Dear Editor:

Dr. Dave Rainham's October 18 column, "Religious beliefs can lessen
daily stresses", was seriously misleading and potentially dangerous.

Contrary to Rainham's claim, there is currently no good evidence to
show that prayer keeps you healthy.  Previous studies have suffered
from severe design flaws.  For example, some religious practices
discourage smoking and alcohol consumption, and these secular practices
by themselves would promote better health.    

Rainham claims that studies show that "regular churchgoers ... report
overall better health", but these studies are flawed since they do not
take into account the obvious fact that people in very poor health
cannot leave their house to attend church.

A 1999 review in the British medical journal, the _Lancet_, concluded
that previous studies suffered from poor methodology and stated "the
evidence of an association between religion, spirituality, and health
is weak and inconsistent ...  We believe therefore that it is premature
to promote faith and religion as adjunctive medical treatments."

Furthermore, reliance on prayer alone can be dangerous if one's
medical condition is life-threatening.    

I strongly urge readers of Rainham's column to get a second opinion
about his questionable advice.

Jeffrey Shallit
Kitchener
The study I refer to in this letter is R. P. Sloan, E. Bagiella, and T. Powell, Religion, spirituality, and medicine, Lancet 353 (1999), 664--667. There is an (apparently unauthorized) online copy here but it is missing the last few references.