Here is an old article I came across that I had saved over the years.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Doctor's Startling Study Reveals . . .

Your Prayers DO HELP the Sick

By Paul P. Levy

    Praying for the sick really helps --- that's what a doctor found

when he compared a group of patients who were prayed for with

a group who weren't.

    Dr. Randy Byrd selected 393 heart patients at San Francisco

General Hospital --- all comparable in age and severity of illness.

    All  393 were told they were  part  of a study  in which  volunteers

would pray for patients in one group, but not the other. None of the

patients knew which group they belonged to.

    After 10 months, Dr. Byrd found that the 192 patients who were

prayed for had suffered fewer complications in three important areas;

Only three patients who received prayers needed antibiotics, compared

to 16 in the other group.

    Only six of the prayed-for patients suffered pulmonary edema ---

excess water in the lungs ---- compared to 18 in the other group.

    None of the prayed-for patients needed to have tubes placed in

their throats to aid their breathing, while 12 in the other group

did.

  "Based on this study, I believe that prayer is effective and

beneficial," said Dr. Byrd, who presented his study at an American

Heart Association meeting last year.

    "Volunteers were asked to pray each day for the beneficial

healing and quick recovery of patients," said Dr. Byrd, who was

assistant professor of medicine at the University of California at San

Francisco when the study was done in 1983.

---

Yours in Christ,
Paul N. F.