According to the University of Michigan Health System, which treats the largest number of adult congenital (from birth) heart patients in the state of Michigan, “people who have been diagnosed early have been dealing with it their entire lives, requiring continued care and potentially additional surgeries“.

Yesterday I heard Lt. Governor Calley present a proclamation in Lansing declaring this week (February 11-15) Congenital Heart Defect Week here in Michigan. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that nearly 1 million adults in the U.S. have a congenital heart defect.

Certainly patients struggling with this, their families, and their care-givers all warrant our sympathy and support.

In what is both interesting and encouraging news, research has found that spirituality can help with heart problems.

One study, conducted at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles, California concluded: “Although difficult to study, spirituality has been evaluated and deemed to have a beneficial effect on multiple measures including global quality of life, depression and medical compliance in the treatment of patients with heart failure.”

Another study, conducted at Ohio State University, found that “…spirituality appears to be associated with … a high level of cardiac autonomic control… This pattern of autonomic control may have health significance.”

Spirituality is often defined as feeling a connection – such as with another person, or with nature, or with the divine.

The Bible offers this encouragement: “Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart…” ~Psalm 27:14 (KJV)

In the video account below, a woman shares how she learned to feel loved by God, and this connection with the divine healed her of chest pains.

(If the video below won’t play, view it by clicking here.)