Attending Curch on a regular basis increases your life expectancy and promotes health, according to a recent study by Vanderbilt University professor Marino Bruce. “We found in our study that actually attending church is actually good for your health, particularly for those who are between the ages of 40 and 65,” Bruce, the associate director of Vanderbilt’s Center for Research on Men’s Health, says in a video.
Middle-aged adults who attend church reduce their mortality by 55 percent, Bruce says, adding, “For those who did not attend church at all, they were twice as likely to die prematurely than those who did who attended church at some point over the last year.”
“I’m ordained clergy so I’m always about what do we mean by our spiritual health. Does spiritual health matter with respect to biological outcomes?” Bruce says, and clarifies, “Any place of worship, any place where groups gather together to worship, it could be a church, it could be a temple, it could be a mosque… it’s not about a particular faith.”
“While churches are places where people can get social support, we actually found that and began to think about whether compassion is particularly important — feeling that you’re doing good or having empathy for others.”
Watch more on this below.
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings