April 30, 2000

Healing Revolution

Dr Benjamin has been traveling and lecturing for several days, so we are going to give you some background, by way of an article, "The Healing Revolution," Life magazine, September 1996, by George Howe Colt, pp 10-13.

Free reprint permission has not been granted by Time-Life. This article may be available in your library. It is also still online. Dr Benjamin's section begins on Page 10, and finishes on Page 13.

May 15, 2000

For his last column, we directed you to the Sept '96 Life magazine article "The Healing Revolution," in which the author comments positively on Dr Benjamin's use of prayer in his practice. Sam continues this opening with a more on the subject ...

Prayer and Healing

I feel that God is with me every day and this provides me with comfort. However valid my faith is for me, I know that we are all interconnected and that God has given us the tools to exploring this connection and to validate it. Dr Elizabeth Targ, a physician-scientist at the California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, conducted a study using AIDS patients who were prayed for and compared the progress of their disease with similarly infected patients who were not prayed for. The "experimental" group (those who were prayed for) did much better than the "control" group (those who were not prayed for) – even though they did not know that anyone was praying in their behalf. The people who prayed did not know the AIDS patients that they prayed for. While there is much yet to be studied in this area, there is more and more "evidence" for what we already know. Prayer is darn good for you and everyone you pray for.

It is, therefore, amazing to me that the medical community in our nation's medical schools and teaching hospitals are so against teaching about prayer and healing. Why the heck don't they just let young medical students do what comes naturally for most of them – pray. If you can't encourage it – don't fight it! Yet, indeed they do. At my school (Stony Brook Medical School), I was attacked because of my commitment to prayer and healing. The "scientists" see this as "unscientific," "primitive" – "quackery."

Now what irks me is who are these folks to criticize prayer. They (and their form of science) have only been around a little time and prayer has been here much longer. Why is it that prayer has endured for so long?" There must be something going on! Yet my colleagues see themselves as the protectors of "scientism" and evidence-based medicine. If there is no "evidence" for God, then s/he must be a figment of our fertile imaginations and an image that we summon up to quell our fears in times of need or when confronted with the unknown (such as death). To me this is downright arrogance. I do not know of anyone who has expired in an emergency room in this country as a result of an "overdose" of prayer. On the other hand I can think of lots of drugs prescribed by "scientists" that have terrible sequalae. The sixth leading cause of death in hospitals in North America is the result of prescribed therapies – not prayer.

I am not against science. I am not against evidence. I am not against good medicine. I am not even against the docs that espouse to be "scientists." I am, however, against arrogance, prejudice and a myopic view of this universe that does not allow me to enjoy my relationship with God and her/his healing hand. God may not always answer my prayers, but s/he is always with me and with my patients.

If you want to read more about God and Healing, I recommend Healing Words: The Power of Prayer and the Practice of Medicine by Larry Dossey, MD. In fact, all of his books relate to spirituality, intentionality and healing. A great guy and a great writer.

Sam Benjamin, MD

The Amazon.com write up on Dr Dossey's book includes three customer reviews and a professional review. In addition, a synopsis says, "A fascinating and spiritual study of the meaning and purpose of prayer, how we pray, and how prayer helps even when it doesn't answer our specific intentions. Wise and comforting, Larry Dossey is a devoted medical practitioner and counselor, explaining how we conceive of prayer and how those notions change as society changes.

May 30, 2000

Undergraduate Courses on Complementary and Alternative Medicine

We forwarded the following question to Dr Benjamin, who responded in this issue's column:

While there may be a few scattered undergraduate courses that survey Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) and the globalization of medicine, by and large they are non-existent. This should come as no surprise to us because undergraduate courses about medicine are, themselves, influenced by the prevailing philosophy of the "established" medical community in the United States.

US medical education has made some changes, to be sure. More and more medical schools are adding elective courses and in a few cases required training in CAM or CAM-related issues. Yet there is a continuing and perhaps even growing "educational gap" between the lay community and the medical community in the United States regarding CAM and the right of choice.

The community seems to know more about CAM than the professional – horrors! Indeed, there is a clamor for information about CAM from many community docs and nurses. However, let's not kid ourselves. The medical community – medical schools in particular – are as insensitive to your needs today as they have been for the last 50 years. They are on the track of scientism (and I do not mean science but a inclusive investigational methodology that excludes almost everything else), reductionism and they have, by and large, turned a "cold shoulder" to the needs of the communities they serve.

Don't feel too bad, however, it is not just CAM that has met with their scorn. Public health issues are the stepchildren of the medical establishment. Environmental issues are secondary. Prevention, for the medical community, is usually just another way to do more tests or give more pills. How health and disease are globalizing is not even on their radar screen. In addition, issues of self choice – freedom to decide one's fate – are matters that are not even entertained, though they may be given lip service in the hopes of containing the "ignorant and poorly informed" lay public.

As the healthcare system fails, it should not be a surprise that alternatives will rarely, if ever, show up as part of undergraduate or graduate education. Protectionism is the word of the day in medicine! We should support those who are within the system and working for change such as Andrew Weil, MD or Woodson Merrel, MD. We should support the institutions that are allowing them to operate and survive, such as the University of Arizona and Beth Israel. As for the others, don't fight them – disregard them. If you know of educational courses about CAM and personal health freedom – support them!

Do not forget the great equalizer – the Internet! If the college of your choice won't tell you the truth – the Internet will! It's a lot harder to control information now, and that is to our advantage!

This is another American Revolution. Paul Revere might have used the 'Net were it available. "Listen my children and you shall hear of the Internet chat room of Paul Revere." Were he alive today, he might have cried, "The white coats are coming, the white coats are coming. ...."

No, I do not know of any undergraduate courses in CAM, but never fear, because the word is spreading anyhow. It will be a while (old ideas do not go down easily), but I am sure we will dumping the old texts and ideas in Boston Harbor (or an EPA approved site) in the future.

As for me, "No medication without representation!"

Sam Benjamin, MD

We know of college Nursing and Health Departments that offer courses that include CAM material, and several community colleges are moving forward in CAM education. The University of Denver of Metro State College in Denver are developing curriculum that includes some CAM content. If you know of any four-year colleges that offer specific coursework on CAM – in class or online – please let us know – we will print them in upcoming eLetter issues.

June 30, 2000

Prayer and Medical Science

In an October 1999 article, "Prayer Study by Harris et al" in the Archives of Internal Medicine, a group of researchers showed that there was a statistically significant difference in the outcomes of patients in a coronary care unit when prayed for at long distance when compared to a control group. For most of us there is no surprise here. We welcome the research to validate what we already know – prayer is good for you and for those that you pray for!

However, the response from the American medical community best expresses their philosophy: "If I don't believe it, I can't control it and I can't explain why it happens, then it's not real even if it's shown to be true." The medical community made comments that:

• Held the Harris study up to higher standards than they have for any other kind of research document, so that they could dismiss its significance
• Warned that hospitals might loose patients if they openly encouraged prayer within their walls
• Reasoned that this kind of study encourages mysticism and is opposed to science because it has demonstrated something that "can't be."

In response, Larry Dossey, MD prepared a wonderful editorial - in the same journal - on this medical hypocrisy in a measured and brilliant way that I encourage you all to read: "Prayer and Medical Science."

I will only add this question which, I admit, shows my contentiousness and impatience with American medicine and its leaders: "If we spend more money in total and more money per capita than any other country on health care and yet we have been rated by the World Health Care Organization as being 37th in the level of our national health by what reasoning do our medical leaders think that they can defend their position?"

I am not attacking science mind you! I am asking why we assume that only by spending more on technology and reducing phenomena to their most elemental level will deliver better outcomes. The medical establishment continues its cry- more science, more money, more research and more technology will one day yield better outcomes- better health. Well, not withstanding what will happen tomorrow - they have had quite a while to deliver and have done a pretty poor job of it - I can pray today for my friends, this world and those I love. This does not cost anything, it does some good, and I have never known anyone to be admitted to the emergency room of any hospital with a "prayer overdose."

Dr Sam Benjamin is a pioneering holistic MD in New York and Arizona, working side-by-side with other pioneers such as Andrew Weil, MD. He spent a number of years working in international health then later in private practice. Most recently, he was recruited to the State University of New York at Stony Brook School of Medicine where he runs the new Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

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