Editorial

Spirituality, Health, and Religion: The Need for More Research

Authors: Ronald C. Hamdy, MD, FRCP, FACP

Abstract

Jesus said, “I command you, pick up your mat and go home,” and the paralytic man got up and walked.1 Are these truly signs of divine intervention? Does God intervene in our daily miseries? If the answer is affirmative, how can this phenomenon be harnessed in a reproducible manner? Or are instances such as these evidence that we still neither fully understand nor appreciate the interaction between mind and body? Can the mind help regenerate damaged or dead neurons? Can the mind alter the body’s immune system and other growth-regulating systems to “cure” a paralytic state, an infection, or a malignant growth?

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References

1. New Testament, Mark 2:11.
 
2. Olive KE. Religion and spirituality: important psychosocial variables frequently ignored in clinical research. South Med J 2004;97:1152–1153.