Being a believer and practicing a spiritual activity can reduce the risk of suffering from cardiovascular diseases, according to a recent study.
- Heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide.
- In France, more than 140,000 people die from cardiovascular disease each year.
Attending a place of worship and praying can have beneficial effects on cardiovascular health. This was revealed by researchers from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (USA) in work published in the journal Journal of the American Heart Association.
7 Modifiable Risk Factors Linked to Heart Health
To reach this conclusion, they recruited 2,970 African American people who took part in a cohort called the “Jackson Heart Study”, which began in 1998. The volunteers were on average 54 years old at the start of the study. They were grouped according to their spirituality and religious activities (i.e. their level of participation in church services and Bible study groups, how often they pray, how they use their faith to adapt to difficult situations and stressful events).
The scientists then looked at the association between their religious beliefs and a set of heart health behaviors assessed by measures developed by the American Heart Association called “Life’s Simple 7 (LS7)”. These are seven modifiable risk factors related to heart health: smoking, diet, blood sugar, blood pressure, cholesterol, physical activity and weight. Thanks to these measurements, they obtain a score either “ideal”, or “intermediate”, or “poor”.
Heart health: higher scores thanks to spirituality
According to the results, people who attended a place of worship were 16% more likely to obtain intermediate or even ideal levels for physical activity, diet, smoking and blood pressure. According to the authors, prayer was also associated with an increased likelihood of reaching intermediate or ideal levels for eating and smoking.
“I was mildly surprised by the findings that multiple dimensions of religious beliefs and spirituality were associated with improved cardiovascular health for multiple health-related factors that are extremely difficult to change, such as diet diet, physical activity and smoking, said LaPrincess C. Brewer, author of the study, in a statement.
