Regular church attendance is good for your health, according to scientific studies compiled by Time Magazine.

"People who regularly attend religious services have been found to have lower blood pressure, lower rates of depression and generally better health than those who don't attend," the magazine reported in a cover article about changing attitudes toward health.

Supporting the link between religion and health were a series of scientific studies reviewed by Jeffrey Leven, a gerontologist and epidemiologist at East Virginia Medical School, and David Larson, a research psychiatrist at the National Institute for Healthcare Research. After examining 200 studies on the effect of religion on health, they reported:

- A survey of 30 years of research on blood pressure showed that "churchgoers have lower blood pressure than non-churchgoers."

- A study of 30 female patients recovering from hip fractures found that "those who regarded God as a source of strength and who attended religious services were able to walk farther upon discharge, and had lower rates of depression than those who had little faith."

- Other studies found that men and women who attend church regularly "have half the risk of dying from coronary-artery disease as those who rarely go to church."

The researchers noted that "religious injunctions against drinking, drug abuse, smoking and other excesses" produced better health, but said "that alone cannot explain their findings." Larson pointed out that in his own study "the benefits of religion hold up strongly, even for those who indulge in cigarette smoking."

"Smokers who rated religion as being very important to them were one-seventh as likely to have an abnormal blood pressure reading as smokers who did not value religion."

The Time article suggested that prayer may provide some of the same health benefits as meditation. "Praying affects epinephrine and other corticosteroid messengers or 'stress hormones,' leading to lower blood pressure, more relaxed heart rate and respiration and other benefits," the magazine suggested.

A poll of 1,004 Americans commissioned for Time found that 82 percent believe "in the healing power of personal prayer."