Download or read book Handbook of Religion and Health written by Harold George Koenig and published by OUP USA. This book was released on 2012-02-29 with total page 1186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Completely revises and updates the first edition ... surveys the historical connections between religion and health and grapples with the distinction between the terms ''religion'' and ''spirituality'' in research and clinical practice. It reviews research on religion and mental health, as well as extensive research literature on the mind-body relationship, and develops a model to explain how religious involvement may impact physical health through the mind-body mechanisms. It also explores the direct relationships between religion and physical health, covering such topics as immune and endocrine function, heart disease, hypertension and stroke, neurological disorders, cancer, and infectious diseases; and examines the consequences of illness including chronic pain, disability, and quality of life ... [The] authors are physicians: a psychiatrist and geriatrician, a primary care physician, and a professor of nursing and specialist in mental health nursing"--Provided by publisher.