(From left) NYIT professors Wolfgang Gilliar, D.O., and Gregory Saggio (D.O. '94) completed a study of osteopathic manipulative treatment on immune system efficiency. 

Thanks to homegrown research at NYIT, critical care patients with weakened immune systems may have a fighting chance. When predoctoral fellow Jennifer Pilc (D.O. '94) read a study on the inverse relationship between stress levels and healthy immune systems in canines, she noted that osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) improved the animals' health. An idea dawned on her-maybe the same is true for humans. 

She teamed up with NYIT professors Gregory Saggio (D.O. '94) and Wolfgang Gilliar, D.O., to conceive a human study to test this theory.  

"We went through a rigorous review process and pushed everybody to ask the right questions," says Gilliar, NYIT's chair of osteopathic manipulative medicine. 

The research team studied 25 second-year NYIT medical students scheduled to take their national board examinations within three weeks of the study-and therefore under considerable stress. Half the students received 20 minutes of OMT and showed an average increase of 139 percent in the levels of secretory immunoglobulin A-an antibody found in saliva-more than four times greater than those who received no treatment. 

Using OMT to boost the immune systems of hospitalized patients could transform the health care industry. "If you can do these mild, noninvasive techniques and prevent someone from getting pneumonia, that's huge," says Saggio. "It could theoretically decrease the number of days spent in the ICU  or even prevent a patient from requiring ICU care-saving hospitals thousands of dollars, and, most importantly, safeguarding patient health."  

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Summer 2011 Table of Contents