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Faith and Science
Divine Assistance For Healing’s Immanent Activity
Abstract
Faith’s promotion of healing is a miracle until God reveals
further understanding of human biological design. Then God shows healing is by
immanent mechanisms His grace endows. God can assist in our immanence for
healing by empowering humans to develop relationships with Him. Thereby,
transcendence, through faith’s experiences of consciousness and information,
directs psychophysiologic healing. Physiologic mechanisms involve messenger
molecules acting on receptors at the cellular level for mind-body
communications to initiate early gene expression for protein synthesis and stem
cell activation, promoting healing and replacement of damaged cells. Genetic
determinants of existing states can also be modified by mind-body
communications to regulate healing. Existing states are determined by
“software” God imprints in us, genetic information that we can consciously
modify. For example, psychophysiologic cues can alter existing states of immune
function at the cellular-genomic level to determine disease and healing. When
such cues are manifestations of faith, healing that follows may be due to the
placebo response. Beliefs in placebos being the “most effective medication
known to science…” suggest that we neglect our God-assigned role as stewards of
His gifts to creation. We squander resources to seek healing and longer lives
from innovations of science rather than from trust in the Lord. Medical
science, trusting in human ability, does not increase human life expectancy.
Levels of financial support for health care do not correlate with longer and
healthier lives. Having hope in the Lord includes trusting in Him to give
meaning for what He does with our lives. Our call to stewardship is built on
our faith and trust in the goodness of His creation.
The Bible
describes numerous miracles, events that people cannot explain or understand,
throughout both the Old and New Testaments. A miracle is defined as: a
happening that seems to be against the known laws of nature or science, thought
of as caused by God or a god. Miracles were commonly accepted when little was
known about these laws. When God gives us understanding of miracles, of the
marvels of His creative accomplishments, we claim distinction and glory for
“discovering” His “Word,” the information underlying a miracle’s basis. The
experiences God leads us through feeds all of our information. With this
information supporting current understandings on nature and science, many
people accept few if any events as miracles because they can be explained by
“human” knowledge. Such people do not believe the Biblical miracles because their current knowledge proves impossibility for any miracles.
But human knowledge is based on interpretations that are held to be truths.
His Word—Information
for Miracles
The Fountain of Knowledge
Human
beings acquire wisdom and knowledge but the truth and reality they carry come
only from the Lord: faith in Him is the beginning of knowledge (Pr 1:7). Faith
in His Word—the source of all information—allows the Holy Spirit to reveal
interpretation for feeding our knowledge.
Unbelievers despise the wisdom that God has shown in
revelations of His miracles. God’s Word tells us to respond differently: “Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim his
greatness. Let the whole world know what he has done. Sing to him: yes, sing
his praises. Tell everyone about his miracles.” (Ps 105:1-2)
God
begins to reveal His miracles in Genesis 1 where it is described how God
created the universe with His Word; each act of creation begins with “And God
said,….” Later revelation by John tells us that everything created is by the
Word of God: “In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (Jn 1:1-2); and “The
Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”(Jn 1:14) All words contain
information; the Word of God bears information for His creative acts. Words
without information are empty. Creation gains information when God creates with
His Word. When human experience discovers that information, its interpretation
explains creation so that human knowledge suffices and miracles are no longer
needed. But new information can only be interpreted as evidence for more
astonishing miracles reflecting God’s design and purpose of the human body. All
of creation’s miracles are dependent on relationships, in this case between
each and every part of the human body.
Information Essential to Relationships
The most
fundamental units of the universe are events,
not matter or forces.1 Events develop from interaction of entities
in their environment. There can be no relationships between any form of matter,
living or inert, without information that can be passed through interactions.
All of the universe’s entities are created for relationships with others and
each entity is identified by its relationships, its exchanges of information,
with all other creation, not by a description showing no relationships. God
created everything, from subatomic particles to galaxies, with the ability for
interaction, so that all have relationships. Interactions force responses by
all involved, and for human beings interactions are essential for their lives
to have meaning and significance.
Human
beings, by creating events, have
ability to interact in specific ways. People can interact with nonhuman
entities. More importantly, humans are created to interact with themselves,
with other humans, and with God. The Holy Spirit is important in the
interaction with God. God sends the Holy Spirit to believers in order for Him
to instruct them and keep their minds on God. During eternal life, interactions
can continue with ourselves, others, and God.
God’s
creation by His Word imparts information to both sustain and redeem us. When
necessary we are sustained by healing. Healing is dependent on the immanent
processes He provides. But healing is also determined by maintaining
relationships with our Creator. This transcendent relationship is active when
we believe in integrity for our immanent healing potential and when we believe
that God is actively involved in our inherent healing abilities. This most
important relationship with God is entirely dependent on faith—that His
Information can assist our biological processes in beneficial ways. Reverence—the cardinal virtue—includes faith in
the immanent mechanisms we have for healing.
Biblical Healings
Narratives
from ancient times document healing for humans that is dependent on their faith
in God. One event during the time Moses was leading his people in the desert
speaks about a miracle from God:
Then the Lord
sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died.
….So Moses prayed for the people. The
Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten
can look at it and live.’ So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole.
Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he
lived. (Nu 21: 6,8)
Strong faith in God counts this as one of His miracles
(Figure 1). The New Testament describes many miracles performed by Jesus. Most
involved healing of people and a few describe resurrection of individuals from
death. These miracles were not possible without a transcendent relationship
between God and His creation.
Figure 1. van Dyck
painting: Moses and the Serpent—seeing is believing and results in healing
Human “knowledge” does not accept reality for Biblical
miracles. But current scientific knowledge helps us to understand and
appreciate how we can now show the basis for “miracles” that heal the human
body. God made this possible by creating human beings with the ability for all to know Him:
For since the
creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine
nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so
that men are without excuse. (Romans 1:20)
When humans dimly see, through the
veil revealing scientific information, and understand what God has created, His
invisible qualities are more clearly seen. Immanent mechanisms for healing to
explain speedy and “miraculous” recoveries become more fully understood. Faith
in healing, that we can choose, implements interaction of God’s assistance with
our immanent biological healing processes.
His Transcendence—More
information For Miracles
Life’s Immanent Healing Ability
Human
beings’ immanent healing mechanisms enable spontaneous recovery for most
diseases or ailments. Sometimes this “self-cure” is triggered by an outside
influence called a placebo, resulting
in the placebo phenomenon.2 Often self-cure is
not possible without such an outside influence. Placebo medication is an inert
and ineffective substance believed by the user to be an effective drug. “A
placebo effect is a change in a patient’s illness attributable to the symbolic
import of a treatment rather than a specific pharmacologic or physiologic property.”3 A medical authority, recently quoted in the British
Medical Journal, described placebos as the “most effective medication known to
science, subjected to more clinical trials than any other medicament yet nearly
always doing better than anticipated. The range of susceptible conditions
appears to be limitless.”4 Over the
centuries, medical treatments for many diseases were not failures. Their
success may be explained by the conclusion: “medicine, until the most recent
periods, has been merely a ‘placebo effect.’”5
Healing
successes are also documented following different nontraditional therapeutic
approaches that are described as holistic, complementary, alternative and
spiritual. Their successes result from placebo responses where therapy can
change peoples’ beliefs—a mind-body therapy. No one who heals, by traditional
or nontraditional means, ever attributes healing to a placebo response. Their
healing powers are always claimed to be in the unique techniques or spiritual
powers that the healers employ.
Vision for Healing
The placebo phenomenon shows that a person’s
beliefs and information generate expectancies on disease outcomes. Expectancies
ranging from hope to despair act on the immanent healing processes. Positive
expectancies are based on peoples’ experiences that they recover spontaneously
from most illnesses. Hope is essential for healing and placebos give people a
basis for hope. A placebo given with no other treatment is a “hope only”
treatment. Placebos bring no healing to people without hope and mired in
despair. God’s wisdom tells us that “Where there is no vision people perish.”
(Proverbs 29:18 KJV)
Faith is
essential for a placebo to be effective—faith in an external authority. Some
Christians believe modern medicine’s dogma that only scientific knowledge,
medical and surgical procedures, and drugs can heal. They decline anything
resembling faith healing; they have no vision to seek the Lord’s assistance.
They shun unusual non-traditional healing approaches and stay in the good graces
of physicians who do not believe that mental events can direct physical events,
that faith can “heal.” The placebo phenomenon embarrasses modern doctors,
especially when it shows they have little control over healing processes.
Admission that one cannot manage alone (giving up control) leads one to trust
in the divine assistance that is
available for our immanent healing processes.
Suffering’s
cause is often unknown. When symptomatic drug therapy fails, diagnostic
procedures are used to discover suffering’s cause, and sometimes such
procedures provide no answers. In such cases, doctors frequently believe the
cause to be an incurable disease. Diagnostic searches may continue until the
doctor finds evidence to suggest cancer. Since most cancers are incurable, this
evidence becomes a death sentence. Physicians are not embarrassed when no
treatment can offer success—they can give up trying. Earlier death results in
people who believe they should give up trying, that no hope can be justified.
With oblivion the consequence of hopelessness, hope is always justified and
sometimes leads to complete and spontaneous disappearance of cancer or some
other “incurable” pathology. The Lord promises us that: “Anything is possible
if a person believes.” (Mark
Believing is Seeing
Believers practice the
genuine treatment of prayer for healing: “O Lord my God, I cried out to you for
help, and you restored my health.” (Psalm 30:2) Unproven “genuine”
treatments—which both doctors and patients truly believe in but are
scientifically known to be ineffective (unproven)—can result in hope-based
recoveries; yes, thought to be genuine treatments (believing) often have
placebo effects (seeing). Data in table 1 show the degree of improvement with
treatments thought to be genuine at the time but are now known to be
ineffective.3 These data show that believing is seeing results in the placebo phenomenon
Table
1. Placebo Effects in Studies of Medical
and Surgical Treatments for Pain
Condition or Disease
|
Treatment or Management
|
Percent
Improved
|
|
|
|
|
|
Herpes simplex virus infection |
Levamisole |
85% good-excellent |
|
|
Photodynamic inactivation |
85-100% good-excellent |
|
|
Organic solvents topically |
83% good-excellent |
|
Duodenal ulcers |
Gastric freezing |
98-100% marked-complete relief |
|
|
|
65% good-excellent |
|
Angina pectoris |
Internal mammary artery ligation |
63% significant improvement |
|
|
Skin incision only |
56% significant improvement |
|
Angina pectoris |
Internal mammary ligation |
100% improvement |
|
|
Skin incision only |
100% improvement |
|
Temporomandibular disorder |
Sham tooth-grinding |
64% total-near total remission |
|
Lumbar disk disease |
Negative surgical exploration |
37% complete relief of sciatica |
|
|
|
43% complete relief back pain |
When Seeing is Believing
Science
and the world’s reasoning “power” tell us to believe in only what can be seen
and proven. Belief in placebo responses no longer need embarrass anyone deeply
committed to only what can be seen and proven. The placebo effect can now be
“pictured.” Functional magnetic resonance imaging studies can capture
differences in regional brain blood flow and activity before and during a
placebo response.6 Studies were done
during painful but harmless heat or electrical stimuli on the arm. After local
application of what individuals were told to be an anti-pain cream, these
stimuli resulted in decreased brain activity in pain-sensitive regions; pain
sensation was reduced. Also, blood flow increased in brain regions where
anticipation of pain would be initiated by heat or electrical stimuli; this
increase reflects expectations for pain relief from the placebo.
Another
procedure likely to produce its effect by the placebo response, acupuncture,
also reduces brain blood flow in functional magnetic resonance imaging studies.7 This is associated with response to treatment for
relieving pain and managing addictions. For those who must “see to believe”
these studies prove the placebo phenomenon.
Placebo versus Proven Genuine Treatment Effects
Federal drug
approval usually requires testing in controlled studies to compare a drug’s
effectiveness with a placebo. In many studies the placebos are very effective.
Placebos given to patients for depression are 59 percent as effective as
tricyclic antidepressants, 62 percent as effective as lithium, and 30 to 50
percent as effective for other treatments.8 Psychotherapy, a standard treatment for many mental
conditions is characterized as the ultimate
placebo. 9 Data on schizophrenics indicate
that the withdrawal of medication and substitution of a placebo is associated
with a lower rate of relapse than the discontinuation of medication without
providing a placebo. Similar responses follow the use of drugs to relieve pain.
Information
on a drug’s side effects given with a placebo in place of that drug results in
a wide variety of side effects about which the patients receiving the placebo
have been warned.
With no Hope People
Perish
Just
as hopelessness compromises immanent healing mechanisms for resolution of
untreated but curable problems that can resolve spontaneously, it also
interferes with healing following medical and surgical management of curable
diseases. People who believe that they will die during a surgical procedure are
more likely to die than optimistic patients.10 Some surgeons refuse to perform surgery on patients with
this fatalistic attitude. Hopelessness contributes to fatalism by also being a
major determinant of depression. People afflicted with depression are 50 to 60
percent more likely to have nonfatal and fatal ischemic heart disease than
people having no depression. Hopeless people anticipate a joyless existence.
Pain is depressing and prolonged pain deepens
depression to the point that all activity and thinking are impoverished—life
becomes hopeless. Anxiety is also associated with pain and can alternate with
depression. With depression, expectation for the worst is inevitable. With
anxiety, a threatening future demands a response. Anxious patients’ obsession
is that effective treatment can be found somewhere. Going from one doctor to
another, however, often leads to mutual anger (with doctors), alienation and
repeated disappointment. Following treatment failures, depression usually
replaces anxiety. With any treatment likely to fail, hopelessness and despair
prevail. Coping with pain fails when one’s attention is monopolized by fear,
anxiety and depression. Medical science admits that: “Coping needs inspiration
and inspired help to live with pain.”11
Immanent healing mechanisms need
inspiration and help that are available from transcendent information.
Healing’s
Immanent Activities
Faith is
a human experience of consciousness, and information from this experience is
transduced (transformed) in the brain (probably limbic-hypothalamic-pituitary
system) to modulate gene expression for facilitating healing (Figure 2). The
mechanisms include messenger molecules and their receptors that effect
responses through the autonomic nervous system and neuroendocrine transmitters.
At the cellular level, mind-body communications can initiate early gene
expression for activating protein synthesis to promote healing.12 Genetic determinants of existing states can also be modified
to regulate healing (neurotransmitters to signal healing rise and fall during
the body’s normal basic activity cycles—activity in these cycles can change to
meet the needs for healing).
Faith-healing
is thus a psychophysiological healing. The healing process is determined by
conscious mental events; healing is facilitated by an individual’s normal range
of (immanent) abilities in response to challenges—the normal range of abilities
is the Creator’s design for a comprehensive fitness. Faith in His design
enables healing by the “entrainment of biological processes by psychosocial
cues,” by the psychosocial cue of faith.13 In addition, changes in gene expressions can be directed
by our “environment, behavior, consciousness, and lifestyle choices.” “Neither
genes nor environment dominates development; rather there is a continuous
interaction between genes and the environment.”14
Figure 2. Faith Facilitates Healing
Faith (human experience of consciousness)
Information from faith transduced in brain
Modulation of gene expression
Facilitation of healing
Biblical
healing was often manifested quickly after genuine faith sought healing. These
healing responses were miracles which science could not explain. Until
recently, humans understood healing processes to be slow and determined
entirely by our inherited “changeless” genome. Now science (as reflected by an
NIH committee) knows that healing processes can begin rapidly and under the
control of rapidly changing genetic influence. 14 What kind of gene expressions are possible, especially for
believers whose environment is built on faith?
Immediate Early Gene Expression
Gene
changes can occur within minutes, through “immediate early gene expression,” in
response to psychosocial clues and significant life events.15 Signals received from stimuli outside the body activate
genes that code for formation of proteins which participate in maintenance of
health and facilitation of healing processes. Proteins are the “informational
and computational processor of life at the molecular level,” and most
importantly in healing.16 Immediate early
genes integrate mind and body to implement healing throughout the body. These
genes are turned on and off in response to our conscious efforts—thereby faith
can heal when they are on. 17 The transcendent Word provides the essential
information (psychosocial clues) to create changes for optimizing function
in our immanent healing processes. Jesus demonstrated that both His words and
touch healed people. Current research shows that touch and verbal suggestion
can initiate immediate-early-gene protein cascades to facilitate healing.18
Gene
expression is also determined by states of behavior and consciousness such as
waking, sleeping, dreaming, emotions, motivation, and stress.19 This state-related or state-dependent gene expression
forms part of the “software” that God imprints in His created beings. This
software is designed to be consciously modified at any time; God provides us
with the ability to creatively adapt ourselves at the genomic-protein level.
Adaptation involves dynamics of energy, information and structure at the
molecular level.20 The states of
behavior and consciousness influence immediate early gene expression that is
initiated by psychosocial clues to
promote early gene protein cascades for facilitating growth and healing and for
maintaining health.
Healing
attributed to the placebo response may be due to activation of stem cells to
replace damaged and dying cells with healthy ones.21 Stem cells can be found in most tissues of mature
organisms. With injury damaging healthy cells, stem cells can receive molecular
(psychogenomic) signals to differentiate and produce new healthy cells to
replace those that are lost. These signals initiate immediate early gene expression
in stem cells to generate proteins and growth factors for facilitating
neurogenesis, and for differentiation and maturation of stem cells to form
well-functioning tissues. Genuine belief or faith in healing is responsible for
the placebo response on stem cells.
Molecular Mechanisms for Gene Activation
A variety of
extracellular stimuli activate immediate early genes.22 Activation can be initiated by neurotransmitters binding
to membrane receptors, by membrane depolarization induced by neural transmission,
and by changes in ion transport through membrane ion channels (Figure 3).
Figure 3. Membrane Events Activating IEGs
Immediate Early Gene
Expression
Psychosocial clues(faith) & significant life events
Neurotransmitter
Ion Membrane
Binding
Exchange Depolarization
Activation of Protein Kinase
This initiation results in
intracellular cAMP formation which binds to and activates a protein kinase, a
enzyme that regulates further activity acting on CREB
(cAMP-response-element-binding protein) for its phosphorylation to produce a
gene-transcription factor (Figure 4). In the brain this transcription factor
binds to a critical Ca2+
response element (CRE) within the BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic
factor) gene to activate this gene’s transcription. Protein products of the
BDNF gene function at synapses to control adaptive neuronal responses. They
also are important for neuronal survival and plasticity, protection against
stress, and neurogenesis. Many immediate early genes operate as transcriptural
regulatory factors that activate the expression of other “late-response” genes.
|
|
Figure 4.
Intracellular Events Producing IEGs
Immediate Early Gene Expression
Activation of Protein Kinase
CREB (cAMP-response-element-binding
protein
CREB phosphorylation (gene-transcription
factor)
Binding to critical Ca2+
response element (CRE) within BDNF gene
BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor)
gene transcription
Gene expression for neurogenesis—neural
plasticity
Extracellular
stimuli activating immediate early genes and BDNF mRNA(messenger RNA) are
unlikely to have different membrane receptors for each stimulus. Thus, each
stimulus possesses some properties to initiate membrane events. In addition,
stimuli such as drugs may act at different steps in the intracellular
biochemical processes to promote or reduce neurogenesis and protein synthesis
for healing. Activation of BDNF expression may also follow a common pathway for
differing means to treat depression such as the use of antidepressant drugs,
repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, and electroconvulsive seizures.
The
ultimate effects of immediate early genes are probably by “a series of immediate
early genes, members of various families, all interacting with one another and
with other second and third messengers to affect several transcriptural
regulating sites and, thus altering gene expression.”23 Some
immediate early genes probably dominate and control the outcome of multiple
stimuli. Faith’s influence may or may not influence the outcome, especially in
the presence of drugs that are stimulating immediate early gene activation.
Modulation
of Gene Activation
Different
stimuli can activate different patterns of expression of immediate early genes
in the same cell type and a specific stimulus can have different expressions on
different cell types.24 Early gene
activity is initiated by drugs that probably act by binding to membrane receptors.
Drug effects can be to protect neuronal function by promoting BDNF activity, as
with antidepressants, or to reduce neurogenesis by drugs of abuse (such as
opiates).
Stress
and its important consequence, depression, can cause neuronal atrophy, cell death
and decreased neurogenesis, especially in hippocampal neurons. Depression
causing neural tissue atrophy and death reduces brain volume.25 This brain pathology is associated with decreased
expression of BDNF and elevated levels of glucocorticoids (expected with
stress). Antidepressant drugs reverse this pathology and prevent
down-regulation of BDNF mRNA, thereby enhancing neurogenesis and preventing
atrophy. Antidepressants can induce cell apoptosis (death), however, with
prolonged or high drug dosage. 26 Stimuli up-regulating and down-regulating
neurogenesis are listed in Table 2.
Table 2. Neurogenesis
Up-regulation
|
Down-regulation
|
|
Enriched Environment |
Stress |
|
Exercise |
Glucocortcoids |
|
Learning |
Drugs of Abuse-Opiates |
|
Antidepressant Drugs |
Age |
|
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation |
Excessive Antidepressant Drugs |
Early Genes Activate Late Genes
Depression becomes a
chronic and hopeless problem for many people. Furthermore, depression can be a family
problem, affecting more than one member. Epidemiologic studies have led to the
conclusion that “sensitization to stressors and episode sensitization occur and
become encoded at the level of gene expression” 27 and maybe that genetic alteration can be passed on to
future generations and put them at risk for depression. Drugs of abuse activate
immediate early genes that lead to molecular changes responsible for addiction,
changes which include expression of genes that can be lasting. 23
Psychosocial Cues and Immune Function
Psychosocial
cues can affect immune function through activation of immediate early genes at
the cellular-genomic level.18,28 Psychological stress, leading to depression and
hopelessness, can down-regulate immediate early genes that are involved with
activation of oncogenes promoting some cancers.18 Stress can also
down regulate the transcription of the interleukin-2 receptor gene and
interleukin-2 mRNA production. Reduced production of this messenger molecule
reduces signals of white blood cells to attack pathogens and cancer cells.
Psychosocial cues (such as faith) to optimize immune system function may
explain the miracle of spontaneous remission for cancer. Such cues can also be
used for amelioration of clinical signs in asthmatics, another disease of
immune dysfunction.
Co-creating
Ourselves
Immanent Training Ability
God
created all biological life with “sufficient training,” with an immanence for
life’s maintenance and for life’s restoration—healing. God creates human beings
with a unique consciousness that is able to supervise “education of living
substance,” thereby, giving them another ability for augmenting the immanent
sufficient training. Consciousness gives humans the ability to know and
understand—to have faith—that they can supervise the education of living cells
for healing, but only through faith enabling transcendent assistance. With
faith in God’s design, people are not alone in dealing with their needs for
healing. “One might say, metaphorically, that consciousness is the tutor who
supervises the education of the living substance, but leaves its pupil alone to
deal with all those tasks for which it is already sufficiently trained.”29 “Highly motivated
states of consciousness can turn on and focus gene expression, protein
synthesis, neurotransmitters, and neurogenesis in our daily creative work of
building a better brain.” 30 Faith is the great motivator of consciousness to
drive these changes.
With the
ability to educate living substance “we can co-create ourselves in cooperation
with nature.”31 Our nature consists of
human beings’ biological mechanisms which God designed. We can “co-create” by
empoying what we can control—consciousness to freely determine our will. We do
not co-create ourselves without faith that we can freely determine to choose.
Non-human life does not have the consciousness to co-create. We co-create
ourselves by becoming a “letter from Christ,…,written not with ink but with the
Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human
hearts.”(2 Cor 3:3) Our faith encoded in genes by our co-creation marks us
“with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our
inheritance…”(Eph
People
with some medical problems can co-create themselves or exercise “mind over
matter” by employing electroencephalogram (EEG) biofeedback or neurofeedback
for healing.32 EEG biofeedback enables individuals to use
information on characteristics of their brain waves (EEGs) to change their
brain wave activity. Abnormal EEGs can be normalized by conscious effort to
help problems such as listed in Table 3. This method for co-creation may show
benefits because of its placebo effect. 5
Table 3. Therapeutic
applications for which neurofeedback has been effective
|
Addiction |
Anxiety |
Attachment Disorder |
|
Attention Deficit Disorder |
Autoimmune Dysfunctions |
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome |
|
Chronic Pain |
Conduct Disorder |
Depression |
|
Epilepsy |
Sleep Disorders |
Stroke |
|
Tourettes Syndrome |
|
|
Where there is no Co-Creation
A
deficiency of biological changes (events) that can be activated by co-creation
to promote healing and build a “better” brain, is suggested to be associated
with psychological depression. Psychologists believe that happiness and
positive psychological attitudes are associated with optimal gene expression
(activating co-creation) that leads to neurogenesis, healing, and well-being.
But many psychologists do not accept human’s immanent ability to consciously
co-create, and believe that “to understand hope and despair, we must seek an
evolutionary explanation for the capacities for enjoyment and suffering,
happiness and sadness.”33 Evolutionary
explanations leave people with only pharmaceuticals to manipulate feelings.
With evolutionary beliefs in the hopelessness of genes determining
predispositions to such problems as generalized anxiety syndrome and
depression, drug therapy becomes the only—the only management.
Psychologists
themselves, however, tell us: “Psychologists have scant knowledge of what makes
life worth living.”34 Thereby, drugs
become the important management
because of this belief that psychologists confess. On the other hand, believers
know that joy, peace and gladness comes only to those with faith in the Lord.
Desire for Extreme Makeover
We
are dissatisfied with our bodies, are unhappy with our earthly bodies. Paul
tells us: “But God gives it (us) a body as he has determined, and to each kind
of seed he gives its own body.”(1 Cor
Americans
are educated to believe that medical science enables people to live longer and
healthier lives. Vast resources are devoted to achieving these promises but
with no proven results. If that is the case, are Christians good stewards by
spending increasing percentages of our resources to try to live longer and
healthier? How long can we expect to live? We know that God says something
about this:
The length of our days is
seventy years—or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble
and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away. Ps 90:10
This passage was written when human average life expectancy
was less than 30 years. The promise of life expectancy today is similar to that
in the Psalms passage. Life expectancy a century ago was approximately 50 years
and the dramatic increase since then is due to improvements and innovations not
in medical sciences to diagnose and treat diseases but in public health and
preventive medicine.35 Where
peoples’ life expectancy remains short, contagious diseases represent the major
cause.
Co-creation’s Purpose
Human
potentials for co-creation are not designed to provide a way for extreme
makeover. Co-creation provides a way to change—for recovery and healing—so that
humans can live a full and healthy life, for a length that enables time and
efforts for fully using their God-given gifts and purpose.
Stewardship
for Co-creation and Healing
Information from Science
Biological
scientists claim that the increasing body of research knowledge promises to
greatly increase human life expectancy. As a result people believe in sophisticated
technology and health care to increase their life expectancy. That increases
financial commitments, especially for including everyone in the opportunity for
the “best” medical care. Consequently, health care spending in the
Figure
5
The
Figure 6
Increased
spending for health care does not increase life expectancy in the United States
or any other country in the developed world (Figures 6 and 7). 37 Spending for health care in the United States is more than
15 times greater than Costa Rica with the result that life expectancy is the
same for both. 35 Gross domestic
product per capita and gross national product also do not affect life
expectancy in these countries. Life expectancies are shorter in countries
having low GDP and major infectious disease problems; they will dramatically
increase when both these conditions change. Life expectancy remains low in
countries having higher GDP and persisting problems with infectious diseases.
Major increases in GDP do not increase life expectancies throughout the world when
a plateau of 70 to 80 years is reached (Figure 7).38 United States ranks 34th in this figure showing
life expectancies for countries worldwide (three-fourths of developed countries
outrank America in life expectancy and infant mortality). How is the greatest
per capita spending for health care able to result in an average life
expectancy no better than this?
Figure 7
A recent
Rand Corp. research study on health care reported that although Americans pay
more for medical care, they receive the right treatment less than 60 percent of
the time.39 The results were the
same for cities with higher income levels, fewer uninsured residents, and more
world-respected medical institutions than communities without these advantages.
“No matter where you live, you are at risk for poor care.”39 Because most patients recover, this suggests that recovery
was “spontaneous” and could not be attributed to the intervention of medical
care. For those who do not recover, death is often the result of medical errors
so that “more people die in a given year as a result of medical errors than
from motor vehicle accidents (43,458), breast cancer (42,297), or AIDS
(16,516).” 35 This study did not include deaths outside
of hospitals—in doctor's offices, pharmacies, or out patient clinics—which
would make the fatality rate even higher.
More than
100,000 people die annually due to overmedication and adverse reactions to
prescription drugs.35 The number of
drug deaths is surpassed only by heart disease, cancer, and stroke. Drugs,
therefore, can be deadly. To what degree are they necessary and effective?
“Many of the treatments the medical system provides are unnecessary…”35 Patients living in
regions of the country with large numbers of medical specialists are treated
more intensely with procedures and drugs than in regions with fewer numbers of
specialists but have no greater life expectancy. Greater numbers of specialists
with greater diagnostic and treatment technology discover more
“pseudo-diseases” (problems with no effects on a person’s life expectancy), but
which are often managed medically or surgically. 35
Doctors
treating patients with mental problems, ranging from depression and addictions
to schizophrenia and bi-polar disease with little hope for optimal
subjective-well-being, are quick to prescribe an antidepressant drug.
Depression affects one out of every eight adolescents and the drugs they are
given are incriminated as the cause of many suicides in this age group.40 Depression leading to anxiety and despair is
a leading problem in adults, and doctors are not reluctant to treated them;
they don’t want their patients to feel bad. Antidepressant type drugs never
cure anyone and may interfere with help from counseling.41
Heart
attack patients are believed by most people to be best treated with procedures
such as angioplasty and bypass surgery. But, “their value is by no means
certain”—two-thirds of the procedures performed are deemed to be unnecessary.42 Heart attack
patients in the United States undergo angioplasty and bypass procedures seven
times more often than patients in Canada and Sweden, however, their death rates
are virtually identical. In the
A
substantial part of American medical expenditures is spent on treatment for
back pain—more than 70 percent of adults suffer back pain at some time in their
lives 43
“Yet for all the costs, for all
the hours spent in doctors’ offices and operating suites, for all the massage
therapy and acupuncture and spinal manipulations, study after study is leading
medical experts to ask what, if anything, is doing any good.” 43 Most of the time the pain goes away with or without medical
treatment, prompting a professor of medicine to say: “Maybe you’re better off
not going to a doctor.” 43
Most pain
problems resolve spontaneously, regardless of treatment. “Nature” has reasons
for a variety of unpleasant symptoms we suffer for our protection and which are
essential to healing. In addition to pain they include vomiting, diarrhea,
inappetance, fever, depression, etc. Rather than using the many drugs to
relieve these signs we should remember: “Sometimes it really is good to keep on feeling bad.”44 Moreover, for those whose faith is in medical and surgical
management, it is prudent to heed those who state: “…in most pain and research
situations, nonspecific effects of treatment are underestimated, and patient
improvement is likely regardless of treatment….It cannot be assumed that a
treatment whose response rate is more than one third is better than placebo.” 3 Doctors take an oath to do no harm. Is that oath forgotten when
they employ procedures and treatments that cause harm and may have no proven
benefits?
Environment
and social conditions play an overwhelming role in determining the prevalence
of diseases and premature death. 35 A medical research
study reports that 40 percent of all deaths are caused by behavior patterns
that could be prevented. 35 Direct medical care services to individuals
cost $1 trillion dollars annually but only 5 percent goes for programs to
promote more healthy behavior.
God
created us to be responsible stewards of His creation. We fail in being
accountable when we believe that stewardship is mostly for our material wealth
or possessions. We believe in many reasons for not distributing wealth equally
to a nation’s citizens in order to provide health care for all. “Wealthy
nations with low income equality, however, such as
The Psalmist told us
how long we can live. Now science tells us that “healthy human cells are mortal
because they can divide only a finite number of times, growing older each time
they divide.”45 With aging a person’
cells lose telomeres, the DNA sequences found at the ends of each chromosome,
which represent the biological aging timing mechanism or clock. As a person’s
cells age they can no longer assist in maintaining and repairing human tissue.
Information from Transcendence?
In creating us with
His Word, God embedded information in our body proteins. We gained the
indwelling of the Holy Spirit with faith in God and this insured more
information so that His plans for us would be “written” in our hearts. This
additional transcendental information enables the immanent information from our
creation to participate in a co-creation that we are empowered to choose. Faith
activates the co-creation and with it “anything is possible if a person
believes.”46
Transcendence Directing Stewardship
God leads us by assisting our immanent healing potential from His perspective. If we don’t follow Him we will have people seeking assistance from a secular scientific perspective. God gives us the responsibility for being stewards of His entire creation (Genesis 2). As His stewards we are entrusted with the management of everything He creates. This management must include insuring adequate health care for all. Everyone must be treated fairly and have equal access to procedures and managements that have proven merits and benefits. Management of His creation also includes education on how we can enhance our immanent healing abilities for responding to medical problems—on maintaining our bodies as holy temples. Most importantly, stewardship is built on trust in Him and the gifts He has given us to care for all of His creation.
Is Spending more responsible stewardship?
We are not responsible stewards by
budgeting more money and a greater percentage of our GDP for health care. As a nation
becomes wealthier it spends proportionately more on medical care.47 Approximately one-sixth of
Increasing number of physicians-effects
Health
care costs are high when a population has too many physicians. With no
advantages in having care from more and more specialized doctors, responsible
stewardship can begin by having fewer doctors. Health care costs in
Increasing emphasis on education
Health
care costs should be increased for programs to promote healthy behavior—truly
conditions for optimal living.
Doctors are not paid to educate patients on promoting healthy behavior or on
preventing medical problems. Less than five percent of health care budgets is
spent on this education.
Preventive
medicine for healthier living must have its highest priority on dietary
recommendations to prevent and manage the problems of overweight and obesity
(Figure 8 and Table 4). The estimated direct costs of obesity (defined as
having a body mass index greater than 30) to healthcare in 1999 was 238 billion
dollars which is over 20 percent of a trillion dollar a year spending for
healthcare in the U.S.A.49 At this time the
U.S.A. had the highest rate of adults considered to be overweight or obese
(with 34% of adults being overweight and another 31% defined as obese).50 The Bible says little on peoples’ eating habits other than
a few verses on gluttony. Christian leaders say virtually nothing on obesity
problems and do little to help afflicted individuals. Excessive consumption of
food concerns stewardship for both the individual consumer and the needy
throughout the world. Christians need to face the question whether they should
take leadership in attacking the overweight problems that despoil the holy
temple and that magnify the consequences of their problems. Some may believe
that these problems are ones to be solved by the secular world.
Americans
are estimated to spend over $44 billion for programs to lose weight or manage
obesity. People have been taught to believe that magical programs exist to
solve their problems. They do not want to accept that our body weight is
determined by the simple mathematics of calories in and calories out. Whatever
we eat “a calorie is a calorie is a calorie.” The amount of money spent on
obesity-determine health problems ($238 billion) and the $44 billion for
programs to lose weight represents more that 25 percent of our total healthcare
spending. Coupled with dietary changes, stewardship must include
recommendations for maintaining a consistent exercise program.
Figure 7. The risks
for medical problems increase greatly for diseases in this graph. Not shown is
many other diseases at greater risk in overweight people. Data from The Lewin
Group.49
Table 4.
Heights And Weights That Determine Whether People Are Normal Weight Or
Overweight. American Obesity Association categories51
|
Height |
Normal Weight |
Overweight |
Obese |
Morbidly Obese |
|
4' 6" |
79-104 |
105-124 |
125-145 |
>145 |
|
4' 7" |
82-107 |
108-129 |
130-151 |
>151 |
|
4' 8" |
85-111 |
112-134 |
135-156 |
>156 |
|
4' 9" |
88-115 |
116-138 |
139-162 |
>162 |
|
4' 10" |
91-119 |
120-143 |
144-167 |
>167 |
|
4' 11" |
94-124 |
125-148 |
149-173 |
>173 |
|
5' 0" |
97-128 |
129-153 |
154-179 |
>179 |
|
5' 1" |
100-132 |
133-159 |
160-185 |
>185 |
|
5' 2" |
104-136 |
137-164 |
165-191 |
>191 |
|
5' 3" |
107-141 |
142-169 |
170-197 |
>197 |
|
5' 4" |
110-145 |
146-174 |
175-203 |
>203 |
|
5' 5" |
114-150 |
151-180 |
181-210 |
>210 |
|
5' 6" |
117-154 |
155-185 |
186-216 |
>216 |
|
5' 7" |
121-159 |
160-191 |
192-223 |
>223 |
|
5' 8" |
125-164 |
165-197 |
198-230 |
>230 |
|
5' 9" |
128-169 |
170-202 |
202-236 |
>236 |
|
5' 10" |
132-174 |
175-209 |
210-243 |
>243 |
|
5' 11" |
136-179 |
180-214 |
215-250 |
>250 |
|
6' 0" |
140-183 |
185-221 |
222-257 |
>257 |
|
6' 1" |
144-189 |
190-226 |
227-265 |
>265 |
|
6' 2" |
148-194 |
195-233 |
234-272 |
>272 |
|
6' 3" |
152-199 |
200-239 |
240-279 |
>279 |
|
6' 4" |
156-205 |
206-246 |
247-287 |
>287 |
|
6' 5" |
160-210 |
211-252 |
253-294 |
>294 |
|
6' 6" |
164-216 |
217-259 |
260-302 |
>302 |
|
6' 7" |
168-221 |
222-266 |
267-310 |
>310 |
|
6' 8" |
172-227 |
228-272 |
273-318 |
>318 |
Table 4. Categories of weights (normal, overweight, obese, morbidly obese) are derived from body mass indices [calculated BMI= 703 x weight in pounds divided by (height in inches)2]. Normal weight BMI=<25, overweight BMI=>25<30, obese BMI=>30<35, and morbid obesity BMI=>35.51
The
secular world has taken the lead in reducing addiction to harmful substances
such as tobacco, alcohol, and drugs of abuse. Little is heard from the pulpit
on helping people who are at risk for or have such addictions. Christian
stewardship cannot ignore the tremendous cost to the health care system
incurred by obesity, drugs, alcohol and tobacco. In the last century, many
Christians led the work to improve living and working conditions—the real
reason for increases in life expectancy. Now the country’s leaders think
continued improvement that increases individuals’ standard of living will
improve the health welfare of all. Increased discretionary income to spend,
however, leads to temptations for greater addiction to food, alcohol, drugs and
tobacco.
Education
must also include information on the amounts and effectiveness of spending on
the elderly who consume about 38 percent of all health-care dollars, yet
account for just 12.4 percent of the population. This cost is substantial for
health care that can promise little extension of life for the elderly. Much of
that cost is also spent on the last six months of a person’s life. Unrealistic
promises to people facing that end cannot be made merely to maintain income for
hospitals and health-care providers. Under these conditions Christian
stewardship is not practiced by either providers of care or their recipients.
It comes down to trusting in the Lord or trusting in unrealistic promises and
outcomes that are associated with much of the procedures and health care for
people in the last six months of their lives.
The
unrealistic rising expectations of people for promises of medicine to extend
life expectancy and cure most diseases drives healthcare costs higher. Medicine
has not been able to increase life expectancy and has not shown promise for
curing the most common such as cancer and heart disease. Stewardship is wanting
when a high percentage of our God-given resources are used to chase these
promises.
Christian stewardship leaves no one behind
Responsible
stewardship must include provisions for health care for the entire population.
This need not be a part of wealth distribution but only equal access to necessary
health care. This is essential to increasing a population’s life expectancy.
Prescription drug abuse
If
it is true that a treatment’s response rate is better than one-third does not
mean that it is better than a placebo, many drugs should not be so widely
prescribed. Drug manufacturers are driven to develop new drugs that can be
claimed to be “better” than any other to treat a specific medical condition.
Newer drugs usually have activity that is essentially the same as ones
currently used. The only differences are increases in potency and possibly
fewer side effects. The potency of some older drugs can be increased by
prescribing higher doses with little danger. The advantages of any newer drugs
are usually marginal despite the claims made by their manufacturers. Costs for
treating many medical problems are much less when prescribing generic forms of
the drugs already available. Health care offerings can practice better
stewardship by relying on generic drugs rather than the costly new drugs.
In addition
to being of questionable value, any drug has undesirable side effects. Newly
introduced drugs are almost always tested for short-term side effects but many
drug manufacturers seldom know of their long-term side effects. More important
are the side effects of drugs that pose a greater problem in older people.
Persons 65 years or older make up less than 15 percent of the US population but
account for nearly one third of prescription drug consumption. Drugs are
handled differently in an older person than one who is younger than 65 years of
age. This difference changes a drugs dosage but for many drugs no studies have
been done to evaluate a therapeutic and safe dose for an older person. Recent
studies report that 28 commonly used drugs have been deemed potentially
inappropriate for use in elderly people because of adverse effects. These
undesirable effects were of high severity for half the drugs and of low
severity for the other half.52
Why are inappropriate drugs prescribed when “safer alternatives usually exist?”52 If a drug had value that could not be questioned there
would be no need to develop a “better” one to replace it.
Drugs of
abuse permanently alter gene expression—a long-term side effect.53 Can prescription drugs have similar effects? Do we genetically
engineer ourselves with drugs? A pharmaceutical’s long-term effect may be due
to genetic changes. If a drug has that potential, a patient is a better steward
of one’s body by taking a placebo.
Drug
manufacturers sometimes lose a market for a specific drug because studies show
a lack of it being effective for a disease that it had been approved for.
Rather than losing their investment in that product, the company’s scientists
will sometimes make claims for its effective use in treating a different
problem. Thereby, the drug can be marketed for use to treat a different
disease.
Alternate
forms of therapy usually have no side effects and their use should be
encouraged by care providers and supported by health care costs. Such therapy
removes dependence on prescription drugs and the placebo effects alternative
therapies provide can contribute to a genetically determined healing by
assisting the immanent healing mechanisms.
Technology—The High Priestess
A
notable achievement of the Twentieth Century was the triumph of technology.
Developers of medical technology have reaped the highest honors and awards.
Unfortunately, the use of these technologies in the United States has
contributed little to increasing life expectancy. They cannot make claims for
improving health care because the cost of some medical technologies excludes
many people from any benefits they offer. Costly new medical technologies can
also provide no better diagnostic answers than less costly established
procedures. Advances in medical technology is one of several factors most
responsible for driving healthcare costs higher.50 Responsible stewardship requires a commitment to judicious
use of medical technologies.
Social support—stewardship for relations
Social
support is essential for healing of many medical problems. Social support
promotes health, making individuals less prone to disease, and lowers mortality
rates.54 With abandonment of
social support there can be little hope. Medicine cannot promise this hope
because it is “explicitly tentative and probabilistic in its pronouncements.”55 Only faith—God’s gift to us—can offer hope for
understanding, meaning and healing. Without social support “the self is a very
poor site for finding meaning.”56
People cannot find meaning by relying on their instinctual nature that drives
individuals to attain their choices, rights and fulfillment—the embodiment of
complete autonomy.
Without
social support it becomes easy to practice despair, the “dominant text of our
culture.”57 The power of despair
grows from a failure in our self-sufficiency. Despair of any generation leads
to depression which inevitably shortens life expectancy. Dependence on drugs to
relieve despair has potential to co-create us genetically and interfere with
the activities of faith and hope to heal us and promote a healthier and longer
life. As stated earlier, the greater reliance of Americans on “life-saving”
drugs has not increased their life expectancy.
Incentives for stewardship
For most people the promise of a longer and healthier life
than the average citizen is not an effective incentive for stewardship that
changes one’s living conditions. Financial incentives can be more immediate
rewards that will prompt some people to change how they live.
Universal
health care funded by the state is mandated by countries in the developed
world. The
In
Genesis 1 God tells us that what He creates is good. The great goodness He creates in humans is not that we live
on earth forever in paradise. That goodness lies in His promise to sustain us
by the immanent healing mechanisms He creates in us and the transcendent
assistance we can receive from Him (Figure 9).
Figure 9. Faith and trust in the Lord empowers human immanent healing activities and calls on God’s assistance
Immanent training ability and
Motivation by faith
Transcendent assistance
Education of living substance
Activates gene expression, protein
synthesis
Neurotransmitters, neurogenesis
Empower immanent healing activity
God created our immanent activities for healing, using His Word—conveying us information. He gives more information—His transcendence—to protect His creation.
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Paper presented at 2004 American
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medicine can claim little for any more recent improvements in life expectancy.
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36. Data Source:
37. Data Source: OECD
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38. Data from: http://www.geographyiq.com/ranking/ranking_Life_expectancy_at_birth_dall.htm
39.
40. Elizabeth Shogren, “FDA
sat on study linking pills to child suicide risk,” http://seattle
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41. Drugs can interact with membrane receptors and
at the intracellular steps for IEG activation of faith-induced changes so faith
and hope can be blocked from contributing to healing.
42. Collins Conner, “Quick Fixes for Heart May Not
be Best Medicine,” http://www.sptimes.com/2004/04/04/news_pfWorldand
nation/Quick_fixes_for_heart.shtml
43. Gina Kolata, “Healing a Bad Back Is Often an Effort in Painful Futility,” http://wwwnytimes.com/2004/02/09national/09BACK.html. Patients having more expensive MRI rather than radiographic imaging studies received more intensive treatment than those who were only radiographed, but the recovery was the same for each group.
44.
Randolph Nesse, "What good is feeling bad?" The Sciences, (November
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45. Jerry W. Shay, “Aging and Cancer:
Are Telomeres and Telomerase the Connection?” http://www.accessexcellence.org/LC/ST/st10bg.html
In contrast, almost all cancer cells are immortal and have thus overcome the normal cellular signals that prevent continued division.
46. Mark
47. R. Mark Wilson, “Medical Care
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48. Alan Sager, Deborah Socolar,
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49. Data from The Lewin Group.
http://www.lewin.com/Lewin_Publications/Uncategorized/Publications-8.htm
50. “Health Spending in Most OECD Countries Rises, with the
51. Data from the American Obesity Association. http:www.obesity.org/subs/fastfacts/Health_Effects.shtml
Other obesity-related medical conditions include: Osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, birth defects, cancers (breast, esophageal and gastric, colorectal, endometrial, renal cell), cardiovascular disease, carpal tunnel syndrome, chronic venous insufficiency, daytime sleepiness, deep vein thrombosis, diabetes (type 2), end stage renal disease, gallbladder disease, gout, heat disorders, hypertension, impaired immune response, impaired respiratory function, infections following wounds, infertility, liver disease, low back pain, obstetric and gynecologic complications, pain, pancreatitis, sleep apnea, stroke, surgical complications, urinary stress incontinence, and a long list of other problems.
52. Lesley H. Curtis, Truls
Ostbye, Veronica Sendersky, Steve Hutchison, Peter E. Dans, Alan Wright,
Raymond Woosley, Kevin A. Schulman, “Inappropriate Prescribing for Elderly
Americans in a Large Outpatient Population,” Arch Intern Med., 164, (2004), 1621-1625. This papers also cites a
study where “the panel identified 35 drugs or classes of drugs inappropriate
for use in elderly persons with certain
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(2004), 244-247.
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54. Peter Salovey, Alexander J.
Rothman, Jerush B. Detweiler, Wayne T. Steward, “Emotional States and Physical
Health,” American Psychologist, 55, (January 2000), 110-121.
55. Christopher Peterson, “The
Future of Optimism,” American
Psychologist, 55, (January 2000), 44-54.
56. David G. Myers, “The Funds, Friends, and Faith of Happy People,” American Psychologist, 55, (January 2000), 56-65. Social support for followers of Jesus Christ is the assurance that He is always with them, He will never leave us even when we may feel that everyone has abandoned us. We can never feel lonely with that assurance.
57. Walter Brueggemann, “A Text
That Redescribes,” Theology Today, 58, (January 2002), 526-540.