Christine Webb, Your Health and Fitness
We have been sharing with you an incredible story of a young woman's battle against breast cancer, as News 13 takes a look at the power of prayer and healing.
• Click here to read Part 1 of this story.
• Click here to read Part 2 of this story.
Pam Oldham believes besides medicine, faith helped her heal. But is it medically possible?
"Today is a gift," Pam said. "It is not the one that I was promised, and not one I would see three years ago."
But she did, and she's not alone.
Experts conduct numerous studies each year on the power of prayer and healing, and more and more, doctors are seeing its importance.
"I think one of the biggest things people face is fear," said oncologist Dr. Mary Busowski. "Whatever people seek to calm that fear and anxiety helps them to look forward."
Research showed prayer is the most common complement to mainstream medicine, far outpacing acupuncture, herbs, vitamins and other alternative remedies.
"Faith and prayer really allow you to put your life in the hands of someone who is far more powerful, more able than you are, and because of that, that sense of fear and anxiety is lessened," said Dr. David Swanson, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Orlando.
Pray and be healed? Well, it is not that simple. Not everyone who prays for healing gets the answer they want.
"In Christian faith, the ultimate healing, the thing God is most concerned with is the spiritual healing of our heart," Dr. Swanson said.
"I am a mother, a wife. Why he let me chose to see this day — mybe that I can do this for him, because of what he's done for me," Pam said.
Pam has a new outlook on life, a chance to help others and the opportunity to watch her kids grow up.
Three years from her diagnosis, Pam knows she is lucky. She truly believes the future is in someone else's hands.
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