RESEARCH

Department of Physiology and Biophysics
Dalhousie University,
Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3H 4H7

SUMMARY: A workshop on the Mitzvah Exercise - its practice and application to the field of medicine with M. Cohen-Nehemia.

LOCATION: Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building
Dalhousie University, Faculty of Medicine
Halifax, Nova Scotia
January 30-31, 1981

PURPOSE: To teach both the concept and practice of the Mitzvah Exercise to the Faculty and students in the Health Professions, and to examine the applications of the Mitzvah to research and clinical practice - especially in the fields of Family, Physical and Preventive Medicine.

PARTICIPANTS: Twenty-five people attended the workshop, including six physicians, eight physiologists, three physiotherapists and five medical students.

EVALUATION: To help assess the effects of the Mitzvah objectively, all participants were measured for blood pressure, shoulder girth, height, vital (lung) capacity, force of head retraction, and maximum expiratory velocity - both before and after a short period of practicing the Mitzvah Exercise. "Before" and "after" frontal and side view photographs of the standing subject were taken. In each case, the measurements were taken by the trained scientific staff of the Medical School.

The following changes were found to result from the Mitzvah Exercise:

Increased upper chest measurement
Increased height
Lowered blood pressure
Increased vital capacity
Improved overall posture

Written evaluations of the workshop were very positive.

FINANCIAL SUPPORT: The cost of the workshop were borne in large part by the Department of Physiology and Biophysics and the Department of Family Medicine, Dalhousie University.

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