Do you know that in the entire New Testament, there is only ONE place and ONE reason given as to WHY believers are sick? It is stated here by Paul:
1Co 11:29 For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.
30 For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.
Apparently, he says that the reason why the Corinthian Christians were sick and dying prematurely was that they were not discerning the Lord's body.
What does that mean? It means when we partake the bread (His body) we fail to discern that by His broken body we are made whole, by His stripes we are healed (divine exchanges, benefits of His passion).
That's why the bread represents our healing and the wine, forgiveness of sins -- the double cure, as old-timers would call it.
More here:
http://nuggetsfromgodsword.angelfire.com/healingintheatonement.html
Scroll down to Holy Communion and look at the diagram of the Matzah bread used by many churches in the Communion.
I believe that the truth abt what Paul said is parallel. IOW when we DO discern the Lord's body when we partake of the Communion, we will not be weak and sick, and sleep prematurely.