osteopathy

Osteopathy is an approach to healthcare that emphasizes the role of the musculoskeletal system in health and disease. In most countries osteopathy is a form of complementary medicine, emphasising a holistic approach and the skilled use of a range of manual and physical treatment interventions in the prevention and treatment of disease. In practice, this most commonly relates to musculoskeletal problems such as back and neck pain.

Many osteopaths see their role as facilitating the body's own recuperative powers by treating musculoskeletal or somatic dysfunction. According to the American Osteopathic Association, the difference between an osteopath and an osteopathic physician is often confused. In the United States and Canada, Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine (DOs) are fully licensed medical physicians and surgeons, practicing in all clinical specialties along with their MD colleagues. Just like MDs, DOs practice the full scope of medicine.

 

Osteopathic principles

These are the eight major principles of osteopathy and are widely taught throughout the international osteopathic community.

1. The body is a unit.
2. Structure and function are reciprocally inter-related.
3. The body possesses self-regulatory mechanisms.
4. The body has the inherent capacity to defend and repair itself.
5. When the normal adaptability is disrupted, or when environmental changes overcome the body’s capacity for self maintenance, disease may ensue.
6. The movement of body fluids is essential to the maintenance of health.
7. The nerves play a crucial part in controlling the fluids of the body.
8. There are somatic components to disease that are not only manifestations of disease, but also are factors that contribute to maintenance of the disease state.

These principles are not held by osteopathic physicians to be empirical laws; they are thought to be the underpinnings of the osteopathic philosophy on health and disease.

 

Techniques of Osteopathic Treatment

Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine (OMM)

The goal of OMM is the resolution of what many osteopaths call somatic dysfunction in an attempt to aid the body's own recuperative faculties. Osteopathic manual treatment of the musculoskeletal system employs a diverse array of techniques. These are normally employed together with dietary, postural, and occupational advice, as well as counseling in an attempt to help patients recover from illness and injury, in an attempt to minimise or manage pain and disease.

 

Manual therapies

Osteopathy employs manual therapies for the treatment of many neuromusculoskeletal pain syndromes, such as lower back pain and tension headache, alongside exercise and other rehabilitative techniques. Many osteopaths also attempt to manage (or, more often, co-manage) organic or Type-O disorders conditions, such as asthma and middle ear infections in children, menstrual pain, and pulmonary infection.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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HFM-Wirral-Complementary-Therapies-Fitness-Lifestyle-Wirral-Cheshire-Merseyside

Wirral is a Metropolitan Borough of the County of Merseyside, bordered by Cheshire. It lies between Liverpool and Chester.

Osteopathy in Wirral

 

Initial Consultation:

Subsequent Treatments:

 

 

Shirley Kay