Go to Church and Live a Longer, Healthier Life

Could this really be true? According to a couple of recent studies, spirituality, defined as a belief in a higher power that gives meaning to life, improved overall health and may prolong life. A study in the journal Demography last year, found that people who attend worship services one or more times each week, live about 8 years longer than those who never attend such services. The people who regularly attend church lived, on average, 83 years, as compared to 75 for those who never attend church.

A second study at a family practice clinic in Georgia, showed that those patients who were highly or moderately "spiritual" reported better overall health and less pain than their less spiritual counterparts. Traditional scientific medicine has always scoffed at such beliefs, but the eye of science itself is being turned toward spirituality in recent years, with some rather surprising results.

Well what is going on here anyway? Does the church building have some magical effect on the immune system? Could an atheist achieve the same results by going to church? Interestingly, the effects were more pronounced for blacks and women. Are blacks and women somehow God’s favored children? The authors suggested several possible explanations for the findings. They reasoned that strong social bonds may help boost immune system function, or perhaps that people who attend church are healthier to begin with and/or are less likely to smoke or drink.

Even within traditionally internal disciplines, such as psychology and psychiatry, the physical aspect of suffering overshadows the emotional and spiritual dimension. It is commonly heard today that depression is really only about a chemical imbalance in the brain, and has little, if anything, to do with the fact that your life might lack meaning and purpose. That is not to say that pharmacologic intervention is not helpful. It is just that the physical aspect is only half the story, and in my estimation, the less interesting half.

What these studies are beginning to elucidate, is that spirit does exist, and does matter in the physical universe. What is not clear, is an understanding of what spirituality really means, how to define it, and how it manifests in your life and your physical well being. There are people today, such as Ken Wilber, Larry Dossey, and others, who are helping to educate us about the importance of the "internal" in our world. Meaning, purpose, love, spirit—these have great relevance to our lives and are always a part of any physical medical problem with which one may be confronted. What we think, feel, and believe are intimately connected with, and constantly influencing, our physical existence.