There are some things you just know are wrong. The mass drugging of children is one of those things, at least for me. Three million American school children take Ritalin or similar drugs daily so they can avoid being distracted…and distracting others…in the classroom. That’s 20 times as many drugged children in America as 30 years ago.

This past Sunday the New York Times ran an opinion piece called Ritalin Gone Wrong by L. Alan Sroufe, professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Minnesota’s Institute of Child Development.

Dr. Sroufe’s 40-year professional study of this phenomenon, and his well reasoned and calmly presented results, are already drawing angry fire from proponents of the drugs.

Here are some of his findings about these drugs and their sad failure:

• When given to children over long periods of time, they neither improve school achievement nor reduce behavior problems. The drugs can also have serious side effects, including stunting growth.

• To date, no study has found any long-term benefit of attention-deficit medication on academic performance, peer relationships or behavior problems, the very things we would most want to improve.

• The large-scale medication of children feeds into a societal view that all of life’s problems can be solved with a pill and gives millions of children the impression that there is something inherently defective in them.

• The illusion that children’s behavior problems can be cured with drugs prevents us as a society from seeking the more complex solutions that will be necessary. Drugs get everyone — politicians, scientists, teachers and parents — off the hook. Everyone except the children, that is.

During my own 25+ years as a teacher and school administrator I saw more than my share of behavior problems among children of all ages, many of them related to focus problems.

I remember one exasperated 4th grade teacher bringing me an even more exasperated 9 year old. For most kids it’s at least a little sobering to find yourself in the Principal’s office. As he began to settle down and verbalize what was really bothering him, I remember thinking that if I had to face the problems he faced every day, I wouldn’t be able to focus either. There was nothing inherently wrong with him; he was, like many of us, facing very vexing circumstances and in need of some help sorting it out. He was only 9 and assigning a drug-based solution would have been nothing short of cruel.

His parents didn’t want to use drugs, so we forged a plan that would provide a greater sense of peace for him at home and at school. This wasn’t easy and there were further bumps in the road, but things improved over the long haul. The focus and control issues were gradually eased by an effective school/home partnership….and finally resolved. It took a long time and a lot of hard work.

Pills can’t do that. It seems easier to apply a short-term chemical solution than to find and solve the real problem. But in the long run, as Dr. Sroufe has confirmed, drugs are not a solution, and their unchecked use can create a huge local and national burden for us all.

Many parents are finding solutions to children’s attention/behavior problems through focused Christian prayer. This prayer has a Bible-based focus, but it can be employed by people with no prior Biblical knowledge and no current religious orientation.

Here’s an example from spirituality.com. It’s an article with a great title. Check it out……..“Help! My child is out of control!”

While promoting her role in the new Lars von Trier film, Melancholia, Kirsten Dunst recently revealed that she has experienced depression. In the film, Dunst plays the role of a woman named Justine who suffers severe mental illness.

Dunst’s admission is yet another celebrity disclosure. Carrie Fisher, Angelina Jolie, and Christina Ricci have all shared similar stories. Yet, there is hope for these women and for everyone.

Weeks ago, while in Durham, North Carolina, I attended a news briefing where the Wave III Baylor Religion Survey was unveiled. The survey confirmed what I have been discovering: Improved mental health is found through greater spiritual awareness.

Before the press conference, I had the opportunity to talk with Dr. Paul Froese, associate professor of sociology at Baylor University. Froese was part of the research team that studied the connection between mental health and spirituality. He was also one of the participants who shared the survey’s findings.

Froese explained that respondents in the study on mental health, who have strong beliefs about their relationship with God, “have significantly better mental health.”  He said the survey discovered, as well, that those who attend religious services regularly have the lowest reported number of mental health issues.

This study seems to mirror what I have witnessed in my healing ministry for the past 28 years. I have found that how we think affects how we live. This is why it is imperative that spiritual reasoning, prayer, and religious attendance be recognized for the healing impacts they have on our well-being.

Many individuals suffer needlessly from obsessive-compulsive disorders, social anxiety, stress, and panic attacks. According to a recent study, more American adults are reporting being disabled by the symptoms of anxiety, depression, or emotional difficulties.

The report, published September 22nd in the American Journal of Public Health, found that people who said they could not accomplish daily tasks or engage in social and leisure activities because of a mental illness jumped from 2 percent in 1999 to 2.7 percent in 2009. The increase amounts to almost 2 million more people disabled by mental challenges in the past decade. As well, loved ones of the mentally ill often deal silently with their fears, frustrations, sorrows, and guilt. Fortunately, we are learning that help is available. And prayer and education can be just the medicines they need.

If spirituality is indeed a key to better mental health, why? I believe it’s because we are created as spiritual beings, first and foremost. And until we learn more about our spiritual natures and the divine laws that govern our minds and bodies, we will not see real and lasting improvements.

It has long been believed that the brain is the cause of consciousness, and as such is what rules mental health. Yet, physicians and researchers are beginning to join those in the spiritual healing practices in accepting that things are not always what they appear to be.

Recently, during a meeting about spirituality’s role in mental health, Dr. Thomas Curry, a licensed psychotherapist in Texas, told me that research is now showing that the brain changes according to one’s thought. He explained, “This phenomena is called neuroplasticity. What makes this interesting is that if the brain directs consciousness, one would think that as the brain changes, consciousness changes. Yet, we know for a fact that consciousness can change first, and then the brain follows suit by re-connecting, or circumventing certain neural pathways. This implies that the brain is an object of thought, and not the thinker.”

This certainly coincides with what I am learning. I find that prayer impacts health because, as radical as it sounds, thought is the engine that essentially forms and drives the body. This is why a significant change of thought leads to adjustments and changes in the body. And prayer, with the power of God behind it, changes thought as nothing else can.

The suffering of so many is disheartening. But an answer is available. Spiritual awareness lets us confidently utilize the spiritual laws that stop the self-destructive nature of materialistic thinking. It nurtures our spiritual sense of things. It replaces fear and panic with wisdom and peace.

Yes, I believe a solution is at our fingertips. And more than just hope is available, for many are learning: Improved mental health is found through greater spiritual awareness.

You’ll find Keith’s article in themonitor.com.

Just when you thought there were already way too many diseases, here comes a new one, “Mass Phychogenic Illness” or MPI. Where did it come from? Most recently, from a group of teenage girls in upstate New York. Is it something to worry about? Probably not…unless you think about it too much.

It turns out that if enough people in a close population believe themselves to be ill, a sort of mental contagion takes place and a group sickness is born. The phenomenon, as described here in the Wall Street Journal’s Health Blog, is common enough to have earned itself a name and a place in the growing catalogue of diseases.

In the latter part of the nineteenth century, the author of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, writing about the effect of thought on health, said:

“A new name for an ailment affects people like a Parisian name for a novel garment. Every one hastens to get it. A minutely described disease costs many a man his earthly days of comfort.”

Considering the MPI phenomenon prompts some further questions about the effect of thought on health :

*Since there is complete agreement that MPI has mental rather than physical causes, are there other diseases that might have fear-based rather than microbe-based causes?

*If mental contagion is that powerful, does it work in the opposite direction? Could a group be equally convinced of a healthy condition and experience it as a result?

*What does research say?

On the last question, here’s an excerpt from the Mayo Clinic’s take on the topic:

“Is your glass half-empty or half-full? How you answer this age-old question about positive thinking may reflect your outlook on life, your attitude toward yourself, and whether you’re optimistic or pessimistic — and it may even affect your health.”

Could it be that this “age-old question” has a less qualified and more definite old school answer that transcends positive thinking and reaches for spiritual knowledge? The ancient book of Proverbs in The Bible tells us that a person should remember, “…as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.”

Embassy of Italy, Washington DC

One of the world’s leading researchers in the neurobiology of placebos, Fabrizio Benedetti , M.D. of the University of Turin Medical School, Italy,  delivered the final  lecture of a three day conference on placebo’s Friday night at the Italian Embassy in Washington, D.C.   This conference was sponsored by the National Institute of Health and the Samueli Institute.

Although the first two days of the conference were invitation only, this final lecture was open to the public.  In addition to Dr. Benedetti,  Luana Collca, M.D. (educated in Italy but now working at the Complementary and Alternative Medicine at NIH).   Also presenting was Franklin Miller, Ph.D. ( medical ethics ) from NIH.

I was in the audience of about eighty people in the beautiful new embassy building Friday night.  Most of Dr. Benedetti’s research is in the area of pain management.  As a neurobiologist he studies how the body responds physiologically to a placebo or nocebo.

Here are a few of the high points from Dr. Benedetti’s lecture

“Placebo Effect = Context Effect”   I always thought about a sugar pill as a placebo, and that a patient’s faith in the pill (thinking that it has a beneficial drug) is what triggers the placebo effect.

Not so.

Dr. Benedetti’s research indicates that is it the ritual surrounding receiving a pill that triggers a physiological response that lessons pain.  This ritual includes the surroundings of the doctor’s office, the doctor, what the doctor says, etc.

Benedetti showed photos of a woman who had undergone surgery on her back that limited the range of motion of her left arm – how high she could lift it.

• With no drug about 90 degrees
• After receiving a placebo – she could raise her arm about 140 degrees (180 would be straight up)
• After receiving a nocebo  (a sugar pill with guidance from the doctor that it would limit her motion) she only raised her arm about 45 degrees

He had numerous examples of similar results from other studies.   How and when physicians should use a placebo in practice was covered in remarks by Frank Miller.    I came away from the evening with sense that research is now documenting this phenomenon, but the medical community is still wrestling with how to incorporate it into practice.

To end his lecture Dr. Benedetti  put up a slide with the following quote:

“Doctors are men who prescribe medicines of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less, in human beings of whom they know nothing.”

Voltaire

You will find Roger’s blog here.

Michio Kaku is a quantum physicist and co-founder of “string field theory”. When he was 16 he built a particle accelerator in his mother’s garage, blowing out the electrical circuitry in the house and causing his mother to ask, “Why couldn’t I have a son who plays baseball?”

His new book, Physics of the Future, spells out some amazing technological wonders that may await us in the not so distant future. How about accessing the internet through your contact lenses? Blink…and you’re online.

Fascinating stuff with big implications in many areas, including health care. Kaku predicts that thought will be harnessed and become action with no physical body movement involved. Form a thought…and watch it become an action.

He tells about paralyzed stroke victims equipped with special computer chips who are already able to manipulate computers and guide wheelchairs simply by thinking. “After a while … [the patients] were able to read email, write email, surf the Internet, play video games, guide wheelchairs — anything you can do on a computer, they can do as well, except they’re trapped inside a paralyzed body.”

What implications does the power of thought, including religious thought, have for health care?

Already professors of psychology, such as Gail Ironson at the University of Miami, who studies HIV and religious belief, are finding that “spirituality predicts for better disease control.” And neuroscientists such as Dr. Lou Ritz at the University of Florida are offering classes in “neurotheology”, making clear connections between religious thought and health.

Another Florida researcher, Michael E. McCullough of the University of Miami, has conducted research with colleague, Robert A. Emmons, of the University of California, Davis, proving that people who keep gratitude journals are more optimistic, happier and have fewer physical problems.

Where is all of this headed? In a healthy direction for sure. The effect of thought…especially religious thought…on the body, the body’s movement, and overall physical health, is a rapidly growing field of study. It offers inexpensive, real life alternatives to the worn-out theory that overly expensive drug-based medicine is the only effective way to achieve and sustain health.