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When Louisville physician David Hibbard conducts an hourlong physical, the usual questions come up: Do you have a family history of any diseases? Have you had any surgeries?

But then Hibbard throws in a question that may catch some by surprise.

"I always ask, 'Do you have a religious or spiritual practice?'" said Hibbard, founder of the Family Medical Center in Louisville, Ky. He goes on to ask if the patient believes in some kind of "higher power," if they pray and if they would want for him to pray for them if they fell ill.

Some say no to all of the above, and that's fine, he said. Some say yes; Hibbard prays for patients every day.

He's not alone.

Whether it's in the name of God, Allah, Buddha, a "Higher Power" or something else, religious faith and spirituality may after a long absence be making a comeback in the realm of modern medicine.

Reams of emerging scientific studies suggest that religious faith of some kind promotes health. With the data to back them up, many physicians have begun incorporating spirituality into their practices.

Some simply inquire about the religious lives of their patients as a means of understanding them more wholly; others gently prescribe attention to spiritual life as another tool in the arsenal against disease; some pray for their patients.

A decade ago, only a handful of medical schools had coursework looking at the role of spirituality in health. Today, more than half do. And the National Institutes of Health has even begun funding studies exploring the faith-health connection.

Skeptics say the studies are flawed, and even those who welcome a renewed emphasis on spirituality in medicine admit the union must be handled delicately.

Nonetheless, many predict that just as the "mind-body" connection has begun to catch on in mainstream health care, the "mind-body-spirit" connection may someday, too.

"I really believe this is the next frontier," said epidemiologist Jeff Levin, author of "God, Faith, and Health; Exploring the Spirituality-Healing Connection."

"For the past century, the prevailing world view has been that a human being is just a bunch of bones jangling about in a sack of chemicals. But the paradigm is shifting again and a lot of people are starting to talk about spirit," Levin said.

A study published recently in Health Psychology magazine found that out of 125,000 subjects, those who regularly attended religious services and ranked faith high on their priority list had a 29 percent better chance of living longer.

A survey of 21,000 people from 1987 to 1995 found a seven-year difference in life expectancy between those who never attended religious services and those who attended more than once a week.

The studies are not without critics.

In a lengthy review in the Lancet, Dr. Richard Sloan of Columbia University criticized both the methodology of the studies and the ethics of bringing spirituality into the examination room.

Studies rarely define "faith" or "religion," he said, and those regarding attendance at religious services often fail to note that sometimes sick people can't make it to church.

He believes making recommendations that link religious practice with better health is dangerous, because it may lead those who do fall ill to believe it is a result of "moral failure."

Levin's book cites hundreds of studies that link religious affiliation to reductions in heart disease, blood pressure, hypertension, cancer and life expectancy. He said there are very practical explanations for most.

People committed to a particular faith tend to engage in healthier behavior, such as drinking and smoking less. The social support provided by religious fellowship buffers the effects of stress and isolation. The positive feelings brought about by fellowship and faith can prompt a cascade of physiological responses in the body, boosting the immune system.

"People hear there are studies linking spirituality and health and say it can't be, but when you really break it down you realize there are mechanisms well within our current knowledge and science to explain them," Levin said.

But some studies aren't so easily explainable in scientific terms.

A randomized, controlled trial published in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that of 990 patients admitted to the coronary care unit at St. Luke's Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., those who were prayed for not in their presence, and without their knowledge fared better.

Another controlled trial conducted by a Duke University cardiologist is testing the effect of distant prayer by people of various religions across the globe on 1,500 patients.

In print, critics have called such studies hogwash.

But Larry Dossey, a Dallas internist, has taken the results to heart.

"After immersing myself in this data I began to pray for my own patients," Dossey said. "I got to the point where it seemed that withholding prayer was an ethical issue. Are you justified in not using a therapy that appears to be effective? I said no."