Are People Who Believe in God Generally Healthier?
The data seems to indicate that people who have a healthy relationship with their church, who have a healthy relationship with God, are associated with less disease.
But from a causation point of view, it's tricky. You could argue they probably have more friends, more social interaction. So the question is: are people who are healthier and have more friends more likely to be religious, or is it the other way around? Sometimes it’s difficult to tell. But I imagine there’s a great calming force that comes from believing in a higher power.
Another interesting observation is that many religions incorporate healthful practices. Hindus, for instance, are famous for waking up in the morning and welcoming the sun—we’ve talked about the benefits of sunlight. Fasting is also a major part of many traditions. For example, Muslims fast during Ramadan.
Some religions even have hot and cold practices, historically. But on the flip side, if you have an unhealthy relationship with God—like believing in a vindictive deity who's out to get you unless you do certain things—that has been shown to negatively impact health. So, it depends on the nature of that relationship.
Roger’s Experience Witnessing Death
In my practice, I’m often there at the end of people’s lives. Sometimes, unfortunately, I’m the last person they see. It makes you realize that death is inevitable. All we do in medicine is delay the inevitable.
What we try to do is make sure that when death happens, it happens with dignity. We celebrate the person’s life and ensure that everything is done the way they would want it.
When people are close to dying, their responses vary greatly. Some become reflective and circumspect. Some are ready to go—they feel they’ve completed what they came to do. When we, as medical professionals, try to intervene—put them on a ventilator, give medication—sometimes they say, “No, I don’t want that. I choose not to have that.” And we have to respect that. Our job is to ensure they have all the information to make an informed decision, but ultimately, it’s their choice.
A Miraculous Story: Anoxic Brain Injury Recovery
There was one case that changed me—not in a horrible way, but in a miraculous way. I actually witnessed a miracle early in my training, and it made me rethink the idea of being a “prognosticating physician”—the kind who says, “You’ll never walk again,” or “You’ve got two years to live.”
This was a young guy, in his twenties, who had testicular cancer. The surgery was successful, but during the operation, he didn’t get enough oxygen to his brain and came out with an anoxic brain injury. He had a young wife. I was a resident then, working under attendings. What they say is final.
The ICU attending and the neurologist reviewed his condition and said, “He’s not waking up. He has a severe anoxic brain injury, and the scans confirm this.”
We’d round on him daily—he was just a shaking mess, eyes rolling, no responses. But his wife came every day. She never accepted that this was his fate. She believed he would wake up. She attended to him, asked us to include special concoctions she made at home into his feeding tube. We humored her, but my attendings thought, “She doesn’t understand—he’s never waking up.”
One day, she came in smiling, very peaceful. They were a Hispanic couple, so we asked the translator what was going on. She said, “I had a dream last night that he was coming home.” She was absolutely convinced.
We thought she was crazy. But then, weeks later, while rounding, I saw him. He was still shaking, but his eyes seemed more focused. I waved at him, and to my shock, he raised his shaky hand and waved back.
We checked him again. Long story short, over months, he improved. Eventually, that guy walked out of the hospital. Six months later, he and his wife walked back onto the unit, bringing a huge basket of flowers to thank us.
Most of the staff had just been keeping him alive because that’s what she wanted. But when he started recovering, the whole atmosphere shifted—everyone was amazed.
That experience taught me humility. Why did he get better? He was young—22—and younger brains have more plasticity. But honestly, it was a miracle. Every expert said he wouldn’t recover, but he did.
I believe he had a loving wife who believed in him, and maybe something beyond the physical and mental—something spiritual—happened. I don’t know. I only know a tiny percentage of the world’s knowledge, maybe 5-10% of medical knowledge. The answer is probably in the remaining 90% we just don’t understand.
It taught me to stay humble about what we know—and don’t know.
Melatonin for Sleep
Melatonin is good in certain situations. If you’re having difficulty falling asleep, a small dose—no more than 5 milligrams—can be beneficial. It’s also useful for shifting the circadian rhythm forward if it’s been pushed back, and it helps with jet lag. It’s helpful for some sleep disorders as well.
But I wouldn’t recommend routinely taking large doses of melatonin for no reason. High doses can make you irritable—mentally irritable, more easily set off, like a mood disorder.
Some people are concerned that too much melatonin might suppress the body’s natural melatonin production from the pineal gland, but I haven’t seen conclusive evidence of that yet.
The Body as the Temple of the Holy Spirit (Scientific Analogy)
There's one topic I wish people asked me about more, and it’s related to this book—the Bible, which is my tradition. Specifically, the scientific evidence I find in the Bible.
Paul wrote in the New Testament, “Don’t you understand that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?” That’s a fascinating statement. The only temple at that time was the temple in Jerusalem, described in painstaking detail in Exodus chapters 25 through 30.
So I had this hypothesis: if Paul says the body is a temple, could the pattern of the temple correspond to the human body? They didn’t know about cells, DNA, or the circulatory system back then.
Here’s the parallel:
The Altar of Sacrifice: In the temple, this is where the blood is. In the human body, that corresponds to the circulatory system.
The Laver (Water Basin): After the blood, you have a basin of water—like the interstitial fluid between blood vessels and cells.
The Holy Place (The Cell): The next area in the temple is separated by a veil—just like the plasma membrane of a cell. Inside, you find various pieces of furniture, analogous to cell organelles. For example:
The seven-branched candlestick burning olive oil symbolizes the mitochondria, which produces energy through beta oxidation.
The Most Holy Place (The Nucleus): In the temple’s innermost area is the Ark of the Covenant, containing the two stone tablets—the Ten Commandments, representing God’s law.
Inside the nucleus of the human cell are two strands of DNA—our biological "code of life." If that code is altered, mutations occur, leading to disease and death. This wasn’t discovered until 1950, yet Paul was already calling the body a temple.
Similarly, Paul talks about the body of Christ as one body made up of many parts—the hand, the foot—without knowing anything about cells, which Van Leeuwenhoek didn’t discover until the 1600s.
I find it fascinating that ancient texts made statements that align with scientific truths we only discovered centuries later.
Closing Thoughts
If you want longevity and to live your best life, the key is to strengthen all aspects of your health—not just rely on medications. That’s the philosophy behind NEW START. Youtube Ref: The Diary of CEO : Dr. Roger Seheult Vitamin D Expert: The Fastest Way To Dementia & The Dangerous Lie You've Been Told About Sunlight!