Cincinnati, Ohio has a vibrant Jewish community of about 30,000 or so people, with a nice Orthodox community as well including a few Orthodox shuls, and eruv, several kosher restaurants and a grocery, mikva and kollel. Cincinnati has a long Jewish history and is among the oldest of the Jewish communities in the USA.
All that might somewhat explain why the University of Cincinnati studied the health benefits of wearing tefillin.
As reported by the University of Cincinnati website, they discovered from their study that people who wear tefillin get unintended cardiovascular benefits. The reduced blood flow caused by the tightening of straps around the arm offers the body protection from the damage caused by heart attacks.
It seems they studied the participants by measuring baseline heart rate information for ten minutes in the morning and then again after wearing the tefillin for 30 minutes. They did detect the lowering of heart rate variability and metabolism. They say they tested both men and women, so this wasnt an Orthodox test study, which is somewhat disappointing because my initial thought when seeing the headline was to say that if true women will want to start putting on tefillin for the health benefits - but they are already testing it on women anyway...
I do wonder if they compared similar tests on a group of people praying without tefillin and on a group of people praying with tefillin. Maybe it is the calmness of the prayer time that led to the lower heart rate and other data and not specifically the tefillin...
I also wonder if there is a difference in the health benefits in the amount of time the tefillin is worn - is there less of a benefit if worn for only five or ten minutes? Is there more of a benefit if worn for 45-60 minutes? Do people who wear tefillin all day have indestructible hearts?
This does bring new meaning to the phrase " he is a strapping young man".
Presumably this discovery is because of tefillin but anybody wanting to benefit from this without wearing tefillin (such as Gentiles or most Orthodox women) should be able to tie straps on their arms for a period of time on a daily basis.
Good health to everyone!
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