{"id":7559,"date":"2009-03-15T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-15T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/2009\/03\/15\/spiritual-kids-are-healthier-researcher-says\/"},"modified":"2009-03-15T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-03-15T12:00:00","slug":"spiritual-kids-are-healthier-researcher-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/2009\/03\/15\/spiritual-kids-are-healthier-researcher-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Spiritual Kids Are Healthier, Researcher Says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"source\"><a HREF=\" http:\/\/www.medicalnewstoday.com\/articles\/141952.php\">www.medicalnewstoday.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"summary\">FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA, US, March 12, 2009:  Like adults, kids who are more spiritual or religious tend to be healthier.<\/p>\n<p>So says Dr. Barry Nierenberg, Ph.D., ABPP, associate professor of psychology at Nova Southeastern University, who has been studying the relationship between faith and health. Nierenberg spoke recently at a national conference of the American Psychological Association&#8217;s Division of Rehabilitation Psychology.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A number of studies have shown a positive relationship between participatory prayer and lower rates of heart disease, cirrhosis, emphysema and stroke in adults,&#8221; he says. &#8220;Prayer has been shown to correlate to lower blood pressure, cortisol levels, rates of depression, as well as increased rates of self-described well being.&#8221;  But, he says, &#8220;very few studies have attempted to examine how children&#8217;s spiritual beliefs impact their health.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Nierenberg examined children who were undergoing hemodialysis due to End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD). The patients were questioned on a scale of spirituality behaviors and attitudes, and responses were correlated to several dialysis-related blood levels, including blood urea nitrogen (BUN).<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There was a significant negative correlation between spiritual attitudes and BUN levels. As children reported more agreement with statements like, &#8216;I am sure that God cares about me,&#8217; and &#8216;God has a plan for me,&#8221; their average BUN levels over the past year were lower.&#8221;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>www.medicalnewstoday.com FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA, US, March 12, 2009: Like adults, kids who are more spiritual or religious tend to be,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7559\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}