What is Osteopathy?

Osteopathy is a system of diagnosis and treatment for a wide range of medical conditions. It works with the structure and function of the body, and is based on the principle that the well-being of an individual depends on the skeleton, muscles, ligaments and connective tissues functioning smoothly together.

To an osteopath, for your body to work well, its structure must also work well. So osteopaths work to restore your body to a state of balance, where possible without the use of drugs or surgery. Osteopaths use touch, physical manipulation, stretching and massage to increase the mobility of joints, to relieve muscle tension, to enhance the blood and nerve supply to tissues, and to help your body's own healing mechanisms. They may also provide advice on posture and exercise to aid recovery, promote health and prevent symptoms recurring.

Regulation of osteopathy

All osteopaths in the UK are regulated by the General Osteopathic Council (GOsC). It is against the law for anyone to call themselves an osteopath unless they are registered with the GOsC, which sets and promotes high standards of competency, conduct and safety.

You can check Andrew's listing on the British Osteopathic Association website here.

Concepts of osteopathy?

The concepts of osteopathy are:

1.The body is a functional unit, and the interrelationships between body-systems are so extensive that none can be considered in isolation.

2. There is a relationship between structure and function

* The structural integrity of the body is a reflection of the health status of the individual.

* Changes in function, may lead to changes in structure.

* Alteration of a structure will cause changes in function.

* There are many compensatory processes of the body, which accommodate structural/functional changes without necessarily impeding the self-healing mechanisms.

3. The body is naturally self-healing

4. When the self-healing mechanisms are impeded then dysfunction may ensue.

5. The self-healing mechanisms are affected by the potency of the neural pathways and circulatory systems.

6. Loss or reduction of these intrinsic self-healing mechanisms may lead eventually to a pathological state, the precursor of which is a pre-pathological state.

7. Osteopathic management intervenes principally at the pre-pathological stage but may also do so at the pathological stage, to facilitate the inherent self-healing mechanisms, by the balancing of structural-functional reciprocity.

8. An application of osteopathic precepts and principles results in a versatility of treatment approaches, including prevention, specific to the needs of each patient.

9. A dysfunction in one or more systems of the body (musculoskeletal, visceral, neurological or psychological) might cause or influence a dysfunction in other systems of the body.

10. Osteopathic treatment promotes the optimal function of the neural-musculoskeletal system, which influences all the systems of the body, including the viscera, which may also be treated

History of osteopathy?

Andrew Taylor Still MD DO (1828-1917)

Considered the father of osteopathy and osteopathic medicine. He was a medical doctor living on the Missouri frontier and envisioned a new medical system that acknowledged the relationships of the body, mind, emotions and spirit.

He held the view that optimal health was only possible when all the tissues and cells of the body function together in harmonious motion and reasoned that disease could have its origins in slight anatomical deviation from normal.

The story goes that as a young boy Andrew Taylor Still suffered from frequent headaches with nausea. He constructed a rope swing between two trees a few inches off the ground that he used as a swinging pillow. He wrote, "I lay stretched on my back, with my neck across the rope. Soon I became easy and went to sleep, got up in a little while with headache all gone."

Years later he was to summarise "I had suspended the action of the great occipital nerves, and given harmony to the flow of the arterial blood to and through the veins... I have worked from the days of a child...to obtain a more thorough knowledge of the workings of the machinery of life, in producing ease and health."

He diligently researched and developed osteopathy and the ability of using his hands to change patient physiology and restore health.

He saw this self-correcting potential as a cornerstone of his osteopathic philosophy.