A book review in this week's BMJ (p 1043) examines the link between religion and health or, rather, psychoneuroimmunology and faith. Although unconvinced by any such link, the reviewer concedes that this is an area in which much serious research is being done, and a quick internet search confirms this. What seems the latest trend in a world that feels a deep need for more than just technological and scientific progress may be a revival of historical tradition (in which medicine and religion even had the same proponents), as explained in an analysis assessing prayer, faith, and health (www.davidmyers.org/religion/faith.html).
The Institute of Faith and Health (www.faithandhealth.net/firstvisit.html) offers advice on drawing on spiritual as well as other resources in response to physical illness to improve cooperation between patients and medical professionals as well as improve health outcomes.
An academic approach is offered by Harvard University's Religion, Healing, and Health Initiative (www.hds.harvard.edu/cswr/health/health.htm). This aims to turn rigorous intellectual attention to the many ways in which religious practices, beliefs, and institutions construct, and are constructed by, experiences of illness, health, and healing cross culturally
Scepticism is expressed in a review article in Annals of Behavioral Medicine (www.sbmweb.org/about/index.html; summarised at http://hbns.org/newsrelease/religion3-11-02.cfm). And another reviewer concludes that we will have to wait for compelling and reproducible (by non-believers) evidence that the beneficial health effects of religion are caused by something more extraordinary than socialisation, relaxation, and placebo (www.infidels.org/secular_web/feature/1998/prayer-USAToday.html).