Effects of Osteopathic Manipulative Therapy on Arrhythmias

"The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) focused on somatic dysfunctions commonly associated with arrhythmias on the amount of quantifiable arrhythmias as recorded on a diagnostic device.~It is known that OMT has a stabilizing effect on the autonomic nervous system, which plays a key role in regulating heart rate and blood pressure. This increases parasympathetic tone and decreases sympathetic tone, which generally stabilizes the heart with an antiarrhythmic effect.~Previous work has been done showing that osteopathic treatment is a beneficial adjunctive therapy for paroxysmal atrial fibrillation and decreased symptoms, though has not been proven to be helpful for patients with heart failure.~While the effect of OMT on the neurology has been studied, we would like to further research the effect OMT specifically has on arrhythmias using more quantifiable data from implanted devices."

The physician will contact various areas of the body for 120 seconds each to expose the subject to a similar environment as the interventional group, without stimulating the autonomic nervous system.