What is Osteopathy?

Many forms of natural medicine have been floating around in the ears of the public lately, like Ayurvedic practices, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Herbalism, and chiropractics, but one form has yet to pop up as a popular topic of conversation: Osteopathy. Osteopathy is a form of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) that focuses on the patient and emphasizes the role of the musculoskeletal system—the bones, muscles, cartilage, ligaments, and joints that provide the movement, support, and stability for the human body—for staying healthy.

This alternative healthcare approach offers a holistic approach to medicine by relying on the body’s own restorative powers through manipulation of the muscular structure. Like a general practitioner in Western medicine, Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine (DO’s) are fully licensed physicians and can also be surgeons, depending on their amount of education.

Founded by Civil War surgeon Dr. Andrew Still, he thought the best way to fight disease was to stimulate the immune system through natural causes. Late in the 1800s, Dr. Still abandoned his Western medical roots and rallied against popular techniques such as using leeches for blood removal. Though unpopular at the time and turned against by colleagues in his profession, Dr. Still pressed on and developed a new form of science using the body’s tissues and fluids as manipulation tools. Dr. Still’s new science ideas were turned into the division of natural health called Osteopathy that is still very much alive today.

Dr. Still’s techniques were strengthened by the ability to find the natural rhythms of a person’s spinal cord which keeps breathing at a normal pace and stimulates the connective tissues all over the body that control the movement and tension of muscles and a person’s limbs in order to ensure comfortable and needed flexibility. Most of the ailments treated by osteopathy are physical in nature as they have to deal with tension or pain within the musculoskeletal structure. The thoughts behind this branch of natural medicine, along with most of the sections of CAM, deal with the conjunction of treating both the body and the mind, treating the body through the mind or vice versa. DOs and CAM doctors often feel that the mind and body both work together equally to solve a problem within the body.

From babies to grandparents, osteopathy has worked for a range of symptoms. Infants with a tendency for colic, trouble with digestion, spitting up, learning disorders, and cerebral palsy have been helped by osteopathic treatments. From serious pain issues to smaller uncomfortable pains like neck and back problems, joint pain, sciatica, headaches, asthma, and allergy symptoms can be relieved through osteopathy as well as neurological problems like seizures, sinusitis, and even digestive track conditions.

Of course, with the variety of pills, shots, or radiation treatments from Western medicine, patiens have come to expect results   immediately or with a fairly quick response time. Osteopathy may not yield results right away, challenging the body to control itself and allow healing to be started from the inside out. Your immune system would have to be retrained and pumped up in order for drastic changes to take place. In terms of a timeline, there is no direct answer but acute problems will have an easier time leaving than a chronic condition that has been living in the body longer.

Former U.S. presidents and important political figures FDR, Eisenhower, and JFK all relied on osteopathic services for their health needs among many other famous figures then and now, and even though breaking the cycle of relying on doctors to heal us instead of listening to our bodies takes time, at least we are not solely looking to leeches for help. To find a DO in your area, look to The Cranial Academy to help your body heal itself through mental and physical osteopathic techniques.