We probably pray most fervently when we feel threatened by catastrophe or illness. But is there any evidence that religious or spiritual practices can improve our health?
According to a study in the Christmas edition of the British Medical Journal, making a new year's resolution to recite the rosary could improve your cardiovascular well-being. And for those of a more secular persuasion, there are similar benefits from reciting a yogic mantra.
Dr Luciano Bernardi led a team of researchers in Florence and Pavia that looked at breathing rates during normal talking and during recitation of mantras and the Ave Maria. Both recitations slowed breathing to around six breaths per minute, a rate that has a favourable effect on the rhythm of the heart.
Slow respiration has been shown to reduce the harmful effects of heart attacks. Synchronising respiratory and cardiac central rhythms is thought to enhance natural physiological responses that protect the heart.
"Each cycle [of the rosary], recited half by the priest and half by the congregation is - in the original Latin - normally completed within a single slow respiration," they report.
They remark that they were surprised to find each cycle took almost exactly 10 seconds, which concides with the ideal rate of six breaths a minute.
Similar benefits were found to result from reciting a mantra. The use of respiratory exercises to slow down breathing during yoga are well established, and mantras may have evolved as a simple device to induce calm.
The authors point to historical evidence for a link between the culturally distant practices of yoga and reciting the Ave Maria.
The rosary was introduced to Europe by the crusaders, who took it from the Arabs, who in turn took it from Tibetan monks and the yoga masters of India.
Two previous trials have shown the benefit of what researchers rather opaquely call "remote intercessionary prayer" in improving the outcome of people who are seriously ill in coronary care.
In other words, when these patients were prayed for by people unknown to them, they improved more rapidly than those who received no such spiritual intercession.
More scientifically minded readers may already be arching their eyebrows at such "research". And, in fairness to the journal, the Christmas edition is known as an annual purveyor of more offbeat medical research: it categorises the Italian paper as "Beyond Science?"
But members of the Irish Mind Medicine Academy, which science-based training using instructors from Harvard Medical School, in the United States, will not be surprised at the findings.
The Harvard relaxation-response programme is a new approach to healthcare based on a natural restorative phenomenon. According to Dr Ann Webster, stressful events can cause poor immune function; the relaxation programme has been shown to increase the levels of T-lymphocyte helper cells, key white blood cells in the blood.
The 11-week programme is used successfully in patients with HIV. It offers a combination of relaxation techniques, yoga exercises, nutritional information, cognitive restructuring and interpersonal-skills training.
The power of the mind, whether through secular or spiritual interventions, in modifying disease progression is a fascinating area that undoubtedly will be researched even more in the future.
Unlike other areas of medical research, however, it is likely to require a greater leap of faith to bridge the gap between cause and effect.
Just as in 1753, James Lind linked scurvy to a lack of lemons and limes aboard HMS Salisbury long before the concept of nutrients or ascorbic acid was developed, it may take science a little longer to explain in detail the link between our minds and bodily health.
In the meantime, you might like to dust off the Latin version of Ave Maria or adopt a yogic mantra for regular use. It seems you could do worse than get science to synchronise withGod.
Dr Muiris Houston Medical Correspondent
E-mail Dr Muiris Houston, Medical Correspondent, at mhouston@irish-times.ie or leave a message at 01-6707711 ext 8511. He regrets he cannot reply to individual medical problems
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