measures in an Employee Population: A Pilot Study

Tags:

• employee health
• Health promotion
• Meditation
• yoga

Spiritual well-being and health

Tags:

• Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
• existentialism
• Female
• Health Status
• Humans
• Male
• Mental Disorders
• mental health
• Middle Aged
• North Carolina
• Personal Satisfaction
• Personality Inventory
• Principal Component Analysis
• Psychiatric Status Rating Scales
• Psychometrics
• Quality of Life
• Questionnaires
• Registries
• Religion and Medicine
• Research Design
• spirituality
• Twins, Dizygotic
• Twins, Monozygotic

Notes:

• The aim of this study was to determine whether associations with health variables are primarily attributable to explicitly religious aspects of spiritual well-being (SWB) or to “existential” aspects that primarily reflect a sense of satisfaction or purpose in life. We concluded that studies of SWB and health should continue to distinguish between explicitly religious variables and others that more closely approximate the psychological construct of personal well-being.

ABC of Complementary Medicine: Herbal Medicine

Notes:

• This article constitutes a review of the use of plants, as herbs, for healing purposes.  It discusses both the cultural evolution of the use of herb as well as what kind of herbal prescriptions work to treat specific illnesses.

Bodies in skin: a philosophical and theological approach to genetic skin diseases

Tags:

• Anthropology
• Bible
• Christianity
• Female
• Humans
• Male
• Skin Diseases
• Theology

Religion and spirituality in three major general medical journals from 1998 to 2000

Tags:

• Great Britain
• Periodicals as Topic
• Religion and Medicine
• spirituality
• United States

Notes:

• We examined three representative nonspecialty journals between 1998 and 2000 for references to the role of religion/spirituality. Of the 2,385 studies found, only 20 (0.8%) examined some aspect of spirituality (n = 5), religion (n = 13), or both (n = 2). Spirituality was treated as a dependent variable in all seven articles in which it was studied. Results: The effect of religion was analyzed in 11 of the 15 articles in which it was measured, and its effect was statistically significant in 8 of the 11 studies in which it was analyzed.

Spirituality, Religion and Health: Evidence and Research Directions

Notes:

• The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between spiritual experience and current health status and between spiritual experience and subjective experience of symptom interference. The Index of Core Spiritual Experiences and the Medical Symptoms Checklist were administered. The percentage-bend correlation between Index scores and scores for interference of symptoms in daily life was significant ((r)Pb = -.33, p = .02). These results suggest that the report of core spiritual experiences may be related to better current health status, although the direction of causation is unclear.

Attachments

• eMJA PDF
• eMJA Snapshot

Relations of intrinsic spirituality with health status and symptom interference

Tags:

• Adaptation, Psychological
• Adult
• Aged
• Christianity
• Female
• Health Behavior
• Health Status
• Humans
• Male
• Middle Aged
• Questionnaires
• Religion and Psychology
• spirituality

Notes:

• The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between spiritual experience and current health status and between spiritual experience and subjective experience of symptom interference.  49 volunteers who were enrolled in a spiritual fitness class at a variety of denominational Christian churches in Plano, Texas participated. The sample ranged in age from 22 to 65 years, and 84% were women. The Index of Core Spiritual Experiences and the Medical Symptoms Checklist were administered. Results of the study suggest that the report of core spiritual experiences may be related to better current health status. These findings have implications for understanding the role of spirituality in the prevention of illness and in an individual's ability to cope with illness.

Religion and Subjective Well-Being in Adulthood: A Quantitative Synthesis

Notes:

• What is the strength and direction of the relation between religion and subjective well-being in adulthood? We addressed this question by performing a quantitative research synthesis (meta-analysis). We found that religion was significantly, positively related to subjective well-being. The relation between religion and subjective well-being is stronger for religious activity than for religiosity measures. The relation is stronger for samples of older than younger adults. The strength of the religion/subjective well-being relation has decreased over time.

Attachments

• JSTOR Full Text PDF

ABC of Complementary Medicine: What Is Complementary Medicine?

Notes:

• This article briefly explains and reviews common complementary therapies to biomedical medicine.  Complementary medicine includes modalities such as acupuncture, aromatherapy, Homeopathy, and Yoga.

ABC of Complementary Medicine: Users and Practitioners of Complementary Medicine

Notes:

• This article surveys how and who uses complementary healing practices.  It discusses the reasons why diverse populations employ complementary medicine and discusses what kind of conditions are treated.

ABC of Complementary Medicine: Complementary Medicine and the Doctor

Notes:

• This article reviews the response of the biomedical world, specifically of doctors, to the use of complementary medicine. It also educates readers on how to safely approach complementary medicine, specifically detailing how to chose a practitioner and how to practice this kind of medicine.