PROVIDENCE Cooling down after practice, Daniel had taken one last dive and his neck struck the bottom of the concrete pool. Daniel sustained damage to C-3, C-4, and C-5 vertebrae of his spine. Two fusion operations followed and the surgeon was successful in preventing paralysis, but Daniel's parents…

IMAGE A middle-aged rock group in Britain was able to score their first musical hit in 15 years by performing an artificial facelift on themselves. The group known as The Alarm, gave themselves the pseudonym The Poppyfields and hired a group of teenagers to take their roles in a new music video. While…

Many studies have shown the benefits for those growing up in good strong families. Two Australian philosophers have a somewhat different take on good families. They believe that happy families contribute to social inequality. When children grow up in a loving family it gives them an unfair advantage.…

A Nurses’ Health Study analyzed by Harvard University researchers discovered that people who attend religious services a couple of times a week may live longer. The study was a survey of 74,534 healthy women beginning in 1992. Researchers tracked them for 20 years. By 2012, 13,537 of the women had died.…

SPIRITUAL HEALING When construction worker Patrick Lawler visited his dentist complaining of a nagging toothache, his doctor was surprised to find the source of the man's problem was not his teeth. A dental x-ray revealed a four-inch nail the man had accidentally embedded in his skull. Lawler said he…

We are all going to die of something. Cancer and heart disease are the two leading cause of deaths in the U. S. The third leading cause might surprise you. 251,454 people every year die because of a medical error making this the third leading cause of death. Even in attempting to heal, doctors and nurses…

Just as we sometimes see a strong and healthy person growing pale and wan, losing appetite and falling into sickness until he becomes a mere skeleton because a general sapping and undermining of the constitution has come upon him, so have I seen it with Christians. They do not lose life, but they do…

In the book, Forgiveness and Health: Scientific Evidence and Theories Relating Forgiveness to Better Health, the authors write, “Unforgiveness has been positively associated with psychological disorders including depression, anxiety, and PTSD.” In other words, not forgiving others hurts your mental health.…

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic say they have cracked the code to being happy. They have been studying this for decades, working with tens of thousands of patients. Now they think they have found it. They key parts of the code are 1) focus on the right things. 2) Learn to compartmentalize your life and…

"Least of These" When life jack-hammers our souls into pulp, it is easy to lose perspective and sneak into a self-absorbed cocoon, isolated from other's pain, joy, happiness, and suffering. Perhaps we think our emotional cocoon is a safe place-where no one can hurt us. Or, we believe it is a healing…

There is no greater gift than the gift of life. While perusing her Reddit feed last fall, Jennifer Moss came across a desperate plea from 26-year-old Kayla Davis. Davis had been on daily kidney dialysis for three years. She needed a kidney transplant and the wait for a kidney in her portion of the U.S.…

23-year-old Christine Royles of Portland, Maine needed a kidney transplant. Instead of just waiting for a donor she got creative. She put a sign on the back of her car asking strangers to consider donating. Josh Dall-Leighton saw the sign in a mall parking lot and told his wife, “I have to try.” The…

In the book, Forgiveness and Health: Scientific Evidence and Theories Relating Forgiveness to Better Health, the authors write, “Findings indicate that state forgiveness (i.e., forgiveness of a specific offense and offender) and trait forgivingness (i.e., a general disposition to forgive) are both inversely…

Author and Counselor Nicole Unice says that the one thing that every relationship needs to be healthy is a desire to grow. Unice says friendships, working relationships, marriages, and even our relationship with Jesus all eventually become unhealthy if a person becomes complacent and merely shows up,…

Over 100 years ago, doctors first noticed that people, who could not speak after an injury to the speech center in the left side of their brains, could still sing. In the 1970s, researcher in Boston started using what they termed “singing therapy” to help stroke survivors regain the power to speak. The…

A woman has developed incredible mental abilities after suffering a brain injury in a skiing accident. The unnamed woman has been diagnosed with ‘savant syndrome,” an extremely rare condition which leaves people with amazing musical, artistic, or mathematical abilities. Doctors believe it is due to the…

In the book, Forgiveness and Health: Scientific Evidence and Theories Relating Forgiveness to Better Health, the authors write, “Research indicates forgiveness can promote resilience (Worthington, 2005) as well as physical and mental health (Thorensen, Harris, & Luskin, 2000) and, thus, forgiveness can…

William Falk, editor of The Week, a weekly news wrap up of local and international news, comments on the newest self righteousness related to food. “Food is the new religion. . . Secular sophisticates have jettisoned traditional beliefs about sin and sanctity, so they fulfill their instinctual need for…

MEANING/PURPOSE A new survey presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association suggests that faith can affect a person's mental well-being. Researchers discovered people who regularly attend church are less likely to suffer from depression and other psychiatric illnesses. Results…

A minister, preaching upon the text, “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no healer there?” (Jer 8:22) made the remark that Christ is a good Physician. “Christ is not like those doctors who come and say they are sorry for you, whereas in their hearts they are glad you are ill, for if you and others…

A study done at medical facilities between 2009 and 2012 has found that health care providers discuss religious beliefs or spirituality in less than 20 percent of cases. Senior author of the study, Douglas White says for many patients and family, these issues are important and understanding them is important…

Physicians can use the latest medical technology to examine our internal organs, but one of the biggest health concerns people face cannot be seen. Research indicates emotions can impact a person’s health as much as problems with various organs can. Among the links that have been discovered are a link…

It is not healthy to be lonely. A new finding from studies conducted over 21 years shows that people who lacked strong social ties and had few friends were 29 percent more likely to have a heart attack and 32 percent more likely to suffer a stroke. Researcher Nicole Valtorta reports that “if this is…

In Shattered Dreams, Patrick Mead writes, “God doesn’t just want to restore your shattered dreams and broken lives—He has so much more in store for you. He doesn’t just want to make your live whole; He wants to use your pain to bring hope to others.” --Shattered Dreams, 106 Jeremiah 29:11 (NKJV) For…

PERSEVERANCE Adrianne Haslet-Davis promised that one day she would run the Boston Marathon. She made the vow while recovering from losing the lower part of her left leg in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. She was standing among the spectators when the explosions ripped through the crowd. Running with…