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An article I read recently was called “Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease: Lessons Learned and Applied”. The article talked about how over half of Alzheimer’s disease is caused by “modifiable factors”. Modifiable factors are things you can change about your life. Some were things all of us know are not healthy like smoking, obesity, lack of exercise, and poor diet. But what struck me were the following: social engagement, mindfulness (the medical term for prayer and meditation), optimism, and purpose in life.
Where can you find social engagement, prayer, optimism, and purpose in life?
At church! God built us to need Him, His church, and His people. Without Him and without His church we become spiritually demented. We forget who He is, and we forget who we are.
I work for a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation clinic. At the clinic I strive to incorporate traditional medicine with alternative remedies that have scientific support, as well as Christian principles. One medical presentation I watched shared several studies on how to improve a bad mood. God’s principles were clearly evident in this research.
This is what I noticed:
Focus on others.
Numerous studies have found that happiness is more related to giving than receiving: “‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’” (Acts 20:35, NIV).
Counteract your negativity bias.
Our brains are wired to see threats, not rewards. This means we automatically see the worst in life and must actively focus on things that are going well. The Bible tells us to concentrate on what is good and right and trustworthy: whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure…dwell on these things (Philippians 4:8, CSB). That’s because God knows our brains have been rewired by sin to see all of His good creation through a broken lens.
Be a part of a great community.
The best predictor of a person’s happiness is the quality of their social network. God designed us to be in families—biological and spiritual. Church can keep you sane: Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another (Hebrews10:25, NIV).
God built us to need Him, His church, and His people.
Let me reiterate: without Him and without His church we become spiritually demented. We forget who He is, and we forget who we are.
May God always remind us of who He is and who we are in Him.
Janine Islam
Janine Coles Islam is blessed to be a wife, a mom of three, and a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation specialist. Janine attended Tulane Medical School where she met her husband David. They trained in their respective specialties at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Currently she works in an outpatient clinic three days a week during school hours. Janine has been a Womenary student for many years. Her current interests are incorporating Christ, His spiritual disciplines, and complementary and alternative medicine into outpatient musculoskeletal rehabilitation. 
