It is entirely clear that faith can affect one's health, just as we know that marriage tends to improve men's health, and happiness, and a positive attitude, tends to lead to better physical health.
The question is this:
Is there something specific about faith that improves one's health that is different in kind from the improvement in health one gets from being happy, secure and fulfilled emotionally more generally? I believe the jury is still out on that, but that faith- spiritual contentment in particular- is one part of a whole way of being that improves one's physical health.
We know for instance from work done with the Enhancing the Healing Environment program at the Kings Fund in the UK that making a part of a hospital physically better designed and more attractive leads to a sense of emotional wellbeing in staff and patients alike. It leads to earlier discharge, better staff recruitment and retention, and something indefinable- that elusive sense of wellbeing that is also, I would argue, the indescribable plus that a sense of faith and of belonging gives people. It is that which also improves their health. I am utterly convinced that it is more than scientifically proven interventions that improve people's health. What I am not yet sure of is how we disaggregate faith from happiness, wellbeing, and a sense of spiritual wholeness. I suspect that they are so interconnected that picking faith on its own may be a mistake.
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