Western medicine as we know it is at its best when dealing with war situations - battling acute infections, repairing the wounds of trauma, bypassing blocked blood vessels and replacing worn out joints and corneas.
Chronic Diseases
As societies become more affluent, it is the chronic diseases like high blood pressure, heart disease, backache, arthritis and cancer that afflict their aging populations. In dealing with these 'Diseases of Affluence', killing bacteria and cutting out damaged organs often has little effect in restoring wellness.
It is certainly a triumph of modern medicine that so many men are living for so long these days - long enough, in fact, to develop the chronic ailments that did not affect their ancestors who enjoyed a much shorter life span. Unfortunately, the techniques medicine has for treating disease - pharmaceuticals and surgery - do not work so well against these diseases.
Men Do Not Like Being Ill
Men like to feel in control - and so do not like being ill. It is, after all, "Un-manly" to have to acknowledge that one is suffering from a disease over which one has no control!
And many men with chronic health problems fail to get relief from their visits to a doctor because they expect the doctor to make them instantly well again. The repeated blood tests, scans and Xrays often leave them feeling unrelieved and frustrated. It is estimated that in the US today people, disillusioned with what western medicine has to offer, seek alternative forms of therapy at an annual cost of about $30 billion.
Religion and Health
The search for alternative therapy is not without foundation. Many research studies in the past few years provide evidence that religion is good for one's health.
A 1995 study analysing survival among 232 heart surgery patients found that one of the best predictors of survival after heart surgery was the degree to which the patients said that they drew comfort and strength from their religious faith. Those who did have such religious faith had one third the death rate of those who did not!
In 1996, the National Institute of Aging studied 4000 elderly folk in North Carolina and found that those who attended religious services (the particular religion itself was not significant!) were less depressed and physically healthier than those who did not.
Dr. Herbert Benson of Harvard Medical School is one of the best known proponents of the view that religion has a direct influence on body function and health. The simple act of focusing the mind - by meditation or prayer -brings about a set of physiological changes that are the direct opposite of the "Flight/fight" reaction or Stress response. Heart rate, respiration and brain waves slow down, muscles relax and the effects of stress hormones like adrenaline (epinephrine) diminishes. Studies have shown that by routinely eliciting this relaxation response, insomniacs can sleep normally, infertile women can become pregnant and chronic pain sufferers can reduce their use of painkillers.
Praying and meditating
It is postulated that praying operates along the same biochemical pathways as meditation - affecting stress hormones such as adrenaline and steroids so that blood pressure, heart rate and respiration are reduced. And since the stress hormones have a direct influence on the body's immunological defences against disease, religious activities such as meditation and prayer must of necessity have an impact on the immune system which protects the body from infections and malignancy.
In medicine, it must be admitted, we often know that something works before we know why it works. What western medicine is now learning is that religion (it doesn't really matter which religion) and meditation (irrespective of what method one uses) are able to positively affect people's health for the better.
Which is probably something that people in the non-western world have known for a long time.
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