OK. This one is hilarious. My son sent me a note about this finding- and I couldn’t believe someone undertook such a study- in a serious fashion.

Jewish folks (ok, religious Jewish folks) pray every day. And, when they pray in the morning- as long as it’s not a holiday- they wear a talit and t’filin. A talit is a four-cornered garment (shown folded below), and on each of the corners, there are tied fringes. The talit is worn for every morning prayer- every day of the year. And, also on one evening- the evening of Yom Kipur, the Day of Atonement. (Most Jews who go to synagogue- that’s reform, conservative, orthodox, and reconstructionist- on Shabat and holidays don a talit.)

The t’filin is what separates the men from the boys. Actually, that is a literal statement. Only those men (some women do wear these, but that census is extremely low) over the age of bar mitzva (the age of responsibility to perform the Jewish commandments) are the ones who wear t’filin. There are two of these- one for the hand and arm and one for the head

The English word for t’filin is phylacteries. The use of these religious objects were commanded to Jews both in the book of Exodus (Sh’mot) and Deuteronomy (D’varim), ‘to bind them as a sign upon your arm and a symbol on your forehead’.

OK.  Now, we’ve covered what they are and when they are used.  Here’s where it gets interesting.

Dr. Rubinstein posited that this binding of the arm with t’filin causes discomfort (at least at first) and serves as preconditioning, a protection against acute ichemic reperfusion injury. (That injury results when part of the heart gets deprived of oxygen- and then, when re-oxygenated  by recovered blood flow, the heart muscle gets damaged, as in a heart attack.)

(Preconditioning is when  the blood supply is impaired for less than 5 minutes or so- and then restored [the process is repeated two or more times], the cells downstream are protected from a major ischemic insult when the blood supply is terminated.  The effect has two windows of “protection”- one that lasts about 4 to 6 hours [early preconditioning], the other begins after 24 h and lasts up to 72 h.)

So, a dozen researchers associated with the University of Cincinnati (College of Medicine) followed up on Rubinstein’s  hypothesis that men who routinely wore t’filin would be somewhat protected from heart attacks. (Anecdotal evidence from Israel had shown that Orthodox men had lower risks of dying from heart disease than non-Orthodox men.)  Drs. A.P. Owens, N. Robbins, K. Saum, S.M. Jones, A.W. Kirschner, J.G. Woo, C. McCoy, S. Slone, M.E. Rothenberg, E.M. Urbina, and J. Rubinstein (the senior author) reported the results from testing their hypothesis in the American Journal of Physiology.

It would not be atypical for my arm to have the indentations (barely seen in the above photo) from the straps around my biceps and arms for about an hour or two after I finish my prayers. The hypothesis builds upon this phenomenon-  that the tight, non-occlusive wrapping of my arm is akin to ischemic preconditioning. The short burst of ischemia and perfusion is the “protective force” resulting from the daily donning of t’filin.

 

The study involved  20 folks who lived in and around Cincinnati- 9 who routinely wore t’filin and 11 who didn’t routinely wear the articles (but did during the study- that meant their body was not conditioned for such use). All of the men were in good health, ranging in age from 18 to 40. The subjects’ blood was examined for cytokines, monocyte functionality, and vascular reactivity.

The basal activity of both groups had similar systolic velocity, vessel diameter, and flow volume. But, at 120 seconds after removing their t’filin, the systolic velocity was higher for the regular t’filin users. Both groups had augmented artery diameter and flow volume after removing the t’filin. But, the “conditioned cohort” (those that routinely wore t’filin) had decreased inflammation as well as diminished monocyte migration and adhesion, when compared to the control subjects at baseline. The temporary users of t’filin (the control subjects) had no change in their monocyte functionality.

In other words, wearing t’filin routinely did effect the anti-inflammatory ischemic preconditioning, i.e., the subjects had improved vascular function.

Woo, hoo!  Another benefit to my daily prayer rituals.

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