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Pastor’s aim to promote holistic health

December By Diane Reynolds, Times Staff Writer

At a recent conference on health in North Carolina, the Rev. Ellin Dize had the
chance to watch the sunrise. "Seeing the sun come up and shine across the water is just
magnificent," said Dize, pastor of Stone Chapel United Methodist Church in New
Windsor.
And healing. Such communion with nature - God's creation - is crucial for good
health, she said. She and the Rev. Bob Whiting, pastor emeritus of Mount Zion United
Methodist Church in Finksburg, hope to spread the message that a healthy life comes
from more than a pill or prescription drug. To do so, the two are educating themselves to
be "health ministers" to the community. They plan to offer a Christian-focused class on
the mind, body, spirit connection at Stone Chapel starting Wednesday. "There are so
many people sick," Dize said. The class will cover different areas that contribute to good
health, including the physical, water, exercise, air, sun and food; the mental, attitude and
stress; and the spiritual, our connection to God and God within us. "Life is all
connected," Dize said.
Scientific research seems to support her. More than 1,000 studies since the 1990s
have confirmed a link between religious belief and physical health. In a 2004 article in
American Psychologist titled "How the Mind Hurts and Heals the Body," Oakley Ray of
Vanderbilt University reviewed the scientific literature on the body-mind connection.
The evidence shows overwhelming that the brain interacts with the body to help produce
health or ill health, he wrote. "The brain is the body's first line of defense against illness,
against aging, against death," he wrote. More specifically, the mind (brain), the endocrine
system, the nervous system and the immune system are in constant communication with
each other. What we know, our perceptions of events, the strength of our support
community and our spiritual beliefs all impact our physical health.
Ray cited a 1995 study of a group of men older than 55 who underwent voluntary
cardiac surgery. The men who said they gained no strength or comfort from religion were
three times more likely to die in the six months following the surgery than those who
professed drawing solace and strength from religion. All the ingredients of good health
are spelled out in the Bible, Dize said, starting with "God's diet" of fresh fruits and
vegetables described in Genesis 1:29.
Dize and Whiting are working toward vegetarianism, they said, and are planning to
derive 85 percent of their diet from raw foods. "We're not going to make a drastic change
all at once," Dize said, Food additives lead to depression, they said, and sugar
compromises the immune system. The two pastors promote walking, exercise and fresh
air. Whiting said he can directly correlate his two heart attacks with increased stress in
his life. He regained health, he said, as much through putting God first as through any
drug regimen.
Both promote their spiritual connection through sanctuary gardens at home and
through daily mediation and prayer. Dize likes to soothe her soul through lighting a
candle to symbolize God's presence and by listening to music. She said she hopes people