Spirituality and Medicine

Inner peace and spirituality enhances the Quality of Life, especially in people suffering with chronic diseases/illnesses.  Little by little the mainstream medical profession has started to see that religion/spirituality and medicine do mix.

Research examining the connections between spirituality and quality of life (QOL) has mainly been in the context of "chronic and life-threatening" diseases such as cancer, HIV infection, heart disease, and spinal cord injury, the investigators wrote. That research has found positive associations between "spiritual well-being" and QOL.  But studies looking at the impact of spirituality on QOL in people with chronic mental illnesses are sparse, they noted.

"Our study suggests that the spirituality and religiosity domains of QOL have an important influence on other aspects of QOL of patients with schizophrenia," the authors concluded. In light of this, they advise clinicians to assess the spirituality status and its meaning to each patient and encourage patients to "turn to religion more frequently if they consider it useful in dealing with their suffering."

The above mentioned findings are from a study that was published in Psychiatry Research 12/2011

Helping, fixing, and serving represent three different ways of seeing life.
When you help, you see life as weak.
When you fix, you see life as broken.
When you serve, you see life as whole.
Fixing and helping may be the work of the ego, and service the work of the soul  Rachel Naomi Remen, MD

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. 1 Peter 4:10

Victor Frankl, a psychiatrist who wrote of his experiences in a Nazi concentration camp, wrote: “Man is not destroyed by suffering; he is destroyed by suffering without meaning” .

One of the challenges physicians face is to help people find meaning and acceptance in the midst of suffering and chronic illness. Medical ethicists have reminded us that religion and spirituality form the basis of meaning and purpose for many people .

Cure is not possible for many illnesses, but I firmly believe that there is always room for healing. Healing can be experienced as acceptance of illness and peace with one's life. This healing, I believe, is at its core spiritual.

This was taken from The role of spirituality in health care, by Christina M. Puchalski, MD, MS