Webinar #111 - Prof Harold Koenig - Are faith and health related?

Recorded on 14 July 2022 for ICMDA Webinars. Dr Peter Saunders chairs a webinar and Q&A with Prof Harold Koenig. Dr Koenig examines the relationship between faith, coping with stress, and mental health, covering topics such as depression, suicide, PTSD, substance use disorders, etc, followed by a model that describes how religious involvement influences mental and social health. He then examines the physical health consequences of a devout religious faith, examining health outcomes such as immune and endocrine functions, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, stroke, cognitive decline with aging, risk of cancer, and overall mortality. Then briefly reviews applications to clinical practice and provide further resources that listeners can turn to for more information in this area. Dr Koenig completed his undergraduate education at Stanford University, his medical school training at the University of California at San Francisco, and his geriatric medicine, psychiatry, and biostatistics training at Duke University. He is board certified in general psychiatry, and formerly boarded in family medicine, geriatric medicine, and geriatric psychiatry. He is on the faculty at Duke University Medical Center as Professor of Psychiatry and Associate Professor of Medicine and is the Director at the Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health. He has over 570 scientific peer-reviewed academic publications, nearly 100 book chapters, and over 55 books in print or preparation; and is co-leader of the team training all US Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard chaplains on “Spiritual Readiness” for combat operations by US service members. To listen live to future ICMDA webinars, visit https://icmda.net/resources/webinars/