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Christian principles applied in medicine -Including God in the treatment schemeIntroduction-name, subject of paperwork Good afternoon! My name is Alexandra Paduret, Im a first year student at UMF Iasi and Im here to talk to you about Christian principles applied in medicine. You wouldnt have guest it right? Summary Let me begin by reveling the main points that were going to reach today. I. Firstly, we are going to discuss about the Christian point of view over person and body, II. Then were going to discover some very interesting scientific researches related to the influence of religion on both mental and physical health. III. After discussing all of the above, well draw conclusion related to if and how can doctors encourage and use their patients belief in God to gain a successful treatment. Ok, so here we go! I. Can you please raise your hand if you see any differences between this 2 pictures? Great! Well, orthodoxism also sees a difference! Here is why! According to the orhodox dogma a man is formed by both soul and body. Therefore, the term human being reffers not only to the soul or only to the body, but to the body and soul together. The importance of this perspective is obvious: being an entity, whatever wrong the soul does reflects upon the body and vice-versa. our actions are divided in good and bad a.k.a sin. When we sin the soul is in trouble..therefore our body doesnt do that well either. This is a very simplistic way of presenting the relationship between body-soul-sin. Nevertheless, this is a very important thing to consider when dealing with patients with strong theistic beliefs, as they will come to the doctor in search for a treatment, but they will go to God in search of healing. II. Ok, so now that weve clear this out, hopefully, lets see how do some religious habits like praying, meditating or fasting influence christians body functions. Andrew Newberg, M.D., Director of Research at Thomas Jefferson University and Hospital Philadelphia conducted a series of researches on brain activity in monks while they were meditating or praying. The results were more than interesting.( see pictures). The activity in the parietal lobe-responsible for the sense of orientation and in the frontal loberesponsible for attention .... One thing we need to have in mind is that as orthodox we do not practice meditation per se. We do have something called the prayer of heart or Hesychasmwhich is similar with meditation, with the difference that we go from praying to meditating.

A research conducted at the Division of Oncology, Department of Medicine of the University of Patras Medical School on cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy shows that religious involvement is a coping strategy frequently used by cancer patients, which in many cases is positively associated with optimism and QoL, and facilitates long-term adjustment by maintaining self-esteem, offering emotional comfort and providing a sense of meaning and purpose. Religious people are more likely to adopt an active coping style during stressful events. According to a recent meta-analysis of 17studies, the majority of research has showed that religious coping may have a beneficial effect on cancer patients health and well-being [15]. In addition, religious groups are considered to provide social support, which seems to improve patients psychological function and overall health outcomes [8]. Finally, recent studies have attempted to correlate religiosity and spirituality with immune function in cancer patients, leading to rather promising results [5]. For example, in a large study of 1718 healthy adults, religious attendance was linked to better immune function given that it was inversely related to IL-6 levels, which is an inhibitory cytokine [19]. In a more recent study still, spirituality was associated with an increase of circulating white blood cells, of total lymphocyte counts, of helper T-cells and of cytotoxic T-cells in 112 women with breast cancer. When it comes to fasting, it is scientifically proven that The periodic vegetarianism recommended by the Greek Orthodox Church contributes to the favourable profiles of several biomarkers of health among this sample of monks. The fasting rituals described are an important component of the traditional diet of Crete and should be emphasised in nutrition education programmes promoting this eating pattern. III.Bla Bla Bla .