People who pray for health-related reasons are not necessarily relying solely on spirituality for an answer.
Medically reviewed by Lindsey Marcellin, MD, MPH
Prayer and Health: Ways to Cope
You may not think of prayer as a form of alternative medicine. But many Americans rely on prayer as a method of coping with health-related issues. A 2004 study found that 43 percent of Americans prayed for their own health and about 25 percent felt they benefited from other people's prayers.
So far, scientific research has not supported the idea that prayer can improve one's health. In 2007, researchers compiling the results of previous studies on distant intercessory prayer — in essence, when people pray for you without your knowledge — found that this had no measurable effect and probably didn't warrant further study. Researchers can run into other challenges, as each person defines spirituality and prayer differently.
However, that doesn't mean that other types of prayer couldn't help when you're having health problems, says Kevin Masters, PhD, an associate professor of psychology at Syracuse University in Syracuse, N.Y. The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine is funding several studies probing how prayer is linked with health and wellness. For example, one study in New York City is examining how spirituality affects the immune system and well-being of terminally sick cancer patients.
Prayer and Health: One Family's Story Even though Sue Ellen Braunlin, MD, and her family were caught up in a life-or-death situation, she just didn't feel like she had the right to pray for help. That was 13 years ago. Today, she recalls having been so privileged all her life that it was hard to ask for something special back then — she says she felt very undeserving. Her newborn daughter, Marta, was born with a serious heart defect. The doctors sent the baby home, waiting to see if she'd be a suitable candidate for the surgeries needed to address the problem. Dr. Braunlin — herself an anesthesiologist in Indianapolis, Ind. — spent the next few months desperately trying to help her baby thrive, without getting the answers she wanted from the doctors. Over the coming years, she began to ask for help through prayer. At first, she didn't find her "own prayer voice," and she got a lot of strength from other people praying for her and Marta in those early days. Prayer and Good Health: Aid in Troubled Times In the 1990s, social scientists might have presumed that people who prayed for health reasons would be putting their fate completely into God's hands and not taking helpful steps on their own, says Dr. Masters, who studies spirituality and health. "That's not the assumption you'd find today, and there's a little bit of data to suggest that if people do care enough to pray, they might be more likely to go to the doctor, to get a checkup, or to take their medicine," he says. In other words, if you're going to the trouble of focusing your thoughts on improving your health, your actions may follow. In addition, if you ask your congregation for their prayers, "you've announced that you have a need, and generally speaking, people are going to respond to that," Masters says. Beyond praying for you, congregation members may also offer you a ride to the doctor or do other helpful favors that may make you feel better. Saying a Prayer for Good Health: Support System Braunlin began attending services at United Church of Christ in Indianapolis after Marta's first surgery. When Marta underwent her next surgery at 18 months of age, Braunlin's pastor stayed at the hospital for six hours. As Braunlin recalls, the experience went much better. By the time Marta required a third surgery at the age of 5, her mother realized that she had needs and a right to say what she needed. Braunlin says that even with all of the blessings in her life, praying about worrisome things felt liberating. "It made it a lot easier for me to ask my friends and family for the help I needed, and it gave me strength the third time around."
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