Medicine, Religion and Health: Where Science and Spirituality Meet »

In Medicine, Religion, and Health, Dr. Harold G. Koenig provides an overview of the relationship between health and religion that manages to be comprehensive yet concise, factual yet inspirational, and technical yet easily accessible to nonspecialists and general readers.

Focusing on the scientific basis for integrating spirituality into medicine, Koenig defines key terms, charts the history of this relatively young field of study, summarizes major trends, explores the major controversies, and provides the latest research from a wide variety of disciplines. Readers looking for practical applications will find reviews of the clinical practices that can be derived from the research, along with a detailed appendix that will aid researchers of all levels looking for further information.

Medicine, Religion, and Health sheds new light on important contemporary issues in this fascinating, complex, and controversial area of research, clinical activity, and popular discussion. It will find a welcome home on the bookshelves of students, researchers, clinicians, and other health professionals in a variety of disciplines.

About the Author:
Harold G. Koenig, M.D., is board certified in general psychiatry, geriatric psychiatry, and geriatric medicine and is on the faculty at Duke University Medical Center and the Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center, VA Medical Center. Dr. Koenig is co-director of Duke's Center for Spirituality, Theology, and Health and has published extensively in the fields of mental health, geriatrics, and religion, with nearly three hundred peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and forty books in print or in preparation

Introduction     3
Terms of the Debate     9
Medicine in the Twenty-first Century     21
From Mind to Body     37
Religion and Health     54
Mental Health     68
The Immune and Endocrine Systems     82
The Cardiovascular System     96
Diseases Related to Stress and Behavior     113
Longevity     129
Physical Disability     146
Clinical Applications     156
Final Thoughts     172
Further Resources     175
Notes     195
Index     227