Sunday, February 18, 2007

Faith and strokes: Interesting study

A recent article reports what the faithful already knew.

The article, "Scientific American: Religious faith may help stroke victims: study," is based on an article in newsletter Stroke, published by the American Heart Association. Researchers at the San Raffaele Pisana Rehabilitation Center in Rome interviewed 132 stroke survivors about their religious beliefs and spirituality.

"The analysis showed higher scores on the anxiety and depression scale correlated significantly with lower scores on the religious and spirituality questionnaire," said the American Heart Association, which publishes Stroke.

In English: Chances are, if you have faith, your stress levels are lower after a stroke.

One more note from the article: "The reasons for this possible link between faith and post-stroke emotional distress are hard to pin down, though the researchers gave tentative explanations."

Hard to pin down? How about this: God, through your faith, gives you strength.