"MrPepper11" <MrPepper11@go.com> wrote in message
news:1115130335.857176.126380@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...

May 3, 2005
Body and Spirit: Why Attending Religious Services May Benefit Health

Fallacy of false cause.

"MrPepper11" <MrPepper11@go.com> wrote in message
news:1115130335.857176.126380@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...

May 3, 2005
Body and Spirit: Why Attending Religious Services May Benefit Health
By KEVIN HELLIKER
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

The number of Americans who attend religious services at least once a
week jumped nearly three points to 27.5% during the two years ended in
2004, according to statistics to be released this week by the
University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center.

This leap could be good news for the nation's health. A growing body of
scientific evidence shows that Americans who attend religious services
at least once a week enjoy better-than-average health and lower rates
of illness, including depression. Perhaps most important, the studies
show that weekly attendance confers a significant reduction in
mortality risk over a given period of time.

These studies have received almost no attention, in part because there
is skepticism among many medical scientists about the validity of these
studies, as Lynda Powell can attest. A professor of preventive medicine
at Chicago's Rush University Medical Center, Dr. Powell was a
nonchurch-goer who was very suspicious of such studies. Then in 2001,
the National Institutes of Health asked her to lead a three-scientist
panel that would review the mounting pile of medical literature
purporting to link religion to health.

The panel found scant evidence of the benefit of religion on illness,
and found that patients who used religion to cope fared slightly worse
than those who didn't. "Religious people who become upset by the belief
that God has abandoned them or who become dependent on their faith,
rather than their medical treatment, for recovery may inadvertently
subvert the success of their recovery," concluded the panel's report,
which was published in the January 2003 journal American Psychologist.

But the panel's examination of studies showing the effect of church
attendance on health reached an altogether different conclusion. As Dr.
Powell, who is continuing to research this issue, puts it: "After
seeing the data, I think I should go to church."

The panel reported that the studies showed a 25% lower mortality rate
for those who attend religious services at least weekly. Each study
covered a different period of time. But generally speaking, that means
that during any period in which there were 100 deaths among those who
don't attend weekly, only 75 weekly attendees would die, even though
both groups on paper seemed at equal risk for death, Dr. Powell says.

Religious services at churches, temples and mosques boast various
features that can be beneficial to health -- meditation, a social
network, a set of values that discourage smoking, infidelity and other
unhealthy behaviors. Many of the studies have found that the health
benefits of weekly attendance accrue more heavily to women than to men,
perhaps because women make greater use of religious social networks.

Of course, people who attend weekly religious services are by
definition well enough to get out of the house regularly, suggesting
that they may enjoy an inherent health advantage. Indeed, studies show
no health advantage for people who watch religious services on
television.

But it isn't simply that people showing up for church are healthier;
they also are more likely to improve their health habits. When compared
with nonweekly attendance, "weekly attendance was associated with a
statistically significant improvement in quitting smoking, becoming
often physically active, becoming not depressed, increasing the number
of individual personal relationships and getting married," said one of
the examined articles, which was published in the Annals of Behavioral
Medicine in 2001. That study gathered health and mortality data over a
period of 30 years on 2,676 Californians, 26% of whom attended
religious services weekly.

Not everyone is convinced that religious services account for the more
robust health and survival documented in these articles. The same
health benefits could be derived from belonging to a bingo club or
socializing at the local library, says Emilia Bagiella, a Columbia
University assistant professor of biostatistics. Also, she says, "it's
hard to correct for the fact that people who go to church may have a
better health status" before they arrive.

But the studies supporting a link between religious-service attendance
and health come from such secular institutions as the universities of
Texas, Michigan and California at San Francisco. And their authors
don't necessarily go to church or perceive the mortality benefits of
doing so as the handiwork of God. "Being religiously involved can
confer certain health benefits, and I don't think there's any divine
intervention involved," says Robert A. Hummer, a nonchurch-going
University of Texas sociology professor whose studies have shown a
health benefit for regular religious-service attendance.

Moreover, Dr. Powell says that she and her colleagues excluded from
their review any study that failed to control for the social benefits
of church attendance as well as the healthier habits of those who go
regularly. Even after excluding those factors, they found a significant
health and mortality benefit from regular attendance. "There's an
unknown mechanism" contributing to the benefit, she says, adding that
she doesn't believe that that mechanism is God.

Dr. Powell says that a continuing study of hers is suggesting that that
mechanism might be the practice, encouraged in nearly all religions, of
turning to prayer or meditation in moments of anger and distress,
thereby diminishing the harmful effects of negative emotion. She tells
of a Sikh cab driver who told her that any time another driver cuts him
off, he reaches for his prayer beads. In doing so, he told her, "I feel
closer to God."

Well, the less than once year event where I end up in a church, after
checking out the stained glass windows and other artistic embellishments
the
church may have, I usually end up thinking about sex. Guess that could be
considered a healthy thing. That, and participating in "religious
aerobics", i.e., sit, stand, kneel, repeat ;)

But the panel's examination of studies showing the effect of church

attendance on health reached an altogether different conclusion. As

Powell, who is continuing to research this issue, puts it: "After
seeing the data, I think I should go to church." <<


COMMENT:

What morons. Since all this is retrospective post hoc analysis of
epidemiological data, it's equivalent to saying "After seeing the
health of women who take Premarin, I think I should too." Duh.

is premarin. Church is vitamin E. Never mistake the rightous feeling
you get from taking a church service, or taking a pill, with actual
extension of life. Different groups do different things.

Of course, people who attend weekly religious services are by

definition well enough to get out of the house regularly, suggesting
that they may enjoy an inherent health advantage. Indeed, studies

no health advantage for people who watch religious services on
television. <<


COMMENT:
Well, there you are. What's difficult to understand about this?
Healthy people are healthier. Today's newsflash.

Moreover, Dr. Powell says that she and her colleagues excluded from

their review any study that failed to control for the social benefits
of church attendance as well as the healthier habits of those who go
regularly. Even after excluding those factors, they found a

health and mortality benefit from regular attendance. "There's an
unknown mechanism" contributing to the benefit, she says, adding that
she doesn't believe that that mechanism is God. <<


COMMENT:

No, they didn't find a health and mortality benefit FROM attendance.
They found a health and mortalit y benefit ASSOCIATED with

Nothing -- NOTHING-- about their study says anything about what
direction cause and effect opperates in. Or if both things are caused
by a third factor. Like, as we said, being fit enough and mentally

eno ugh and happy enough and with enough money to buy nice enough
clothes to get out of the house and be seen in public in the first
place.

I get so tried of epidemiologists! If a study should show that

of new BMWs are on average healthier than those who drive broken-down
Geo Metros (which I have no doubt that it would), would these same
epidemiologists really be suggesting that people should figure out

to beg, buy, or steal, a more expensive ride?

A growing body of scientific evidence shows that Americans who attend
religious services at least once a week enjoy better-than-average health and
lower rates of illness, including depression.

Uh huh. Studies also show that "happy" people are at least mildly delusional.
So it fits...

In our last episode
<1115130335.857176.126380@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>, MrPepper11
pirouetted gracefully and with great fanfare proclaimed:

A growing body of
scientific evidence shows that Americans who attend religious services at
least once a week enjoy better-than-average health and lower rates of
illness, including depression.

Uh huh. Studies also show that "happy" people are at least mildly
delusional.

So it fits...

MrPepper11 wrote:

May 3, 2005
Body and Spirit: Why Attending Religious Services May Benefit Health
By KEVIN HELLIKER
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

The number of Americans who attend religious services at least once a
week jumped nearly three points to 27.5% during the two years ended
in 2004, according to statistics to be released this week by the
University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center.

What was the name of the study that showed any change in environment,
good or bad led to an increase in productivity?

What was the name of the study that showed any change in environment, good
or bad led to an increase in productivity?

Sad that these people need an illogical delusion to teach them what's

On 03 May 2005, MrPepper11 dropped trou, farted, whirled, then shouted:

Religious services at churches, temples and mosques boast various
features that can be beneficial to health -- meditation, a social
network, a set of values that discourage smoking, infidelity and other
unhealthy behaviors. Many of the studies have found that the health
benefits of weekly attendance accrue more heavily to women than to men,
perhaps because women make greater use of religious social networks.

Sad that these people need an illogical delusion to teach them what's good
or bad for them. Social networks can be found everywhere. Bowling alleys,
beauty parlors, golf courses, sporting events... The only thing society
would miss if churches closed down would be the fix for the death thing.

--
Vic Sagerquist
aa#2011
Supervisor, EAC Department of little adhesive-backed "L" shaped
chrome-plastic doo-dads to add feet to Jesus fish department

Plonked by Jason Gastrich for all eternity...
______________

As you were, I was. As I am, you will be.
--- Hunter S. Thompson