Faithful Observations: The link between faith, good health

By BOB SHILLINGSTAD

Special to The Press

Last week we introduced you to North Idaho-raised physician and author Dr. Duke Johnson. Today we continue the conversation, following Dr. Johnson’s journey from a life-changing emergency room experience to an exciting business launch coming to our region.

It seems to be common sense that behavior and our actions affect our health. Do you think that behavioral change due to religious practices also plays a part in health?

Absolutely. As I began researching the published scientific literature in preventive medicine to prepare for my talks globally, I was surprised to find that there are hundreds of published scientific studies which demonstrate the health benefit of committed religious faith.

Committed religious faith has been shown to improve almost every health parameter you can imagine, such as increased longevity, reduced heart disease, reduced cancer, among other benefits.

Most physicians either aren’t familiar with this data or are uncomfortable with how to communicate it. The scientific literature wouldn’t tell someone what to believe but rather to embrace your beliefs intensely. I’ve taught this all over the world in front of crowds of differing faiths.

I know that you felt a call or a mission to bring basic, good scientific knowledge to these countries. Did you have some experiences with countries that were dangerous to be in at the time?

Yes, this occurred far more often than I anticipated. For example, a large group of distributors requested I come to Venezuela when Hugo Chavez ruled and the U.S. State Department recommended that no U.S. citizen go in because of likely arrest. Additionally, the main bridge was out between the airport and Caracas, so we had to take armed vehicles through a jungle filled with known armed hijackers and thieves.

In Colombia, I stayed in a hotel that was bombed the previous year. After teaching for three weeks in Egypt on another trip, I left just 10 days before the outbreak of Arab Spring. There are many other similar experiences and it has been quite a ride which I never dreamed would happen in my life. I went into these dangerous places, however, because I felt this was what I was meant to do.

That opens up another topic, stress! You obviously were in some stressful situations, but it seems like our culture is filled with stress, anger and depression. In fact Proverbs says that “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” How do faith and our actions overcome some of this?

Stress has deleterious effects on our immune system. Chronic stress has been shown to increase excessive overstimulation of our immune system, resulting in inflammation, which accelerates all chronic diseases. Simultaneously, acute stress reduces the ability of immune cells to attack disease inside the body. This is often why people get sick during stressful situations.

Published scientific studies have shown that committed religious faith reduces stress in a number of ways, including reducing high blood pressure that is due to stress. In addition, people who have a committed religious faith tend to behave in ways that are healthy, such as, avoidance of addictive substances.

Faith also gives people a sense of meaning and purpose in life, so during difficult situations or problems that are encountered, people with committed faith have been shown to have more hope and less depression. Victor Frankl, a psychiatrist who was imprisoned in concentration camps during World War II, brilliantly described the correlation between self-transcendence (reaching out toward another person to love or cause to be devoted to) and the human capacity to overcome suffering in his book, “Man’s Search for Meaning.”

You wrote a book entitled “The Optimal Health Revolution.” What is the premise and why did you write it?

The primary premise of the book is exposing the underlying cause of essentially all chronic disease, which is chronic excessive inflammation. I wrote the book because I wanted to inform people about the trends underlying chronic disease and let them know how to decrease chronic disease and experience optimal health. The book is based upon solid scientific literature and has almost 900 scientific references.

I felt I needed to write the book because my experience as an international physician gave me a unique vantage point to examine global trends. Treating patients from 30 different countries while the patients were still living in those countries with their traditional diets and lifestyles was a priceless experience that I considered an honor, and I felt I owed it to people to share the unique global perspective about the role that inflammation plays in chronic disease. The book has now been translated into nine languages and reportedly has sold over 100,000 copies.

What are you doing now?

My work in preventive medicine is expanding in an exciting way. In an effort to continue sharing what I have learned from my global health experience and give people the tools they need to live in optimal health and combat health epidemics such as obesity and Type II Diabetes, one of my former Nutrilite colleagues, Jim Roufs, and I decided to launch a new direct-to-consumer company called Makkarios (Makkarios.com) which means ‘blessed’ in Greek.

We want to bless our customers with excellent products based on the new science of nutrigenomics, bless our affiliates with excellent income and bless our communities by giving a substantial portion of our profits to charity. We have a particular interest in ending human trafficking.

We will be headquartered in North Idaho and will bring manufacturing in-house when the time comes, providing many jobs locally. We are launching on a smaller scale now but have already been contacted to bring our message and products to two countries internationally.

I don’t believe my unique global medical experience was a coincidence. I’m passionate about sharing what I’ve learned with as many people as possible to prevent them from premature health problems like the 38-year-old patient who died in my emergency room that day. My hope is that we will touch many lives and make a difference.

If people want to purchase your book or contact you, how do they do that?

The book can be purchased used on eBay or Amazon or directly from the publisher at benbellabooks.com. For more information about our company, people can find us by going to Makkarios.com, emailing me at drduke@makkarios.com or by reaching one of our customer service agents at 833-462-5527.

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Bob Shillingstad’s religion columns appear Saturdays in The Press. Email Bob: bjshill@mac.com