This book presents new medical research establishing a connection between religion and health and examines the implications for Eastern and Western religious traditions and for society and culture. It examines a series of psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) topics that relate to religious faith and behavior. PNI studies the relationships between mental states and the nervous, endocrine, and immune systems. Among the issues explored are how mental states in general and belief states in particular affect physical health. The book argues that religious involvement and belief can affect certain neuroendoc ... More

This book presents new medical research establishing a connection between religion and health and examines the implications for Eastern and Western religious traditions and for society and culture. It examines a series of psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) topics that relate to religious faith and behavior. PNI studies the relationships between mental states and the nervous, endocrine, and immune systems. Among the issues explored are how mental states in general and belief states in particular affect physical health. The book argues that religious involvement and belief can affect certain neuroendocrine and immune mechanisms, and that these mechanisms, in turn, positively affect a wide variety of health outcomes such as susceptibility to cancer and recovery following surgery.