MATH PRESENTATIONGROUP A

TOPIC: MEDICINE VS. PRAYER

Presented By: Asia Butler, Kiara Ray, Tre’ Parker, and Whie Tooson

WHAT IS MEDICINE? Medicine is a drug or any other preparation

that is used for the treatment of an illness or disease.

WHAT IS PRAYER? A prayer is a solemn request for help or an

expression of thanks addressed to God or an object of worship.

WHAT REALLY HEALS: MEDICINE OR PRAYER?

There are many people that solely believe that healing comes through prayer and prayer alone.

There are others that believe that doctors can prescribe medicines that will cure whatever illness they might have.

However, there are other people that feel like taking medicine and praying is the best way.

A CASE STUDY The scenario has happened many times before.

Some Christian (or Jehovah's Witness) decides that prayer is the way that his child should be healed, so he forsakes medical treatment and the child dies. It made me upset when I was an atheist and still does now that I am a Christian.

A recent news story told about "extremely religious" parents who allowed their 11 year old daughter to die of a treatable form of diabetes by seeking healing through prayer instead of seeking medical treatment.1 This situation is obviously a tragedy for the family, who are left with grief and remorse. In this day, should Christians always seek medical treatment or just pray or do both?

PRAYER Researchers have found, for example, that religious people live,

on average, about seven years longer than other Americans. Levin cites a study done by California's respected Human Population Laboratory that tracked 5,000 people for 28 years and found that those who frequently attended church were 23 percent less likely to die during the study period than people who didn't regularly go to church. "This holds true even controlling for the fact that religious folks tend to avoid such behaviors as smoking and drinking that increase the risk of disease and death," Levin reported.

Other studies have found that for each of the three leading causes of death in the United States -- heart disease, cancer and hypertension -- people who report a religious affiliation have lower rates of illness. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have reported that attending religious services at least once a month more than halved the risk of death due to heart disease, emphysema, suicide and some kinds of cancers.

STATISTICS It has been reported that 82% of Americans

believe that prayer can cure illness and that 64% want their physicians to pray with them.

There were 296 subjects that were used during this observation.

From the year 1948 to 2001, the prayer lives of people have not declined much.

In 2001, the British Medical Journal reported that patients with blood infections that received prayer had significantly shorter hospital stays than those who did not.

HTTP://WWW.STFM.ORG/FMHUB/FM2008/OCTOBER/JOANNE638.PDF

BEDSIDE MANNERS: KINDNESS VS. MEANNESS

Bedside manners refers to the way that the doctor/ nurse works and communicates with the patients.

Good bedside manners can include but are not limited to being gentle, showing empathy, being open to communication, and helping the patient feel at ease.

Bed bedside manners can include but are not limited to rudeness, harshness, arrogance, and dismissing any fears that the patient might have.

IT CAN VARY The way that physicians deal with the

patients can vary depending on the place where the care is given ( home care, hospital care) or it can vary based on the type insurance that you have

PERSONAL EXPERIENCES

A FEW STATISTICS According to research done by the NHS

Confederation, good bedside manners can make a patient feel happier thus leading to a faster recovery. It gives the patients a sense of hope.

Doctors are now tested on bedside manners before they go in and work with their patients.

A study done by McGill University’s Robyn Tamblyn, shows that physicians that scored in the lowest 25% had the greatest number of complaints from their patients.

Tamblyn suggested that the bedside test should be put as a part of the admissions process into medical school.

CONCLUSION Our group feels that the best approach to

proper healing is through both prayer as well as medicine. We feel like everything is put here for a reason so we should use the both of them to our advantage.

We also feel that bedside manners are very important and that a speedy recovery can have a lot to do with the way that the physicians treat the patients that they work with.

WHAT IS BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH? Biomedical research is the broad area of science that

looks for ways to prevent and treat diseases that cause illness and death in people and in animals. This general field of research includes many areas of both the life and physical sciences.

Utilizing biotechnology techniques, biomedical researchers study biological processes and diseases with the ultimate goal of developing effective treatments and cures. Biomedical research is an evolutionary process requiring careful experimentation by many scientists, including biologists and chemists. Discovery of new medicines and therapies requires careful scientific experimentation, development, and evaluation.

WHAT PROFESSIONS DID WE CHOOSE Kiara: Researcher/ ScientistStudy medical conditions and conduct experiments in all fields of

biomedical research to develop new medical techniques, devices, treatments, and medicines.

Asia: Medical Clinician Provide medical care for humans and work on advances in medical

procedures and surgical techniques and discover new drugs and treatments

Whie: Laboratory VeterinarianProvide medical care to animals, perform independent research, and

serve as consultants and collaborators to research investigation Tre’: Animal BehavioristStudy animals to collect data on their behavior and activities