Bazaar United Methodist Church

Bazaar, Kansas

Proverbs 17:22

Health and Happiness

One of my favorite Proverbs says, A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones. (Proverbs 17:22) It is a fact that happy people get sick less than unhappy people. Now it is true that some of us have genetic factors that work against us. I apparently received all of the allergy genes from both of my parents. My sister and I share the nut allergy but she does not have all of the inhalant and food allergies that I have. And for one reason or another some of us may have depressed immune systems. We just have to live with that, but as a general rule happy people get sick less often than unhappy people.

So it is imperative to consider your level of happiness as important to your physical health. In one long-term study, conducted over 30 years, those research participants who were high in positive emotions were also found to have lower incidences of many health problems, including mental disorders, drug dependency and liver disease related to alcoholism. They were also lower in death rates from cardiovascular disease, suicide, accidents, and homicides. Furthermore happy people seem to live longer. Even people who were initially of similar health and medical conditions including smoking addiction at the beginning of a study, led to the conclusion that happiness increased longevity. And such studies cross cultural and ethnic boundaries with the same results.

A joyful heart is good medicine. The author of Proverbs knew this truth long before modern psychology began to study the phenomenon of happiness and how it relates to our overall well-being. We now know that "the immune systems of happy people tend to be more effective than those of depressed people." That is not to say that all of us won't get sick from time to time. Just about all of us who have been around the stomach virus that is so virulent, got it. Being happy won't protect us from everything. But happy people seem to have "higher levels of infection fighters, such as natural killer cells" in their bodies.
In The Anatomy of an Illness: As Perceived by the Patient, Norman Cousins tells of being hospitalized with a rare, crippling disease. When he was diagnosed as incurable, Cousins checked out of the hospital. Aware of the harmful effects that negative emotions can have on the body, Cousins reasoned the reverse was also true. So he borrowed a movie projector and prescribed his own treatment, consisting of Marx Brothers films and old "Candid Camera" reruns. It didn't take long for him to discover that 10 minutes of laughter provided him with two hours of pain free sleep. Amazingly, his debilitating disease was eventually reversed. After the account of his victory appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, Cousins received more than 3000 letters from appreciative physicians throughout the world.
Cousins discovered the truth of positive attitudes and laughter as a healing art. In his book, Timeless Healing; the Power and Biology of Belief, Dr. Herbert Benson reminds us that the placebo effect is 30-90% effective and should be considered a valid healing tool, not written off as just something "in your head." By the same token negative thoughts and emotions, the nocebo effect, are toxic and can do serious harm to our health and well-being.

For instance, a new study just reported Wednesday to the American Psychosomatic Society which was meeting in Chicago, that depression doubles the risk of heart disease. The study followed 1200 middle aged men none of whom had symptoms of heart disease at the beginning of the study. In fact, depression contributes to heart disease as much as diabetes, high cholesterol, or obesity. And depression can cause people to do less well after a heart attack because they are less likely to follow through with their exercise or to stay on their medication if there are side-effects. Now, don't get me wrong, we are well aware that some depression is caused by chemical imbalance and requires medication to correct it. I have been there and done that. But some people are simply so negative that they think themselves into a constant negative state and depression. If we can think ourselves in, we can also think ourselves out. And all of us can help ourselves and each other by being more positive.

It is all too easy to fall into the trap of negative talk and negative thinking. But it is bad for us. It is bad for our health and it is bad for everyone around us. Negativity drags everyone down. We all need to think of happiness, hope, and optimism as important health-protective factors. Paul wrote to the church at Rome and said, May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13) Hope, joy and peace. Those are antidotes to negativity.

It's true, we do not live in a stress free world. Stress is a major factor in our lives. And while our bodies were built with a wonderful fight or flight response for major stressors, we actually receive very few of those in our lives today. What we weren't built for was chronic stress. And since we don't often react to stressful situations with physical exertion, or burn the energy that we are endued with in a fight-or-flight response, we are often subject to negative physiological repercussions. The adrenaline and noradrenaline this stress response produces can increase our blood pressure which over time can cause enlarged and strained hearts, cardiac arrhythmia, atherosclerosis, strokes and internal bleeding. It can also contribute to higher levels of anxiety, depression, anger and hostility. Scary stuff, huh?

So we need to have tools to help us reduce our stress daily. Dr. Herbert Benson believes that using a simple meditative technique for ten to twenty minutes twice daily will elicit what he terms the Relaxation Response and will rapidly relieve the stress that leads to all these negatives caused by chronic stress. Furthermore, Benson believes that people are hard-wired for God. In his research he found that anyone can elicit the Relaxation Response and benefit from it. However, those who related their meditation to their faith increased its effects in three ways:
1) People who chose a focus, that draws upon their deepest religious convictions, were more apt to adhere to the elicitation routine, looking forward to it and enjoying it; 2) Affirmative beliefs of any kind brought forth remembered wellness, reviving top-down nerve-cell-firing patterns in the brain that were associated with wellness; 3) When present, faith in an eternal or life-transcending force seemed to make the fullest use of remembered wellness because it is a supremely soothing belief, disconnecting unhealthy logic and worries. He goes on to say that a belief in God dispatched by our brains is deeply soothing to our bodies.

If you would like to attempt Benson's technique, it is quite simple. And it does work. Simply sit comfortably and repeat a word, prayer or phrase and ignore any other thought that comes to mind. Do this for 10-20 minutes twice each day. It is a form of meditation. I tend to use scriptural verses. Like "Bless the Lord, O my soul" or "God is our refuge and strength" and tie them to my breathing. I don't say them out loud. It is so simple a child can learn to meditate. It will not be easy at first but the more often you do it, the easier it becomes. You will feel your entire body completely relax. And it will be a very healthy activity that will also grow your spiritual life if you aim your meditation toward God.

Benson's studies indicated that many people felt an increase in spirituality in the midst of the relaxation response. Persons who reported this increase described two things about the experience: 1) the presence of an energy, a force, a power-God-that was beyond themselves, and 2) this presence felt close to them. These same people noted the greatest medical benefits.

Benson points out the remembered wellness makes religious ritual a very powerful mechanism for healing, that the fellowship offered in religious community is equally restorative, and that persons who help other people consistently report better health. This agrees with current studies by Stephanie Brown at the University of Michigan. She found that "giving support to others is more important to longevity than receiving support. She found that elderly individuals who gave little emotional or practical support to others were more than twice as likely to die during the five years she followed them compared to people who gave to others."

Faith, Benson says, short-circuits the nonproductive reasoning that often consumes thoughts and quiets the mind like no other form of belief. He explains because faith seems to transcend experience and base reality, it is supremely good at quieting distress and generating hope and expectancy. With hope and expectancy comes remembered wellness-the neurosignature messages of healing that mobilize the body's resources and reactions.

Dr. Benson is well backed up by the research. Faith, prayer, and spiritual meaning do a body good. Dr. Mark Houston of Nashville's St. Thomas hospital said, "The data is impressive. If you have those ingredients of religious commitment-faith, prayer, worship attendance, and other things-you are better off in all aspects of health."

For instance a study in 1995 reported that 232 elderly patients undergoing elective heart surgery were asked how religious they were. Those who described themselves as deeply religious were more likely to be alive six months longer than others.

Another study found that repetitive prayer and the rejection of negative thoughts can benefit treatment of a number of diseases.

Dr. Dale Matthews, a medical researcher at Georgetown University Medical School, has done extensive research into the relationship between faith and health. He cites a landmark study published in 1997 which looked at 5,200 patients over 28 years and found that those people who were regular churchgoers, in other words those who attended church at least one or more times per week, had significantly lower mortality rates. Men had a 25% lower mortality rate and the women had a 33% lower mortality rate. Dr. Matthews says, "The research tells us that people of faith reap benefits in dealing with alcoholism, drug abuse, depression, high blood pressure, heart disease and cancer. We tend to stay healthier, to recover faster, and even when recovery does not happen we cope better with disease."

And that is often the real point. When we get sick, how do we deal with it? Does our whining, moaning and complaining really help us or anyone around us or do we just manage to make everyone else as miserable as we are? I have a friend who quipped, "well that's always my plan. If I'm miserable then you should be too." But that isn't really the best plan. Whining, moaning and complaining tends to keep us sick longer while a positive attitude and expecting to get well sooner will help us get well sooner. My friend is one of those who says, "I am positive. I'm positive I'm sick. I'm positively miserable. I like company when I'm miserable." Now he says it tongue in cheek but you get the point.

But all of us know of or have known persons who have been extremely ill and have been a positive presence for all those who came to visit them. I would name Bob Campbell as a man I knew who died of cancer when I was in Kansas City who was that way. Bob kept his sense of humor right to the end. He was able to keep everyone who visited him in stitches. Death and dying was not a morose subject, it was a subject of humor. I admit, he could get a little gross from time to time but you had no doubt that Bob was well prepared to pass from this life to the next. He had no fear. He could talk seriously about it but didn't with most people. He cheered up almost everyone who came for a visit.

One pastor casually wished an older member of his parish a good day. His parishioner remarked, "They're all good days. It's what we put in them that changes them." In Genesis 1 we read that as God made the world day by day and day by day he pronounced that creation process good. Surely you and I can accept that every day is a good day. We can remember that A joyful heart is good medicine and we can act accordingly so that we can be healthy and happy throughout our lives. Amen.