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Non Drug Pain Management Ideas: The Power of Prayer

Can prayer heal people?  I suppose the answer to that depends on if you believe in the power of prayer, or not.  I tend to believe that God answers all of our prayers, but sometimes God says no.  We do not always understand because we cannot see through the eyes of God...



I found an article on "Discovery Health" website that cites some interesting studies about this topic.  One study, conducted in 1988 by Randolph Byrd, a physician, looked at 393 patients who entered a cardiac care unit in a San Francisco Hospital.  Some of the patients were assigned to a group that received intercessory prayer (IP), while the other group did not receive IP.  None of the patients knew which group they were assigned to.  At the conclusion of the study, Byrd reported that 85% of the patients in the prayer group responded well to treatment, while 73% of the group that did not benefit from IP responded similarly.
Many similar studies patterned after Byrd's study followed.  A study by William Harris Kansas City, MO was one such study.  He reported that 67.4% of his IP group responded well, compared to 64.5% of the non-IP patients.

A larger study, known as STEP (Study of the Effects of Intercessory Prayer) was published in the American Heart Journal in 2006. This study involved 6 medical centers throughout the US.  This study divided patients who all had coronary artery bypass graft surgery into three groups:
  • those who received prayer from an outside group, but who were not aware they were being prayed for
  • those who did not receive prayer
  • those who were aware they were being prayed for
The outcome of this study was similar to Byrd and Harris but there were two interesting twists:
a) people in the prayer group had MORE complications than those in the non-prayer group
b) those who were aware that they were being prayed for fared the worst of all the groups.

After it is all said and done, the article concludes that it is difficult to study the supernatural in a scientific way for a number of reasons.  For one, none of these studies is or can be scientifically pure.

My conclusion:  If you know someone who is suffering it does not hurt to pray for them.  Maybe it is not the best idea to tell them about it, though!  Additionally, the power of belief is largely what is at play when it comes to believing..or dispelling...the power of prayer.


Source: howstuffworks.com

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