ADVANCE/Other People's Prayers & Positive Expectations Can Help Sick Get Better, Studies Indicate.Medical & Lifestyle Editors ADVANCE...for Release 6:00 P.M. March 6 (ADVANCE) PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 6, 2000 The power of other people's prayers and that of positive expectations in helping people recover from illness, were indicated by a noted internist internist /in·tern·ist/ (in-ter´nist) a specialist in internal medicine. in·ter·nist n. A physician specializing in internal medicine. here citing what he termed "studies with astonishing a·ston·ish tr.v. as·ton·ished, as·ton·ish·ing, as·ton·ish·es To fill with sudden wonder or amazement. See Synonyms at surprise. results." Steven Lamm, M.D., writes in the current (March) issue of New Choices: Living Even Better After 50, that researchers "recruited a cross-denominational team of Christians to pray for half the patients admitted to the coronary care unit coronary care unit n. Abbr. CCU A hospital unit that is specially equipped to treat and monitor patients with serious heart conditions, such as coronary thrombosis. at the Mid America Heart Institute in Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City is the largest city in the state of Missouri. It encompasses parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest in Missouri, which includes counties in both Missouri and Kansas. . The chaplain's secretary randomly assigned all new patients to one of two groups: those who would be prayed for and those who received the usual care. Over a 12-month period, the patients who were prayed for (and who, again, were unaware of the prayers) fared far better than those who had no prayers said for them." Lamm also cites a study by Texas orthopedic surgeon J. Bruce Moseley, Jr., M.D. "in which five people received arthroscopic surgery Arthroscopic Surgery Definition Arthroscopic surgery is a procedure to visualize, diagnose, and treat joint problems. The name is derived from the Greek words arthron, which means joint, and skopein, which means to look at. (an operation performed through a very small incision), while five others underwent sham surgery consisting of three shallow nicks that made it seem that they actually had the operation. Two years later, those who'd had the sham surgery reported the same amount of relief from pain and swelling as those who had had the real operation. Even more astonishing, four of the people in the placebo group recommended the surgery to friends, and another requested that the operation be repeated on the other knee. Another study, which includes 180 people, is now underway, and results are expected this fall." In 1988, notes Lamm, one of the "most astonishing studies" in the power of prayer was conducted in the coronary care unit of San Francisco General Hospital San Francisco General Hospital is the main public hospital in San Francisco, California, and the only Level I Trauma Center serving San Francisco and San Mateo. The hospital budget is for only 302 beds at SFGH. . Randolph Byrd, M.D., asked volunteers to offer a daily prayer for 192 critically ill men and women -- without their knowledge. Although these patients were unaware of the prayers, Lamm reports in his New Choices column, they had fewer cases of congestive heart failure congestive heart failure, inability of the heart to expel sufficient blood to keep pace with the metabolic demands of the body. In the healthy individual the heart can tolerate large increases of workload for a considerable length of time. , heart attacks, and pneumonia, and less need for antibiotics when compared with 200 other patients in the unit." (End of advance for release 6:00 p.m. March 6.) |
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