Study: Praying doesn't help surgery

Prayer is known for its power to heal the mind and spirit, but can it prevent complications after heart surgery?

The answer is 'no,' according to the largest study to date measuring the effects of prayer on cardiovascular patients.

Patients prayed for by strangers fared no better than patients who underwent coronary artery bypass surgery without prayer, the study found. Moreover, patients who knew they were being prayed for suffered more complications than those who were not told of prayer attempts, researchers found.

Being told strangers are praying for you may increase anxiety, leading to complications, a study author suggested. Local clergy agreed with that assessment.

"I can see where if a complete stranger comes up to you and says, 'Would you like us to pray for you?' that might raise your anxiety," said Mike Laurence, senior pastor at First Congregational Church of Hopkinton.

But prayer can help patients cope mentally with sickness, even if they do not improve physically, said Ann Lomuto, a professional chaplain who works at Newton-Wellesley Hospital.

"Prayer isn't just about a cure," Lomuto said. "It's about healing the whole person. A person is more than just their body; it's their mind and their spirit."

Dr. Herbert Benson, president of the Mind/Body Medical Institute in Newton, was the lead author of the prayer study, which was published in the American Heart Journal. Benson and colleagues analyzed three groups of coronary artery bypass patients, each consisting of about 600 people.

Patients in two groups received "intercessory prayer" for 14 days, but only one of the groups was informed of the prayer attempts. No prayers were said for the third group, whose members were told they may or may not be prayed for.

Fifty-nine percent of patients who knew they were being prayed for developed complications within a month of surgery. The other groups developed complications at rates between 51 and 52 percent.

"Intercessory prayer itself had no effect on whether complications occurred after (surgery)," study authors wrote. "Second, patients who were certain that intercessors would pray for them had a higher rate of complications than patients who were uncertain but did receive intercessory prayer."

Benson's staff said he would not grant any more interview requests, but in a New York Times report last week, co-author Dr. Charles Bethea from Oklahoma City said prayer "may have made (patients) uncertain, wondering am I so sick they had to call in their prayer team?"

But the extra complications in patients informed of prayer attempts may simply be due to "chance," study authors wrote in the journal article.

"We have no clear explanation for the observed excess of complications in patients who were certain that intercessors would pray for them," they wrote.

Lomuto said patients at Newton-Wellesley are asked upon admission if their information can be released to a hospital chaplain. This sometimes elicits reactions like, "Why? Am I dying?" Lomuto said.

Lomuto said Newton-Wellesley chaplains are trying to get the hospital to distribute an information sheet on the role of chaplains so patients do not draw that type of conclusion.

"The way the question is phrased isn't useful to patients," Lomuto said. "We do pray, but our main job is to (be a) companion (for) a patient and his or her family while they're here."

(Jon Brodkin can be reached at 508-626-4424 or jbrodkin@cnc.com.)

http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=126404&format=text


Do you believe you can plea for a God to influence specific events in people's lives? I sure don't.

 

'Amen' to good news that prayer, medicine don't mix
Theologians reject effects of requests for intercession


By RAYMOND J. LAWRENCE


RESPONSIBLE religious leaders will breathe a sigh of relief at the news that so-called intercessory prayer is medically ineffective. In a large and much touted scientific study, one group of patients was told that strangers would pray for them, a second group was told strangers might or might not pray for them and a third group was not prayed for at all. The $2.4 million study found that the strangers' prayers did not help patients' recovery.

The results of the study, led by Dr. Herbert Benson, a cardiologist and director of the Mind/Body Medical Institute near Boston, came as welcome news. That may sound odd coming from an ordained minister. But if it could ever be persuasively demonstrated that such prayer "works," our religious institutions and meeting places would be degraded to a kind of commercial enterprise, like Burger King, where one expects to get what one pays for.

Historically, religions have promoted many kinds of prayer. Prayers of praise, thanksgiving and repentance have been highly esteemed, while intercessions of the kind done in the Benson study — appeals to God to take some action — are of lesser importance. They represent a less-respected magical wing of religion.

In fact, many theologians reject out of hand the notion that any person or group can effectively intercede with God in any respect. Paul Tillich and Karl Barth, the two major Christian theologians of the 20th century (and certainly no opponents of prayer) would have scoffed at the idea. The Lord's Prayer, the central prayer of Christendom, contains no plea for God to influence specific events in people's lives.

The news from science will not lead religious people to stop praying for others. Prayers are expressions of empathy that strengthen a caring community and bring comfort to those who are suffering. Comfort in this context undoubtedly has therapeutic health benefits. But scientists should not leap to the assumption that the ruler of the universe can be mechanically requisitioned to intervene in people's suffering or health.

It is unsurprising and not a little ironic that patients in the study who were told unequivocally they were being prayed for did worse than those who were told only that they might be. When medical personnel dabble in religious practices, we should anticipate that patients might interpret this as a sign of desperation.

Doctors in particular should be pleased that the Benson study demonstrated no benefit from intercessory prayer by strangers. Recently, a colleague told me about a devout, well-educated woman who accused a doctor of malpractice in his treatment of her husband. During her husband's dying days, she charged, the doctor had failed to pray for him. If prayer could be scientifically shown to help, every doctor would be obligated to pray with patients, or at least provide such service, and those who declined to do so would properly be subject to charges of malpractice.

In my several decades as a clergyman working closely with doctors, I have never met one who prays with patients, nor one who prescribes intercessory prayer. There are other ways to express personal care and concern.

Besides, the earlier, smaller scientific studies claiming that intercessory prayer was effective have been exposed as flawed. Perhaps the monumental Benson study will mark the end of all such research.

We should note that the impetus for this recent research has come almost entirely from scientists, not from religious leaders. It seems that no credible theologian has been involved in planning, directing or even consulting on such studies. But scientists who conduct research on religious practice should at least consult reputable theologians. Had they done so to begin with a considerable amount of money could have been saved. Scientists who undertake the work of theologians are as reckless as theologians who pretend to be scientists.

Lawrence, an Episcopal priest, is the director of pastoral care at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columibia University Medical Center.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/3790405.html

 

I could never do that. I would rather learn the true nature of my fears than ask a god to protect me from them. My fears come and go. I know they are rooted in my own mind. I know they are based on my attachment to the phenomenal world and my concepts of reality (even though I have to constantly remind myself of it). People get hurt and people die. A lot of "bad" things happen only because we label them as bad. Billions of billions of beings manifest and "demaniseft" every moment. Things are in constant change. I know a god will not change this. I don't want him to.

I just think we would be better off recognizing the nature of our fears, understanding them, rather than asking a god to rescue us from them. It gives them too much credit. That would be my prayer.

 

There is our reality and there is the ultimate reality. We only see/hear/feel what we can. So our experience is really only slightly real. Illusion is convincing. It is still only our interpretation of reality and we don't have to be completely bound by them.

There is physical and mental suffering. Have you ever worried and suffered about something for really no reason? Was that fear based in reality or in misconceptions?

But a lot of other peoples suffering comes from our own selfish desires and craving. The ultimate belief in the illusion of I and it's craving causes most of the worlds suffering. That's why people go hungry. That is why there is war. That is why we trash the environment and other beings. We think "it" and "them" is not I. We think this I will no longer exist when we die. That is our biggest fear. Of course you help others. You truly help others when you realize they are a part of you and you are not separate from them.

Christianity is not the only religion concerned with helping other people. Compassion is universal. That is why religion exists in the first place.

 

I wonder who God let suffer so he could trick the testers.

 

No, suffering exists. We endure physical and psychological suffering. It's the first noble truth of the Buddha. We exist but our illusions, misconceptions of permanent and independent things are the cause of our desire and suffering.