Marvelous White Pizza

This is incredibly easy to make. I use my own homemade pesto and a store bought pizza crust. My family raved about this dish and asked for it again the next night!

1. One prepackaged pizza crust
2. Olive oil
3. One cup pesto
4. One pound total shredded mozzarella, provolone, asiago, and parmesan cheese.

Brush pizza crust with olive oil. Spread pesto to edges of crust. Cover with the shredded cheese.

Bake in hot oven (450 degrees) for ten minutes.

Faith Determining Factor in Health and Longevity

The June Issue of Social Forces showed that mortality rates in a community are lowered according to the type of religious congregations within its locale.

Louisiana State University associate professor of sociology, Troy C. Blanchard, along with co-author John Bartkowski from the University of Texas at San Antonio and other researchers from the University of West Georgia and the University of Alabama at Birmingham found that people live longer in areas with a large number of Catholic and mainline Protestant churches.

In 1999, a Duke University Medical Center study of 4,000 elderly North Carolinians found that those who attended religious services every week were 46 percent less likely to die over a six-year period than people who attended less often or not at all.

Taking into account factors such as medical illnesses, depression, social connections, health practices and demographics—the frequent religious observers were still 28 percent less likely to die than others in the study. The size of the effect was so strong that it was equal to that of not smoking cigarettes, according to Duke psychiatrist Dr. Harold Koenig.

“Participating in religious services is associated with significant health benefits in elderly people, even when you take into account the fact that religious people tend to start out with better health practices and more social support,” Koenig said.

Religious observers have lower blood pressure, less depression and anxiety, stronger immune systems, and cost the health care system less than people who are less religiously involved.

The March-April 2006 issue of the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine reported the findings of a study comparing the associations between faith and health by a University of Pittsburgh Medical Center physician, Daniel Hall, M.D., who is a resident in general surgery and an Episcopal priest.

The study used life expectancy tables to compare the impact of regular exercise, statin therapy and religious attendance, and shows that each accounts for an additional two-to-five years of life, suggesting that the real-world, practical significance of weekly religious attendance is of similar magnitude to this other widely recommended therapy or health behavior.

“This is not to say that religious attendance should replace primary prevention such as exercise, or a proven drug therapy, such as statin therapy, but it does suggest that regular religious attendance is associated with a substantially longer life expectancy, and this warrants further research,” cautioned Hall.

In the December 1998 issue of Health Education & Behavior devoted to “Public Health and Health Education in Faith Communities,” Christopher G. Ellison, PhD, of the University of Texas, Austin, and Jeffrey S. Levin, PhD, of the National Institute of Healthcare Research, Rockville, MD explored a range of explanations for the positive health effects of religious practices and spiritual beliefs. They concluded that the following factors were the reason for better health among the faithful:

·                     Healthy Behavior. Religious involvement may discourage behavior that increases health risks, such as tobacco and alcohol consumption, or it may encourage other positive lifestyle choices.

·                     Social Support. People who regularly attend religious services appear to have larger and denser social networks to provide emotional support and other forms of assistance than less frequent attendees.

·                     Self Esteem. Religious involvement may promote feelings of self-worth and confidence in the ability to control one’s own affairs and destiny.

·                     Coping Skills. Prayer, meditation and other religious activities may help people deal with stressful events and conditions.

·                     Positive Emotions. Religious activities may also lead to positive emotions, which have been shown to influence immune functions and other physiological factors that influence health.

·                     Healthy Beliefs. Faith may promote a positive outlook that offers both emotional and tangible means of promoting individuals’ health and well-being.

In the July 27, 2008 issue of the Nashua Telegraph,  Manoj Jain, an infectious disease physician in Memphis and a medical director of Medicare’s quality improvement organization in Tennessee, wrote that three-quarters of all U.S. medical schools now offer courses in spirituality and medicine, and academic centers such as the George Washington Institute for Spirituality and Health, the Duke Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health, and the Center for Spirituality and Health at the University of Florida are being established across the nation.