The Cranial Academy: Experts Revisit Successful Treatment in Worst Flu Epidemic in 1918 as Avian Flu Threatens.

NEW YORK -- Census officials reported a startling recovery rate among patients, in the deadliest flu epidemic in history in 1918, had one thing in common: the same type of doctor.

"Traditional osteopaths" are long on evidence as the best-cited specialty in treating flu cases but short on public recognition of their non-invasive treatment -- osteopathic manual medicine (OMM). Still, the ability to help patients, osteopaths say, stems from the profession's unique training to effectively address the underlying abnormalities that cause illness, including influenza.

The point of treatment, especially in a flu virus, is to trigger the body's own natural healing mechanisms and increase immune response. "The congestion that flu causes predisposes the patient to pneumonia and sets up an environment in which the virus will proliferate," said Dr. Zinaida Pelkey, who practices OMM at St. Barnabas Hospital in New York. "By mobilizing the fluids and allowing the body's own immune system to function optimally you not only bring in cells that fight infection but clear away waste products of infection and inflammation."

Because their neuromusculoskeletal specialty falls into the category of physical medicine (hands-on treatment), the physicians and surgeons have been typically confused in the minds of their colleagues as practicing a modality in an unrelated field: chiropractic treatment.

This hasn't stopped health commissioners from making the distinction in the physicians' track record demonstrating that patients under their care experienced a shorter duration of flu, a lower incidence of pneumonia (a by-product of flu), and most important, a drastically lower mortality rate.

A study tracked 110,120 patients with influenza and determined that patients treated by osteopaths survived with a near zero, or 1/4 of 1 percent mortality rate, as compared with patients treated with conventional medications, which reported more than 20 times higher, or 6 percent mortality rate on a national average, according to U.S. Health Commissioners in 1919. The death toll was as high as 30 percent in some cities. The promise of a cure was also higher in cases of pneumonia: the death rate among patients treated with osteopathic manual medicine was 10 percent, compared to 30 percent among cases treated with conventional medications. Health commissioners collected medical records from 2,445 osteopaths treating patients in cities with populations of 40,000 or more across the country.

"The statistics are so drastically different in patients treated by osteopaths," said Dr. Pelkey. "We look at the flu today and we don't have much more to offer than people did back in 1918. We have antibiotics for infectious diseases but the flu is viral. We have some antiviral medications but they don't work for every kind of flu and may be contraindicated for some of the people at highest risk. So to have a form of medicine like osteopathy that essentially has no side effects and has been shown to be effective -- for all health conditions -- makes a huge difference."

Ironically the influenza epidemic in 1918 was recently identified as a "bird virus," a less fancy name than avian flu today. Despite the strange genetic mutation of the virus, osteopathic physicians maintain the same approach to treating dysfunction in the body caused by the illness.

Results to date are far from mixed and weighted heavily in favor of non-invasive medicine over conventional medication. There is evidence that the pendulum has also swung in the forum of public opinion, with more patients becoming interested in non-invasive treatment. Recently osteopathic medicine was cited as one of the fastest growing medical fields in the country, according to an article in the New York Times.

Note to Editors: Contact the Cranial Academy, a non-profit professional society, for research documentation and media articles: Sidney Dunn at 317-594-0411.