How different religions impact the health of the populations

Many studies have been done on the impact of different religions on its populations' health. Most religions bring a positive health benefit to its people. In my view, the major universal benefits of any religion include:

• Providing a supportive social circle. It provides family for those who may not have one.
• Encouraging healthy practices and discouraging bad practices such as smoking, drugs etc.
• Providing a transcendent power to believe in and look up to in times of loss.

Religion provides hope when there is no hope. It gives people something to hold on to. A study done by Koenig et al on "The Relationship between religious activities ad blood pressure in older adults" showed that adults that attended a religious service at least once a week had their diastolic hypertension 40% lower than those who did not. In another study, Koenig et al also found that depressed patients who had a strong intrinsic religious faith recovered over 70% faster than those with less faith.

The Yale Medicine Journal of Winter 1998 has an article that shows the link between religion and health in the elderly. The article points out three major benefits for those who participated in religious services:

• lower frequency of unhealthy behaviors.
• Stronger support systems ans social ties.
• Improved emotional well-being.

There are also other religions that encourage unhealthy practices. One of them is the ATR (African traditional religion). Among other bad practices, it encourages people to:

• Drink fresh animal blood.
• Discourage immunization.
• use of one unsterilized utensil (e.g. sharps) on many people.
• Sleeping with a virgin to cure HIV/AIDS.

There is a new version of Christianity that started in Africa. Among its major doctrines are:

• A man can have more than one wife - encouraging the spread of HIV/AIDS.
• No immunization among children.
• No taking of western medications (pills, syrups etc).

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