NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - The relationship between spirituality and healing has been documented scientifically and may lead to changes in how doctors treat their patients. "When you keep getting a relationship in study after study, something`s going on that`s not just a fluke," Carl Thoresen, professor of education, psychology and psychiatry, said. Thoresen led a seminar on the subject at the annual meeting of the Society of Behavioral Medicine, an organization that promotes integrating behavioral and biomedical approaches to health and illness. Among people with long-term illnesses such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes, those with strong spiritual or religious beliefs are statistically likely to live longer. "It reduces, but not eliminates, some degree of risk; but other factors have to be considered as well," he said. "It doesn`t make up for misbehaviors like smoking or alcohol abuse." People who are more religious tend to take better care of themselves, with more prudent diet and decreased likelihood of alcohol or drug abuse or smoking. "But we can`t yet say that one causes the other," he said. Thoresen said there is still confusion in how people define spirituality. Religion is fairly straightforward in terms of adherence to a particular doctrine. Spirituality is a little more complicated, because it can be done personally and the individual is not necessarily active in organized religion. "Both share a search for the sacred in their lives, some conception of higher power in their lives, some relationship with something greater than themselves," he said.