Saturday, April 08, 2006
go to church & live longer
Some of us may have been puzzled by the recent study claiming that prayer did not necessarily help recovery for ill patients. The following should make us feel a little better:
Weekly attendance at religious services can add up to three years to your life, a new US medical study has found.
Weekly attendance at religious services can add up to three years to your life, a new US medical study has found.
Dr. Daniel Hall, of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, the author of the study published in the March-April issue of the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, compared the impact of regular exercise, statin therapy and religious attendance on life expectancy, and found that each accounted for an additional two to five years of life.
Hall found that regular physical exercise provides the greatest boost to longevity, adding 3.0 to 5.1 years. Use of statin medications accounted for 2.1 to 3.7 additional years, while regular religious attendance added 1.8 to 3.1 years.
