Do people who pray live longer?

People who pray, who are involved in their religious community and go to church, and have a strong religious faith have better mental health. They have better physical health and, in general, they tend to live longer.

Many of the studies show that people who have a strong religious faith and attend religious services that they have better mental health. They cope better with stress in their life. In particular, when people get older -- as they face health problems and losses and go through struggles with dependency -- that's a time in life when religion and spirituality appear to be very important with regard to maintaining mental health. So studies have shown that people who are more involved in their religion have lower rates of depression and have less anxiety. Now that has physical health ramifications.

As people become depressed and anxious and are experiencing stress, they have problems with their immune system because of changes that occur with regard to hormones in their body. People who are stressed experience a flight response and they're adrenal glands start producing steroid hormones that then pour out and affect the immune system. It's just like a person who's getting steroids to suppress their immune system. The steroids that the body produces during stress are the same chemicals that the doctors give patients when they want to suppress their immune systems. Now the problem with that is if your immune system is suppressed then your body cannot fight off illnesses such as viruses, certain forms of cancer and all sorts of different illnesses that would affect your body. So that's one way we think that religion helps people's health -- by enhancing their mental health and therefore reducing the negative affects of stress on the body and therefore resulting in better physical health and longer survival as well.

If you have people who are depressed or anxious and they have a strong religious faith, that is often seen together as well. So, you can't necessarily conclude if someone is depressed or anxious that they don't have a lot of faith. Or even if they're very sick because there are lots of people who are very sick, very depressed, anxious and struggling with major factors in their life who are really still just hanging in there and surviving because of their faith -- they will readily tell you that. That the one factor in their life that keeps them going through these just horrendous life situations is their faith in God.