Attending Religious Services Improves Heart Health and Diabetes

Diabetics who attend religious services at least once a year had lower levels of a marker of inflammation linked to heart disease than those who never attended religious services, a new US study has found.

However, the authors note that they only measured how often people attended a religious service, and not how religious they were. Furthermore, there appeared to be no link between service attendance and the marker, called C-reactive protein (CRP), in people who were not diabetic.

"It seemed to apply among people at the greatest risk of cardiovascular disease--the diabetics," said study author Dr. Arch G. Mainous of the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.

Mainous suggested that the benefit of attending services may not be the act of attending services itself, but rather religion's ability to have a positive effect on people's lives, for example by providing a helping community. "You're probably looking at something that may be an artifact," he said.

Previous research has suggested that elevated blood levels of CRP may be an independent predictor of heart disease. CRP is a protein the body releases as part of its response to infection and injury, and is a known marker of inflammation.

People with diabetes typically have higher levels of CRP than non-diabetics, a fact that may help explain why diabetics have a higher-than-average risk of cardiovascular problems.

Around 62% of all survey participants said that they attended religious services. The investigators found that diabetics who never attended religious services had a higher risk of having elevated levels of CRP in their blood than attenders.

The link between CRP and religious service attendance remained even when the researchers accounted for of other factors that can affect health, such as smoking, mobility and obesity.

Mainous explained that there are many reasons why attending religious services may improve health. For example, going to religious services welcomes a person into a community, which can provide a network of social support. Attenders may have lower levels of stress than those who do not embrace religion, because faith can give "people a better sense of answering the questions of the universe," Mainous said.

He suggested that some people who attend religious services may also be more likely to follow their religion's healthy recommendations about lifestyle, which may include no drinking, or following a particular diet. SOURCE: Diabetes Care 2002;25:1172-1176.

FACT 

On average, each 10 mm Hg reduction in systolic blood pressure was associated with a 12% decrease in the risk of any diabetes-related endpoint and also fatal and nonfatal myocardial infarction and a 17% reduction in the risk of death related to diabetes; even patients with only moderately elevated blood pressure showed increased risk. ¹   BMJ. 2000;321:412-419.