Some of the best things in life are free. The same holds true in medicine. A caring heart, a listening ear, a good laugh—these don’t cost a dime, and most everyone agrees that they work.
Prayer, on the other hand, gets a bit controversial.
While a significant number of studies with prayer and healing have been conducted, the results have been somewhat mixed. This can be attributed to the way the study was designed, how prayer is defined and practiced, and to the placebo effect.
Prayer and Meditation
- Those involved in numerous research studies generally agree that prayer (defined as communication with God or divine being of whatever religious persuasion) is a special form of meditation. As such, it may convey the health benefits associated with meditation. Meditation has been shown to decrease hypertension and increase the immune response.1 2 3
- However, comparing secular meditation and spiritual meditation (i.e., prayer) groups revealed substantial advantages for those practicing the latter. The patients in the prayer groups exhibited a greater decrease in anxiety and tolerated pain almost twice as long as individuals in the secular meditation group.4
Intercessory Prayer—a Placebo Effect?
A few studies involved intercessory prayer, that is, prayers offered on behalf of another person, with interesting results:
- A study involving hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Brazil found remote intercessory prayer had no effect on whether the patients lived or died.5
- Another study showed that remote intercessory prayer for patients with bloodstream infections had no effect on the mortality rate, but did shorten the duration of the fever and the hospital stay in the experimental (prayer) group.6
- A 12-week study with late-stage dementia patients found that prayer reduced the number of disruptive behaviors.7
- A six-month-long study involving advanced AIDS patients in the 1990s found that these patients who had others praying for them experienced fewer new AIDS-related illnesses, less severity of illness, and needed fewer doctor visits and hospitalizations, as well as fewer days of hospitalization.8
- A 17-year study with HIV patients found that “[t]he survival curve is clearly higher for those who reported praying for known others.”9 In short, the study found that HIV-positive patients who prayed daily or more often for other people lived much longer than those who did not pray for others. Various theories are offered to explain this observation.
In the aforementioned cases, with respect to intercessory prayer, it seems that it operates much like the placebo effect. It’s more effective in cases of chronic pain and disease than in acute illness. In the last case presented above, it was noted that the HIV patients were praying for someone else, not that they were being prayed for. It was thought that perhaps having a more selfless outlook on life gave the HIV patients a physical advantage.
Intercessory Prayer—Not a Placebo Effect
And then there are a few more cases that cannot be attributed to a placebo effect:
- A randomized, triple-blind, controlled study involving consecutively infertile women in South Korea (women and their doctors were unaware of the intervention, and researchers didn’t know who was in which group until results were tallied at the end) revealed that those who received distant prayer (from people in the US, UK, and Australia) experienced twice the pregnancy success rate of those who were not prayed for.10
- Galagos (small nocturnal primates also known as Bush Babies) with skin wounds were divided into two groups, one of which received prayer intervention while the other served as the control. Wounds in the group that received prayers healed significantly more quickly. The fact that this study involved bush babies, non-human primates lacking higher-level cognitive skills and the ability to understand the placebo response bears remembering.11
Of course, then there are those cases—miracles—fully documented in medical literature for which no scientific explanation can be offered. These are patients with long histories of illness well-documented by numerous physicians who are suddenly cured after prayer.
- Miraculous cure/”unexpected recovery” from advanced Parkinson’s.12
- Miraculous instantaneous resolution of juvenile macular degeneration blindness.13
- Miraculous healing of a patient on a feeding tube from birth.14
While some consider healings that occur after human medical intervention as miraculous, the above-mentioned miracles had nothing to do with surgery or medication. They occurred soon after proximal praying—where the person offering the prayer is in the same room and possibly laying hands upon the patient.
An interesting factoid: Praying for one’s own health is practiced (or was in 2004) by 43% of Americans—the most common form of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) used—when prayer is considered as a form of CAM.15
Finally, these are some areas in which prayer has been studied and found to have consistent medicinal benefits:
Cardiovascular: Meditation decreased diastolic and systolic blood pressure in hypertensive and normotensive individuals.16 17
Immunological: Mindful meditation was shown to enhance the immune response.18
Musculoskeletal
Rheumatoid arthritis (In-person intercessory prayer)19
Neurological
Stress20
Anxiety21
Depression22
Other: Pain reduction23
We read in scripture that some people have the faith to be healed. As noted in the articles on the placebo effect published elsewhere on this blog, research is being done to identify those people most likely to benefit from the placebo effect. We see that our prayers help others to heal, and they also help us. Pain may not be entirely eliminated, but it can be reduced. And sometimes, miracles happen as well. Prayer is another tool in the medicine chest that we can use to alleviate pain and suffering around us.
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Editor’s Note: The foregoing article is an excerpt from the book Armageddon Pharmacy: Herbal Medicine When the Drugstore Is Closed, by Jennifer Rader. It is available for purchase through her website [1].
Footnotes:
1. Barnes VA, Davis HC, Murzynowski JB, Treiber FA, Impact of meditation on resting and ambulatory blood pressure and heart rate in youth, Psychosomatic Medicine, Nov-Dec 2004, Vol 66 No 6, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15564357/ (accessed 16 January 2024).
2. Anderson JW, Liu C, Kryscio RJ, Blood pressure response to transcendental meditation: a meta-analysis, American Journal of Hypertension, March 2008, Vol 21 No 3, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18311126/ (accessed 16 January 2024).
3. Davidson RJ, Kabat-Zinn J, Schumacher J, Rosenkranz M, Muller D, Santorelli SF, Urbanowski F, Harrington A, Bonus K, Sheridan JF, Alterations in brain and immune function produced by mindfulness meditation, Psychosomatic Medicine, July-August 2003, Vol 65 No 4, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12883106/ (accessed 16 January 2024).
4. Wachholtz AB, Pargament KI, Is spirituality a critical ingredient of meditation? Comparing the effects of spiritual meditation, secular meditation, and relaxation on spiritual, psychological, cardiac, and pain outcomes, Journal of Behavioral Medicine, August 2005, Vol 28 No 4, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16049627/ (accessed 16 January 2024).
5. Soubihe Junior NV, Bersch-Ferreira ÂC, Tokunaga SM, Lopes LA, Cavalcanti AB, Bernadez-Pereira S, The remote intercessory prayer, during the clinical evolution of patients with COVID -19, randomized double-blind clinical trial, Heliyon, 17 November 2023, Vol 9 No 11, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10689938/ (accessed 17 January 2024).
6. Leibovici L, Effects of remote, retroactive intercessory prayer on outcomes in patients with bloodstream infection: randomised controlled trial, BMJ, 22 December 2001, Vol 323 No 7327, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11751349/ (accessed 17 January 2024).
7. Struve AR, Lu DF, Hart LK, Keller T, The Use of Intercessory Prayer to Reduce Disruptive Behaviors of Patients With Dementia: A Pilot Feasibility Study, Journal of Holistic Nursing, June 2016, Vol 34 No 2, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26025094/ (accessed 18 January 2024).
8. Sicher F, Targ E, Moore D 2nd, Smith HS, A randomized double-blind study of the effect of distant healing in a population with advanced AIDS. Report of a small scale study, Western Journal of Medicine, December 1998, Vol 169 No 6, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1305403/ (accessed 17 January 2024).
9. Ironson G, Ahmad SS, Praying for People You Know Predicts Survival over 17 Years Among People Living with HIV in the U.S. Journal of Religion and Health, October 2022, Vol 61 No 5, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35999335/ (accessed 17 January 2024).
10. Cha KY, Wirth DP, Does prayer influence the success of in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer? Report of a masked, randomized trial, Journal of Reproductive Medicine, September 2001, Vol 46 No 9, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11584476/ (accessed 17 January 2024).
11. Lesniak KT, The effect of intercessory prayer on wound healing in nonhuman primates, Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, Nov-Dec 2006, Vol 12 No 6, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17131981/ (accessed 17 January 2024).
12. Kruijthoff DJ, Bendien E, Doodkorte C, van der Kooi C, Glas G, Abma TA, “My Body Does Not Fit in Your Medical Textbooks”: A Physically Turbulent Life With an Unexpected Recovery From Advanced Parkinson Disease After Prayer, Advanced Mind and Body Medicine, Winter 2021, Vol 35 No 2, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33620331/ (accessed 18 January 2024).
13. Romez C, Freedman K, Zaritzky D, Brown JW, Case report of instantaneous resolution of juvenile macular degeneration blindness after proximal intercessory prayer, Explore (NY), January-February 2021, Vol 17 No 1, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32234287/ (accessed 18 January 2024).
14. Romez C, Zaritzky D, Brown JW, Case Report of gastroparesis healing: 16 years of a chronic syndrome resolved after proximal intercessory prayer, Complementary Therapies in Medicine, April 2019, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30935546/ (accessed 18 January 2024).
15. Barnes PM, Powell-Griner E, McFann K, Nahin RL, Complementary and alternative medicine use among adults: United States, 2002, Advanced Data, 27 May 2004, Vol 343, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15188733/ (accessed 17 January 2024).
16. Barnes VA, et al.
17. Anderson JW, et al.
18. Davidson RJ, et al.
19. Matthews DA, Marlowe SM, MacNutt FS, Effects of intercessory prayer on patients with rheumatoid arthritis, Southern Medicine Journal, December 2000, Vol 93 No 12, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11142453/ (accessed 17 January 2024).
20. R Bonadonna, Meditation’s impact on chronic illness, Holistic Nursing Practice, Nov-Dec 2003, Vol 17 No 6, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14650573/ (accessed 16 January 2024).
21. Bonadonna.
22. Bonadonna.
23. Bonadonna.