Imagine getting a prescription for two hours of meditation.
MSU researchers will begin a study in September attempting to find a link between spirituality and health. Templeton Advanced Research Program granted MSU $1 million, which Michael Boivin, associate professor of neurology and ophthalmology and principle investigator in the study, will put toward researching the connection between spirituality and breast cancer patients' attitudes throughout treatment.
Rather than focusing solely on biological factors, the researchers will use several different areas, including psychiatry, neurology and immunology, to test the effectiveness of spirituality on health.
Rather than focusing on specific religions, researching strong spiritual ties has the ability to unite people of different backgrounds.
Using spirituality as a treatment, and even prevention, for health conditions makes sense. The philosophical maxim goes back a long way — if you think positively, something positive will happen.
Harnessing our own spirituality, which usually means maintaining a positive outlook no matter how dire the situation, has some powerful benefits. We've all heard the stories of people coming into health who had previously been told that they would never recover. Maybe luck or prescriptions weren't always the only causes for such drastic turnarounds, and maintaining an optimistic perspective gave recovery that extra boost patients needed.
The effects of spirituality seem positive. But there is still a blurry line in determining just how to test these effects.
Where does coincidence end and spirituality begin?
Using psychiatry to track the success of terminally ill and ailing patients is a strong step toward utilizing less medications and more natural approaches.
But maybe, sciences aside, the effectiveness of psychiatry and other therapies lies in the focus of human-to-human care. While physicians can prescribe medicines to ailing patients, therapists see talking and listening as the most effective solution.
Holistic medicine, which takes into account mental and social factors, is not a new approach to healing patients. And the results of MSU's spirituality study may have the power to validate previous claims made by alternative medicines. Issuing pills may not be the only way to help alleviate patients' illnesses.
