Press Release

Healing Connection, The The Story of a Physician's Search for the Link between Faith and Health Harold G. Koenig, MD For Immediate Release Contact: Sharon Kelly Tel. (484) 531-8380 Email: publicity@templetonpress.org Thursday, April 01, 2004

The Story of a Physician's Search for the Link between Faith and Health The Healing Connection

Dr. Harold Koenig is the recognized leader in the rapidly growing field of spirituality and health. Much of what he has done professionally has its roots in his personal and professional experiences. Indeed, a large part of his interest in faith and its impact on health comes from his having seen and felt the healing power of faith in his own body, mind, and spirit. In The Healing Connection: The Story of a Physician's Search for the Link between Faith and Health (Templeton Foundation Press, $14.95, first paperback edition), he shares his often surprising personal story and then segues into a description and discussion of research into the healing connection that can be found in faith.

The early years of Harold Koenig gave no indication that he would become a physician, much less a world-renowned researcher and health visionary. He tells of growing up on a California vineyard, college days of experimentation during the 1970s, adventures conducting research in Africa with Jane Goodall, a personal crisis that resulted in an emotional breakdown, disruptive behavior that led to his being expelled from medical school, and battling mental illness as a street person in San Francisco.

He had no idea that he would become a medical scientist, study factors that help people cope with chronic illness and stresses associated with aging and depression, and explore the effects that religious faith and practice have on mental and physical health. He had no idea he would fight against slowly progressive and disabling arthritis that would dramatically affect his own physical abilities and cause him to face the same challenges that many of his patients encounter.

From the straightforward, candid description of his journey to medical researcher, Dr. Koenig moves to an overview of his research findings, illustrating these with the real-life examples of former patients and others he has encountered. There is ever-growing documentation of connections between religious faith and better mental and physical health, such as:

• Many, when they become physically ill or experience other life stresses, turn to their religious faith for strength, comfort, and meaning
• Those who use their faith to help them cope experience less depression and less anxiety over their problems and adjust more quickly to whatever difficulties they face
• Even when they become depressed over difficult health problems, people with a deep, intrinsic religious faith recover more quickly from depression
• People who participate in a religious community and attend church regularly have better mental health and greater social support
• People who regularly attend church, pray, and read religious scriptures have lower blood pressures and are less likely to have hypertension
• Religiously involved persons have greater hope, are more optimistic, and find greater purpose and meaning in life

Dr. Koenig also cites findings regarding some of the most common negative coping behaviors; for example, people with negative or no religious coping skills tend to have poorer health outcomes.

What does the research mean? Dr. Koenig emphasizes that he does not attempt to prove the existence of God. And the research does not mean that faith guarantees good health and long life. However, it is clear that religious faith and practice are connected to mental and physical health—and that something needs to be done to take advantage of this and help people. Dr. Koenig concludes with a challenge to individuals and churches to consider the implications of the research and to develop constructive ways of implementing the documented healing connection that can be found in faith.

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