Student Presenter(s): Naiem Habib, Yisroel Grabie
Faculty Mentor: Joseph Simone
Department: Osteopathic Medicine
School/College: College of Osteopathic Medicine, Long Island

Women lose a sizable amount of bone mineral density (BMD) each year for the first five years after menopause, establishing a vast community of patients requiring continuing management. Common pharmacotherapies used presently impose a financial burden and are also laden with side effects that limit the treatment duration. It has been well established that weight-bearing activity (WBA) programs provide substantial efficacy in increasing and maintaining BMD in this population. Furthermore, WBE has been shown to affect biological markers associated with bone health.

We present a case of a woman who visited an Osteopathic Medical Treatment (OMT) clinic with low bone mineral density and a complaint of back pain. She subsequently was diagnosed with several somatic dysfunctions and underwent treatment with an OMT protocol that was intended to replicate the stress of WBA. After seven treatments, the patient underwent laboratory studies that suggested that bone turnover had occurred. To date, we believe that this finding is novel to the osteopathic community and we hope to further elucidate our findings by pursuing a future study.