More and more studies are revealing a remarkable connection between a person’s spiritual health and their physical, emotional, and relational health. Today we’ll be talking to a man who I consider the most published researcher in the world on this topic. You won’t want to miss today’s edition of Ask Dr. Walt.

From 2021-2022, I was honored to host a TV show on LiftableTV, “Ask Dr. Walt.”

More and more studies are revealing a remarkable connection between a person’s spiritual health and their physical, emotional, and relational health. Today we’ll be talking to a man who I consider the most published researcher in the world on this topic. You won’t want to miss today’s edition of Ask Dr. Walt. We’ll talk about some in this edition of Ask Dr. Walt.

You can click below to watch a video of the show, or I’ve put the show transcript at the end of the blog if you’d prefer.

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Disclaimer: The Ask Dr. Walt show is designed for entertainment purposes to give information on various medical conditions, treatments, and procedures for your knowledge and to help you be a more informed consumer of medical and health services.

SHOW TRANSCRIPT

SHOW 21

The Impact of Spiritual Health on General Health

GUEST INTERVIEW

Harold G. Koenig, MD

TEASE:

More and more studies are revealing a remarkable connection between a person’s spiritual health and their physical, emotional, and relational health. Today we’ll be talking to a man who I consider the most published researcher in the world on this topic. You won’t want to miss today’s edition of Ask Dr. Walt.

OPEN:

Hi, everyone. I’m family physician Dr. Walt Larimore. Thanks for joining me for what I hope will be a fascinating episode. If you’ve followed me for any time at all, you know that I consider there to be four spheres of health that cannot be separated: physical health, emotional/mental health, relational health, and spiritual health. My basis for this belief is twofold.

First, it’s outlined in the Bible. The physician Luke, writing in his Gospel, described Jesus as a young man this way: “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52). In other words, the human side of Jesus developed emotionally/mentally, physically, spiritually, and relationally.

Second, the medical and social science literature from around the world has connected the association between these four aspects of total or whole health. And today, on Ask Dr. Walt, we have the researcher who I consider the most published in the world on this topic.

Harold G. Koenig, MD, is the Director of the Center for Spirituality, Theology, and Health at the Duke University Medical Center where he also serves as a Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and an Associate Professor of Medicine. Dr. Koenig completed his undergraduate education at Stanford University, his medical school training at the University of California at San Francisco, and his geriatric medicine, psychiatry, and biostatistics training at Duke University. He is board-certified in general psychiatry, and formerly boarded in geriatric medicine, and geriatric psychiatry.

Dr. Koenig’s research has been featured on many national and international TV programs, including ABC’s World News Tonight, The Today Show, Good Morning America, and NBC Nightly News, as well as hundreds of national and international radio programs and newspapers/magazines, including Reader’s Digest, Parade Magazine, Newsweek, and Time. Dr. Koenig has given testimony before the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives concerning the benefits of religious involvement on public health. He’s also the lead author of the Oxford University’s Handbook of Religion and Health, which he authored with two Harvard professors. Besides both having connections to Duke, where I completed my residency, we are both family physicians – as Dr. Koenig was formerly boarded in family medicine.

• Koenig, welcome to “Ask Dr. Walt.”
• How’d you first get interested in the faith-health connection?
• How was the Duke Center for Spirituality, Theology, and Health founded?
• You’ve been studying the effects of faith on health and have come up with what I consider to be some dramatic findings on how spiritual faith or religion can help a person stay healthy. Can you outline your research for us? What’s the picture from 30,000 feet?
• You’re careful to distinguish between organized religion, religiosity, and spirituality, correct?
• You also write about the differences between intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity or spirituality. What’s the difference?
• How do you separate the cause and effect here? I mean, if people who are active in religious groups also tend to have more friends in more stable marriages or a bigger social circle. How does that separate out in terms of support groups and that effect on health?
• Does the same apply to health behaviors? In other words, if religious folks smoke less, drink alcohol less, and avoid dangerous or addicting drugs, wouldn’t those behaviors by themselves make them healthier?
• Since the research shows that religious people have better mental and physical health, does that mean that if someone becomes religious or comes to Christ for health reasons, they will necessarily have better health?
• Nevertheless, both you and I have been huge advocates for many years for every health professional to take a spiritual assessment or a spiritual history with our patients – and if not every patient, at least those with chronic problems. Why is that? Why should this be done even by agnostic or atheistic health professionals?
• In my 40 years of practice, I can only attest to seeing a few of what might be called miraculous healings. But what I did see in thousands of patients with a faith in Christ that changed them from the inside out, was that there seemed to be two things I observed. First, they seemed to, in general, recover more quickly. But second, and perhaps most important, they were almost always able to cope better with downturns in their health. Is my anecdotal experience backed by any science or not?

SAY GOODBYE TO DR. KOENIG:

Before we close the show, I want to tell you about a couple of books I’ve written on whole-person health: Fit over 50: Make Simple Choices for a Healthier, Happier You, and 10 Essentials of Happy, Healthy People: Becoming and staying highly healthy. You can find them at DrWalt.com. Just click on the tab that says books. Also, at DrWalt.com you can sign up for my daily “Medical News You Can Use” blog and my twice-daily Biblical devotion, “Morning Glory, Evening Grace.” Finally, if you have comments or questions drop me a line at DrWalt@Liftable.TV. That’s DrWalt@Liftable.TV.

So, until our next visit, “Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.” I’m Dr. Walt Larimore and I look forward to seeing you for my next episode of “Ask Dr. Walt.”

Disclaimer: The “Ask Dr. Walt” show is designed for entertainment purposes to give information on various medical conditions, treatments, and procedures for your knowledge and to help you be a more informed consumer of medical and health services.

© Copyright WLL, INC. 2023. This blog provides healthcare tips and advice that you can trust about a wide variety of general health information only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment from your regular physician. If you are concerned about your health, take what you learn from this blog and meet with your personal doctor to discuss your concerns.