{"id":1734,"date":"2026-06-15T05:36:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T05:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=1734"},"modified":"2026-06-15T05:36:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T05:36:11","slug":"opinion-we-fight-for-every-drop-of-water-but-were-overlooking-a-wellspring-of-health-in-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=1734","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: We fight for every drop of water. But we\u2019re overlooking a wellspring of health in faith"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Three years ago, researchers from Utah State University and the University of Utah convened with the Great Salt Lake Strike Team alongside state agencies to sound the alarm. A team of scientists led by BYU soon followed with a warning that the Great Salt Lake could essentially disappear within five years \u2014 a collapse that would pollute the air for millions and cripple the regional economy \u2014 unless Utahns cut their water use by a third or more.<\/p>\n

Read more A baby. An adoption. A plane crash. And a man\u2019s search for his birth parents<\/a><\/p>\n

Multiple forces united. State monies were allocated, along with a proposed $1 billion from the White House. A coalition of business and nonprofit leaders \u2014 led by Josh Romney\u2019s Great Salt Lake Rising and including the conservationist group Ducks Unlimited \u2014 pledged hundreds of millions more. Those involved were aware that when a life-giving resource is at risk, it is essential to channel every potential source. <\/p>\n

American health professionals and the general public could stand to learn from that resolve to preserve and leverage a precious asset. Because faith and religious community \u2014 resources strongly tied to a longer and healthier life \u2014 are ones our health system rarely acknowledges.<\/p>\n

How religion impacts longevity <\/h3>\n

The United States spends more per person on healthcare than any other wealthy nation, yet Americans live shorter lives than people in nearly all of them. A 2025 Lancet analysis also found the U.S. has made unusually poor progress against chronic disease, with mortality rising among adults aged 20 to 45 \u2014 the same generations who are now least connected to religious community. Pew also reports the share of religiously unaffiliated adults has nearly doubled since 2007, to roughly 29% today. The combination of this data should make us curious.<\/p>\n

Look closely at the Intermountain West and the curiosity sharpens. Utah posts the lowest adult smoking rate in America \u2014 just over 7% \u2014 alongside one of the lowest rates of physical inactivity. Researchers have long attributed much of that advantage to the region\u2019s dominant faith \u2014 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints \u2014 and its health code, which forbids tobacco and alcohol use while extolling activity and family.<\/p>\n

The numbers behind this link are striking. A landmark UCLA study followed nearly 10,000 devout California Latter-day Saints and found that active Latter-day Saint men were living 8 to 11 years longer than the U.S. average. <\/p>\n

The pattern is not unique to one faith. In Loma Linda, California \u2014 the only \u201cBlue Zone\u201d of exceptional longevity in the United States \u2014 Seventh-day Adventists outlive their countrymen by close to a decade, with markedly lower rates of heart disease and cancer. Further research found the faithful, across denominations and faiths, who attended weekly or more live 7.6 years longer \u2014 13.7 years longer among African Americans. <\/p>\n

Religious involvement as health enhancer <\/h3>\n

Imagine a low-cost therapy with years of life-boosting influence going unmentioned by a medical expert.<\/p>\n

This fall, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will launch MAHA ELEVATE, a roughly $100 million model testing \u201cwhole-person care\u201d for Medicare patients. Its priorities \u2014 nutrition, physical activity, sleep, stress management, social connection and avoiding harmful substances \u2014 are all worthwhile. They are also notable for what they omit: the factor of faith community involvement.<\/p>\n

In a new report from the Wheatley Institute, we analyzed findings drawn from Oxford University\u2019s three Handbooks of Religion and Health, covering the best existing research in the field. Of 1,069 high-quality studies across 15 physical health domains, 876 found positive associations between religious involvement and physical health and only 124 found negative ones \u2014 a ratio of roughly 7 to 1. <\/p>\n

The strongest signals come from the same areas that American medicine spends the most time and money on. Among high-quality studies of cigarette smoking, \u201csignificantly\u201d positive findings outnumber negative ones by 90 to 1; on substance abuse and addiction, 43 to 1; on mortality and longevity, 15 to 1.<\/p>\n

How faith impacts the body<\/h3>\n

Religious communities shape behavior and accountability. They discourage the habits that fill cardiology wards \u2014 smoking, heavy drinking, sedentary living, social isolation \u2014 and reinforce habits that keep hearts and bodies healthy. They build networks of care that last decades, not just the length of an annual physical. And these same faith communities give people reasons to get up, get out, serve and look after a neighbor. <\/p>\n

Here is an irony: Utah is among the most religious states in the union and one of the healthiest. Yet even here, the medical system rarely treats a patient\u2019s faith community as the health asset it is. The new federal prevention model leaves it off the list. We fight over every acre-foot of water and still let this other wellspring run unused.<\/p>\n

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In Memphis, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare formalized covenant agreements with roughly 500 congregations, embedding trained liaisons in each to follow patients from admission through recovery. The results: mortality was less than half the comparison rate, and enrolled members had meaningfully lower healthcare costs \u2014 a model the Journal of the American Medical Association cited as a best practice and that Wake Forest\u2019s FaithHealth program later replicated in North Carolina. The evidence is strong enough that Health Affairs, the nation\u2019s flagship health policy journal, devoted a 2024 issue to reimagining public health \u2014 featuring a call by Harvard public health researchers for spirituality to be formally recognized as a social determinant of health, with the same policy infrastructure we give diet and exercise. <\/p>\n

The researchers were clear that the evidence base is physical as much as spiritual: lower all-cause mortality, reduced chronic disease, longer life. But still, some wonder: How can we act on this?<\/p>\n

A realistic pathway to strengthen public health<\/h3>\n

A wise approach would be voluntary, evidence-based and pluralistic. No physician can prescribe belief, but belief is not what the best research is measuring. The best studies track attendance, community membership, and shared practice \u2014 things people can choose.<\/p>\n

The clinical conversation can sound like this: \u201cDo you have a community outside work and family that you gather with regularly? Research suggests that kind of connection has real, positive effects on physical health. Is that something you\u2019d want help finding?\u201d <\/p>\n

For patients who already belong to a faith community, the follow-up is even simpler: \u201cAre you actively involved in it?\u201d <\/p>\n

We do not ask people whether they believe exercise is meaningful before recommending it. We tell them it helps and let them decide. <\/p>\n

Intermountain Health, headquartered in Salt Lake City and serving six states, already has a community health arm and an explicit faith ministry presence after its 2022 merger with SCL Health. As a Catholic system founded by the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth, it carries an explicit faith ministry presence in its own hospitals.<\/p>\n

Utah\u2019s dense congregational networks \u2014 where members are already assigned to watch over and minister to one another in love \u2014 are the informal version of what Memphis had to build from scratch. <\/p>\n

\n

A system serious about adding years to American lives should stop overlooking one of the most durable, low-cost sources of discipline, belonging and longevity.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

No single intervention will fix American health. But a system serious about adding years to American lives should stop overlooking one of the most durable, low-cost sources of discipline, belonging and longevity. Doctors need not proselytize, and government need not favor any creed. <\/p>\n

In the West, we are mobilizing billions and uniting old rivals to rescue a dying lake. We should be at least as willing to tap a wellspring of health that is already all around us.<\/p>\n

Read more Unnatural habitat: Zoos, inside and out<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Research shows faith communities help people live longer and stay well. Our conception of health should take this into account.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"yoast_head":"\nOpinion: We fight for every drop of water. But we\u2019re overlooking a wellspring of health in faith - American Movers Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=1734\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Opinion: We fight for every drop of water. 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