Complementary Alternative Cardiovascular Medicine

138 Alternative Cardiovascular Medicine
90% of people believe in a Higher Being (1,2). In a recent survey of
complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in the United States,
35% of people reported that they had used prayer as a therapy for their
personal health concerns (3). A study conducted in 1996 demonstrated
that 96% of Americans believe in God, at least 90% pray, and more than
40% had attended organized religious services during the past week (4).
This chapter explores the relationship between prayer and cardiovascular
disease (CVD) by providing terms for evaluating prayer and spirituality
in a modern medical setting, by discussing the literature to date and
by considering implications for future research.
CVD, particularly heart disease, raises spiritual issues. Patients with
cardiac disease often undergo invasive tests and procedures and major
surgery and experience troubling or even disabling symptoms. Furthermore,
patients with heart disease are invariably confronted with the
prospects of their own mortality. Many patients, families, and communities
turn to spirituality or religious practices to help cope with the stress
and uncertainty that surrounds cardiac disease and treatment, to seek a
source of hope and comfort, and even potentially to influence outcome.
Hospital and health care staff involved in patient care in the cardiovascular
setting may also incorporate prayer formally or informally into
their practice patterns. As much as prayer is a part of the fabric of care
patterns, little systematic study or information about the importance of
it in cardiac care has been collected to date.
DEFINITIONS AND NOMENCLATURE
Although diverse and even colorful language may be interesting for
cultural, philosophical, or theological discourse, the indistinct and potentially
redundant health care terminology and nomenclature confound systematic
applications. To study prayer’s healing effects, certain aspects
of religion, spirituality, and prayer must reach at least the level of consensus
definition.
Koenig defines religion as “an organized system of beliefs, practices,
rituals, and symbols designed (1) to facilitate closeness to the sacred or
transcendent (God, higher power, or ultimate truth/reality) and (2) to
foster an understanding of one’s relationship and responsibility to others
in living together in a community” (5). Spirituality is defined as “the
personal quest for understanding answers to ultimate questions about
life, about meaning, and about relationship to the sacred or transcendent,
which may (or may not) lead to or arise from the development of religious
rituals and the formation of community” (5).