FEAT: NIH Funds Prayer Research/ Return of the Measles Party

[Guest guest]

NIH Funds Prayer Research/ Return of the Measles Party

FEAT DAILY NEWSLETTER Sacramento, California http://www.feat.org

" Healing Autism: No Finer a Cause on the Planet "

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July 27, 2001 Search www.feat.org/search/news.asp

Also: * Barbara Burton Stricken with Cancer

* It’s My Party and I’ll Infect Who I Want To: Measles

NIH Funds Prayer Research

[Although FEAT is a secular organization with a secular mission, this

newsletter will report any potential or effective treatment for autism,

including the metaphysical, if backed by some science. There is some

research in support of the healing powers of prayer and religious

observance, Christian Science and Science of Mind church theory

notwithstanding. Here is a report on some mainstream research going on now

from NewsMax.com Wires and the journal Research News, November, 2000. -LS]

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2000/11/14/03850.shtml

U.S. scientists launched a five-year study to determine if prayer

intervention can improve the health of cancer patients. The enterprise was

funded by the National Institutes of Health, a federal agency, and was

reported in the November issue of the journal Research News.

The project was centered on black women in the early stages of breast

cancer. According to Research News, blacks were chosen over whites because

" African American women have a higher propensity to use spiritual healing

than white women. "

Moreover, " They have been found to be more vulnerable to stress

associated with postoperative social functioning. " The paper pointed to

scientific evidence that stress weakens the mechanisms of a person's immune

system. This increased the likelihood that a patient's tumor will recur or

spread.

One task of the research project was to learn if a statement from the

Epistle of can be " scientifically validated, " the journal said, The

text reads, " Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the

church, and let them pray over him " ( 5:14).

The study was conducted by Dr. Diane Becker of s Hopkins

University in Baltimore, Md.; and Dr. Harold G. Koenig of Duke University in

Durham, N.C. Koenig, an associate professor of medicine and psychiatry, has

been studying the effects of religion on health for 15 years.

A s Hopkins research nurse was randomly recruiting 40 patients

with early breast cancer that has neither spread to other organs nor

infiltrated the fatty tissue, muscle or bone around the breast. The study

does not begin until one or two months after surgery and radiation

treatment, Research News explained.

The participants would then meet a " comfort leader. " This is a cancer

survivor known for her strong religious convictions and prayer life. She

" has been specially trained to be a witness to the women recovering from

breast cancer. "

The " comfort leader " will help the patient to organize and run a

prayer group that may include five to eight friends or members of her

church. For 24 weeks they are to follow a special prayer guide containing

messages from the Bible.

The patient and her group will then pursue an ancient Judeo-Christian

way of communicating with the Divine. It is called Centering Prayer, was

practiced in the Medieval Church and then almost forgotten until three

Trappist monks in Spencer, Mass., rediscovered it in the 1970s.

At any given time, participants of a Centering Prayer session choose

only one sacred word from Scripture. This word – for example, grace, love,

mercy, or Jesus – would serve as a symbol of the supplicant's consent to

God's presence and action.

In Becker and Koenig's research project, the patients and their groups

are to meet twice a day at a quiet place for at least 20 minutes. They are

to close their eyes and silently think the Scriptural word they have

previously agreed upon. The idea is that they would be resting in God.

Should their thoughts drift, they would return to their chosen word to focus

once again on the Divine.

The method differs from the ritualized and conversational prayers of

traditional Christianity and meditation as practiced by Eastern religions.

In Centering Prayer sessions, participants " avoid analyzing their

experience, harboring expectations or aiming at some specific goal such as

repeating the sacred words continuously, having no thoughts, making the mind

a blank, feeling peaceful, consoled, or achieving a spiritual presence, "

Research News writes.

" Those who guide centered prayer groups warn that often a person will

feel tingling as the body relaxes, " the paper reported. " This is just

tension slowly oozing away. " Another attribute of " deep spiritual

attentiveness " is that one's extremities feel heavy.

Koenig hoped that in the long term the findings from this study " will

give women and their religious communities a powerful tool for combating

breast cancer. " He said he believed that " getting the patients' minds off

their disease makes a big difference. "

Even more important, though, is that Centering Prayer would battle

stress caused by cancer. It would do so by giving the patients " a sense of

hope, social and psychological support, a positive belief system, and a

sense of personal control through prayer. "

While most religions teach that prayer intervention helps a patient,

trying to validate " extra-personal spirituality " scientifically is a

relatively new endeavor. One of its pioneers is Randolph C. Byrd, a San

Francisco cardiologist. In 1988, he chronicled the therapeutic effects of

intercessory prayer in a provoking study.

It analyzed 393 coronary care patients who were divided into two

sections. One group was made up of patients who were not prayed for. But for

the other group's members prayers were said regularly. Byrd discovered that

the latter patients suffered significantly less from congestive heart

failure, had fewer cardiopulmonary arrests, used fewer antibiotics and

diuretics, had less pneumonia and were less frequently intubated.

Even more surprising, " wrote the journal Science & Spirit, " is the

revelation that the patients ... did not know that they were being prayed

for, nor did their doctors. " Science & Spirit concluded, " Byrd's study

suggests that religiosity is a kind of antibiotic. "

This is what Koenig trusted his research program would prove as well.

According to Research News, " He hopes that research such as this will open

the door to more studies on the effect that prayer may have on other

diseases influenced by immune system activity, including AIDS. " Copyright

United Press International.

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* * *

Barbara Burton Stricken with Cancer

Barbara Burton, the wife of US House of Representatives Dan Burton, is

battling colon cancer that had already spread to other organs by the time of

diagnoses. le Sarkine, her daughter and dedicated autism advocate,

reports that her mother is in the midst of cancer treatment protocols and

could use some special help. “My Mom is the true backbone of this entire

family,” says Sarkin who would appreciate prayers for the return of her

mother’s good health. Sarkin also asks all to “include for prayers

Rose, who is 9 years old and the son of Norma Rose who sang lead vocals on

our CD. The boy is going through chemo right now for a rare cancer.”

Children with autism and vaccine damage have no greater a friend than

husband (and grandfather) Dan Burton, who through the political stage,

pursues the science and truth behind the recent tremendous increase in a

range of purported immunologic diseases, including autism. For those so

inclind, these prayers are both the most and the least one can do for this

heroic family. If you haven't tried " prayer therapy " yet and are thinking

about it, here's a good place to start. -LS

* * *

It’s My Party and I’ll Infect Who I Want To: Measles

The Return of the Measles Party (in the UK)

[by a Dillner in The Guardian.]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/health/story/0,3605,527421,00.html

We've hired football pitches, shivered at ice skating rinks and spent

fortunes at theme parks in pursuit of the perfect childrens' party. And are

the darlings grateful? By daybreak they're already working on their

Christmas lists. So maybe you can't blame a group of parents for coming up

with a party with a difference. Popular in the 1950s before mass

immunisation, the measles party is making a comeback. If you're worried

about media reports of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine causing

autism then you can join a network of parents who are trying to infect their

children naturally with these diseases. As soon as little Charlie in

Huddersfield is diagnosed with measles, his parents are buying chocolate

swiss rolls and ringing round, inviting the un-vaccinated to party. And

instead of those throwaway party bags, your child will be taking home an

infectious disease they may never forget.

And this is the first of many problems I have with this bonkers idea.

Measles is not a cute, harmless kiddy's disease. In the developing world,

where mothers say, " never count your children until after the measles " , the

disease kills 800,000 youngsters a year. If you think your children are too

well-nourished and robust to succumb, think again. An outbreak in the US

between 1989 and 1991 saw more than 55,000 cases of measles and 123 children

die from it.

Vaccinations are given to protect children because for every age group

the complications of the vaccine are fewer than from the real disease. The

risk of measles causing encephalitis, an inflammation of the coverings

around the brain, is one in 2,000 children for the real disease versus one

in 1m for the vaccine. Before vaccines, mumps was the most common cause of

viral meningitis in children. It can also cause deafness.

And as for rubella, symptoms in kids may usually be mild but one in

5,000 will get encephalitis. If a pregnant woman who is not immune is

exposed to little Charlie in Huddersfield, her baby is likely to be born

dead, or at best potentially deaf, blind and with learning difficulties.

Forget the purity and beauty of natural immunity. Vaccines offer a

dose of the real infection modified so that it does less damage. If you're

worried your child can't cope with three weakened vaccines at a time, you

probably don't realise that a sore throat or cold can expose him or her to

between four and 10 infections.

At the Public Health Laboratory Service in Collindale they are deeply

unimpressed with the outbreak of measles parties. Dr Liz , head of the

immunisation division, is concerned at who exactly will be catching what.

" The vast majority of measles cases turn out not to be measles, " she says.

" So you may be under the false impression that your child has had measles. "

If your child does catch measles, Dr is worried about who he or

she will infect. " If you have a child under the age of one at home then this

child will not have been immunised. Children under the age of one are much

more at risk from a complication of measles called subacute sclerosing

panencephalitis. "

This is a disease of the nervous system caused by the measles virus

chronically infecting the brain. Your child will recover from the initial

measles infection, but about seven years later will gradually become unwell

and finally die. Part of my own rabid support of vaccinations comes from

seeing a child dying of this bizarre condition when I was a medical student.

This isn't to say that I skip along with my own children to get them

vaccinated. There is something about offering a small, plump arm to a needle

that I hate. But I do it because the evidence is there that, while no

vaccine is 100% safe, childhood diseases are more dangerous. There is no

dispute in the medical community about this except for one research group in

north London who link the MMR vaccine to autism and bowel inflammation.

International expert groups have said they're wrong. The US, Canada and more

than 35 European countries use the MMR vaccine. Japan, which uses single

doses (thought by the north London research group to reduce the risk of

autism) had 79 deaths from measles from 1992-7. In England we haven't had

any for a decade.

The answer to concerns about the MMR vaccine is to weigh up the risks

and benefits, not to force your kids to mix with spotty children they don't

know in some misguided attempt to make them sick " naturally " . " It reminds me

of survival of the fittest, " says Dr . " I thought we'd moved on from

there. Not all children are equally well-equipped to cope with these

diseases. Vaccination was brought in to give everyone a chance to be

protected. "

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Lenny Schafer, Editor PhD Ron Sleith Kay Stammers

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