Do prayer and religious belief influence the disease process

[achot chavi]

I have done some reading about the influence that prayer and religious belief (any and all religions) have on the disease process. There are some amazing stories and some incredible research that claims that patients who are prayed for actually enjoy more success from their medical treatment. I'm just referring to good old-fashioned prayer- no unusual ceremonies. While I personally believe in the power of prayer I would cringe to imagine anyone ignoring good conventional medical care in favor of just praying. While I've seen miracles- cases that we all thought were far gone, and made a miraculous turnabout- and prayer was involved- would it have ended well without the prayer? I always wondered. Any comments?

[widi96]

My thoughts on this that prayer is going to be positive and people usually benefit from positive thoughts. Those who feel like they can get better, tend to do better than those who get depressed and don't.

[nightmare, RN]

This thread already exists. See link;

https://allnurses.com/forums/f195/god...ns-326764.html