2009-08-24T14:53:02Z Anne Brower and Albert Scariato look at religion's impact on health and healing. tag:onfaith.washingtonpost.com,2010:/onfaith/faithandhealing/627 Copyright (c) 2009, WashingtonPost.Newsweek Interactive 2009-08-24T14:53:02Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-08-23:/onfaith/faithandhealing2009/08/living_wills--who_should_counsel.html

Charles Krauthammer wrote an excellent column in the Washington Post, 8/21/09 entitled "The Truth About Death Counseling." Perhaps the most important aspect he pointed out is that the Living Will you write for yourself while you are healthy is often not the Living Will you will want carried out when you are dying. As a doctor, I have witnessed this many times. Mrs. J wrote a Living Will expressing her desire not to have any...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Anne Brower 2009-08-14T16:16:21Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-08-13:/onfaith/faithandhealing2009/08/healing_1st_do_no_harm.html

In the weeks after graduating from medical school and preceding my internship, I went to the beach with a suitcase full of books (this is a lot easier now thanks to Kindle). One of the first books I read was a novel about of group of interns called "House of God." It turns out this was in fact based upon true anecdotes from a group of real life interns at Beth Israel Hospital (hence, the...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Albert Scariato 2009-07-31T21:06:46Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-07-30:/onfaith/faithandhealing2009/07/the_cambridge_incident.html

The much reported "Cambridge Incident" in which a white police officer, Sgt. James Crowley, arrested an agitated African American, Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., in the professor's home has sparked a national dialogue about race. This is indeed a teachable and potentially healing moment....Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Albert Scariato 2009-07-29T19:41:57Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-07-26:/onfaith/faithandhealing2009/07/thank_god_for_socialized_medicine.html

I woke up at seven in the morning. I had this pain like I never had experienced before. I was away from my partner sitting, standing, and writhing in pain in Paris. I found my way to a friend, Pedro-Paolo, who managed an antiques store in the St. Germain des Pres. He directed me to Hotel-Dieu, a hospital and ER, adjacent to the Cathedral of Notre Dame. I checked in, and, for two hours, groaned...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Albert Scariato 2009-07-29T19:40:50Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-07-24:/onfaith/faithandhealing2009/07/in-vitro-fertilization_ivf_and_the_vatican.html

It didn't matter that the vote was eleven to one, for that one vote had "the right ear of the Pope." In November 1985, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences convened to examine the question of whether in-vitro-fertlization (IVF) was licit and consistent with the Catholic doctrine. The Portifical Academy was created soon after Galileo's time in order to prevent the duplication of the Vatican's Galileo fiasco. The purpose of the Academy is, from time to...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Anne Brower 2009-07-22T13:17:59Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-07-20:/onfaith/faithandhealing2009/07/bithdays_need_to_be_celebrated.html

I grew up in a family that always celebrated birthdays. We all looked forward to each one that was coming along. My daughter's husband and his family never celebrate birthdays. I have become her celebrator. Last week I gave her a card to send to her husband. It pictures a woman entering her house loaded down with packages and saying to her spouse, "Surprise, it's my birthday." Why are birthdays important. Birthdays say "Thank you...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Anne Brower 2009-07-18T00:14:58Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-07-16:/onfaith/faithandhealing2009/07/doctors_are_human_beings_and_thus_fallible.html

"From inability to let well alone, from too much zeal for the new and contempt for what is old, from putting knowledge before wisdom, science before art and cleverness before common sense, from treating patients as cases and from making the cure of the disease more grievous than the endurance of the same, good Lord deliver us. Amen." -- Sir Robert Hutchinson Harriet was diagnosed with colon cancer at age 82. She had her cancer...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Anne Brower 2009-07-15T13:36:51Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-07-14:/onfaith/faithandhealing2009/07/healing_in_the_aftermath_of_adultery.html

The names have changed: Gingrich, Livingston, Clinton, McGreevey, Vitter, Spitzer, Ensign, Sanford. The pain is almost always the same--like a knife, a relentless one, going into the heart of the betrayed spouse or partner over and over again. Some months ago, a young man, recently married, sat in my office and said, "I forgive my wife for cheating, but I cannot get that tape inside of my head to stop rewinding and playing again and...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Albert Scariato 2009-07-07T20:17:41Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-07-06:/onfaith/faithandhealing2009/07/should_we_swear_or_take_an_oath.html

A week before I was to marry for a second time, I was reviewing the service with my future husband. I realized that I could not possibly say, "This is my solemn vow." To me a solemn vow is a promise and no one can keep a promise. It is the human condition to break promises. Yes, I know there are couples who have been married for 60 years and it is probably their "solemn...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Anne Brower 2009-07-01T16:33:25Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-06-30:/onfaith/faithandhealing2009/06/healing_our_health_care_system.html

Martin Marty, the imminent religion historian, once observed: "Physicians are men and women of science...they tend to be dismissive of the transcendent, the eternal, the spiritual. They...cannot always attend to the things of the spirit." Not so, says a study from the University of Chicago which surveyed the spiritual leanings of 2,000 physicians. According to the survey: "Seventy-six of the physicians polled professed belief in God, only seven percent fewer than the general population...fifty-five percent...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Albert Scariato 2009-06-26T21:27:12Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-06-19:/onfaith/faithandhealing2009/06/how_physicians_deal_with_spirituality.html

In 1995 a Gallop poll found that 90% of Americans believed in something greater than themselves--God, Allah, Buddah, a higher power, or the Almighty -- and 80% stated that their faith helped them to cope with disease. That same Gallup poll found only 43% of doctors admitted believing in something greater than themselves, and 25% indicated they were atheists. Dr. Larry Dossey declared that doctors were the most spiritually deprived people on Earth. He began...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Anne Brower 2009-06-23T12:53:13Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-06-16:/onfaith/faithandhealing2009/06/forgiveness_the_power_to_heal.html

The foundational prayer of Christianity is The Lord's Prayer, otherwise known as the "Our Father." Its grandeur is expressed best in its simplicity. One of the requests that is asked of God in that prayer is this, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." Both the Jewish Bible and the New Testament are permeated with the seeking and granting of forgiveness. Recently someone asked me, "What is the church all...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Albert Scariato 2009-06-17T20:55:47Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-06-12:/onfaith/faithandhealing2009/06/the_power_of_touch.html

In her book "Healing with Heart," Terri Moss writes about a patient who had recently undergone surgery for cancer. The patient found the operating room to be cold and sterile. This added to his already anxious state. Then one of the nurses touched his arm and another stroked his hair; this human touch reassured him and put him at ease. He later told a nurse, "I want you to know how important that was." If...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Anne Brower 2009-06-12T14:41:22Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-06-11:/onfaith/faithandhealing2009/06/marriage_and_health.html

First a disclaimer: Unmarried people can and do lead fulfilling lives and enrich the lives of others. In Genesis it is written, "It is not good for the human being to be alone." While some interpret this to be a command to marry, it is more appropriately a reminder that, as Chaim Weizmann, the first President of Israel wrote, "Life is with people." That said, there is ample evidence in the scientific literature to suggest...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Albert Scariato 2009-06-09T17:05:09Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-06-07:/onfaith/faithandhealing2009/06/can_grief_be_denied_1.html

"Mrs Jones" died suddenly and unexpectedly, leaving a large community stunned and saddened. I personally was very angry and very much at a loss. I was angry because medically it should never have happened. I was at a loss for the community had lost: 1) a person who modeled how to build and improve the community one lived in, 2) a person who modeled how to be a completely supportive wife to a very important...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Anne Brower