Religious Faith and Spontaneous Remission

Faith, Hope, and Optimism

Heloise, in her mid-forties, had taught high school French in a small Midwestern town for over twenty years. She had a devoted husband and a son who had just finished college. She was a mover and shaker in her community, serving on several boards. She was a pious Christian, extremely active in the Episcopal church. Her family was healthy and well-to-do, and she was contented. Heloise, her friends all said, led a charmed life. Then, suddenly, things began to crumble.

In less than a year, one tragedy after another befell her family. Heloise was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. The symptoms became so bad that she had to stop working. Her husband's business went bankrupt, and he committed suicide. Her son overdosed on drugs, and entered a residential rehab program. Heloise's mother, who lived in England, died after a brief battle with cancer.

Heloise's friends rallied around her, but she assured them that she was all right. By all indications, she indeed was in remarkable spirits. While initially burdened by the sad events in her family, she quickly adjusted after each tragedy and did her best to ensure that life returned to normal. No one ever heard her complain or recount her litany of troubles, as so many people do. She continued with her volunteer activities for the church, as much as her disability allowed, and maintained her board service to several community organizations. She also added new activities, like visiting homebound members of her church and praying with them. It was what Christ would do, she said.

Heloise's continued activity and chin-up attitude in the face of overwhelming trials began to concern some of her friends. They thought she might be in denial. Her doctor, too, was worried at first, and referred her to a mental health specialist for a thorough workup. Yet, despite an almost textbook array of risk factors for emotional distress-disabling illness, widowhood and other family tragedies, loss of employment, sudden decline in financial status, and family history of mental illness and institutionalization on her father's side-Heloise had no clinical signs or symptoms of distress. It hardly seemed possible.

Nearly a decade later, things are about the same. Heloise is limited in her physical activity, but not nearly as much as would be expected. She has spent long periods of time in bed, but is currently on her feet, and by her own account, doing well. This is a good thing, she says, as she has a lot to do.

Heloise has a saying that she is fond of repeating: As long as you are faithful to God, God will be faithful to you. She tells anyone who asks that she is grateful to God for her many blessings, and too busy to dwell on her troubles. Heloise is fond of quoting a verse from the prophet Isaiah: "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper." She remains an inspiration to her friends and somewhat of a mystery to her doctor.

Religion influences health in many ways. As we have seen, affiliation with a religion can affect how we behave in regard to health, organized religious participation provides fellowship and support, regular worship and prayer stimulate positive emotions, and religious beliefs may reinforce certain psychological characteristics or health beliefs. In turn, considerable research has shown that our behavior, social relationships, emotions, personalities, and beliefs are powerful determinants of health. Each of these links between religion and health is well known and well accepted by scientists. The possibility of a religion-health connection is not as controversial as it might at first seem, as it can be understood in terms of concepts and theories widely accepted by scientists and physicians.

Such a connection makes sense because of the influence of faith on action-because faith typically gets translated into religious affiliation, attendance, worship, and belief. A study showing, for example, lower rates of trichinosis among Jews makes sense because, on average, Jewish faith is more likely to lead to avoidance of pork. These are the obvious health effects of faith. But what about faith alone-simple heartfelt trust in God or a higher force, or the profession of religiousness-irrespective of whether it motivates further spiritual involvement? Can this type of religious expression in and of itself influence our health and well-being?

The idea that religious faith may be a powerful force for healing and for maintaining health and preventing illness is not new. In nineteen ten, Sir William Osler, one of the founding fathers of modern scientific medicine, published an essay in the British Medical Journal describing "the faith that heals." The theme was revisited in nineteen seventy-five by the renowned psychiatrist Dr. Jerome D. Frank. Writing in the Johns Hopkins Medical Journal, Dr. Frank noted that not only is faith in God salutary, but faith in one's physician or in medical science may also contribute to the success of medical interventions. Indeed it may not be just the physician's treatments themselves that are responsible for positive results. Rather, according to Dr. Frank, medical treatment may be successful principally because it serves to "mobilize the faith that heals in the patients."

Is There a "Faith Factor" in Health?

If faith can heal, can it also protect against illness and promote health and well-being? That is, are there preventive as well as therapeutic consequences of faith? Is faith an epidemiologically significant factor?

According to Dr. Dale A. Matthews, an internist on the faculty of Georgetown University School of Medicine, faith in God indeed seems to be beneficial for physical and mental health. In his recent book, The Faith Factor, Dr. Matthews marshals evidence suggesting that expressions of faith are associated not only with the healing of physical and emotional problems and addictions, but with improved quality of life. This makes sense, he notes, because of the positive functions of faith known to be associated with well-being. These include instilling trust in God and providing a source of ultimate hope.

Studies suggest that it is not just formal professions of faith in God that are beneficial for our general well-being. Simply affirming that one is religious or spiritual is a strong and surprisingly consistent determinant of physical and mental health. Many studies address the issue of religious faith by asking people to rate their level of overall religiousness-to provide a subjective assessment of how religious or spiritual they consider themselves. Response options typically include three or four categories such as "not at all," "somewhat," "fairly," and "very," although the exact wording varies.

According to the late Dr. E. Mansell Pattison of the University of California, Irvine, this question provides a unique psychodynamic perspective on a person's spiritual life that is not attainable through other approaches to spiritual assessment. Questions about religious affiliation and church or synagogue attendance, for example, provide information about observable public behavior. Questions about the content of prayers and patterns of religious devotion elicit information about private experiences unique to each individual. What these types of questions have in common is that both involve the assessment of how or how often people do religion.

Information about what has come to be known as "subjective religiousness," however, provides a glimpse into how religious people perceive themselves to be. Answers to this type of question provide a summary of the myriad intrapsychic determinations that we make about our faith. These determinations are uniquely our own. Researchers recognize that "How religious are you?" is a question that each of us answers in our own way and for our own reasons. Yet no matter how differently each of us goes about answering such a question, nearly all of us can instinctively provide an answer. For this reason, scientists like to use this question as a quick, summary gauge of people's level of overall faith-just as self-ratings of health are considered the easiest and most reliable way to summarize the complex issue of health status.