Mindfulness Over Matter
Although the study of medicine involves a strong grasp of the hard sciences, the ability to effectively aid patients in real life often requires a softer approach. During times of great suffering or grief, many patients will turn to coping mechanisms that involve a glance “inward” towards individual spirituality or “upward” to a higher power. Physicians are no different, as a study on the religious characteristics of U.S. physicians showed that 55% of those that responded admitted that their religious beliefs influenced their practice of medicine. Politics and sports teams notwithstanding, religion tends to be the topic best left untouched in most social circles, but the intimacy of the patient-doctor relationship, especially during dire times, may inevitably lead to difficult questions discussing things such as God and the after-life. Whatever a physician’s personal beliefs, a preparedness to handle such conversations and an overall understanding of the effect that religion and spirituality has on a patient may be imperative.
Although many religions often refer to the intangible, the effects they have on the brain are quite measurable. A recently published article in Medical News Today discussed the effects different religious practices have on certain brain areas. According to researcher Dr. Andrew Newberg, there is an increase in activity in the frontal lobes during both meditation and prayer, an area that is primarily responsible for “future planning and attention”, along with a decrease in the parietal areas, which are responsible for “temporal and spatial orientation.”And in a separate study, Dr. Jeff Anderson of the Utah School of Medicine studied the brains of Mormons using an fMRI scanner and found that those who felt the greatest sense of “the spirit” also had the highest increase in brain areas associated with “pleasure and reward-processing.” Based on these results, religion is revealed to not only have an immaterial importance for individuals, but very physical consequences as well, not dissimilar to the effects of love and other serotonin-releasing activities.
Furthermore, the results of meditation and prayer can be quite beneficial to a person over a period of time, as one study from UCLA showed. Long-term meditators were shown to have a significantly larger volume of grey matter throughout the brain than those who were not. As astounding as these results may seem, the effects of thoughtful meditation reach beyond anatomical changes of the brain into physiological ones as well. Research on the effect of mindfulness meditation on brain-computer interface performance showed that those that were a part of a meditation-focused group had a higher BCI accuracy than the music training and control groups. As described in the study, “…brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) enable stroke and motor neuron disease patients to communicate and control devices” (Tan et al.). Based on this, it would appear that meditation, even on the relatively short twelve-week time scale given by this study, is shown to improve one’s ability to regulate their own attention and subsequent actions more effectively.
These studies, however insightful, show the effects of meditation on the individual, and not necessarily on outward events. While there is little to no evidence on the effects prayer has on a patient’s overall medical condition, it can nonetheless be an important aspect of his or her experience. Understanding this can be pivotal to a doctor’s approach when caring for certain patients, which is not always an easy task. As Dr. Ranjana Srivastava remarks, “Our patients routinely volunteer information about their sexual habits, drug abuse and domestic violence and we rarely feel uncomfortable in the same way as we do at the mention of religion. Like me, many doctors wonder whether and how to handle a conversation about a perennially controversial topic without compromising ourselves in the process” (“The Question Doctors Fear Most: 'Do You Believe in God?”). While the tenderness of this topic may be difficult, to the many Americans that have spiritual beliefs, it may be a subject physicians should feel more comfortable discussing with the patients who may need it.
References:
Curlin, Farr A, et al. “Religious Characteristics of U.S. Physicians.” Advances in Pediatrics., U.S. National Library of Medicine, July 2005, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1490160/.
Sandoiu, Ana. “The Neuroscience of Religious and Spiritual Experience.” Medical News Today, MediLexicon International, 20 July 2018, www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/322539.php.
Srivastava, Ranjana. “The Question Doctors Fear Most: 'Do You Believe in God?' | Ranjana Srivastava.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 31 Aug. 2015, www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/01/the-question-doctors-fear-most-do-you-believe-in-god.
Tan, Lee-Fan, et al. “Effect of Mindfulness Meditation on Brain–Computer Interface Performance.” Egyptian Journal of Medical Human Genetics, Elsevier, 22 Nov. 2013, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053810013001499.
Walton, Alice G. “7 Ways Meditation Can Actually Change The Brain.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 17 Jan. 2018, www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2015/02/09/7-ways-meditation-can-actually-change-the-brain/#357d3a8f1465.
