Does Osteopathy Actually Work? When we seek medical treatment, the aim is to recover our good health. However, not everything can be fixed by pills or surgery.
Some therapies can exclude these options yet manage to steadily improve our wellbeing. Osteopathy is one such form of treatment that relies on physical manipulation, massage and stretching of muscles and joints. The goals of these treatments include relief from muscle tension, increased mobility of joints, and enhanced blood supply that speeds up healing.
How It Works. Osteopathy takes on a holistic and hands-on approach for both diagnosis and treatment. There is a mix of gentle and forceful techniques that can be applied. Whatever the treatment, they are carefully undertaken to ensure no pain and minimal discomfort to the patient.
Structural techniques focus on the bones, ligaments, muscles, and joints. Though the treatments can aid in treating a myriad of ailments, they are primarily meant to address mechanical problems affecting the musculoskeletal system. They typically involve gentle manipulation such as stretching and joint rotation to improve range of motion, posture, and energy flow.
Visceral techniques are targeted at helping organs, from neck to pelvis, ease tensions that could be affecting other parts of the body. For instance, some digestive conditions can negatively impact lower back pain and vice versa.
Osteopaths can address the movement and balance of these organs through soft manual manipulations of the viscera and their connective tissues. Cranial osteopathy deals with the skull and nervous system, helping to deliver better sleep quality, elevated energy levels, and an overall improvement in health.
It can help relieve many head ailments including migraines, sinusitis, dental problems, whiplash, insomnia, and anxiety. In choosing what treatment will be applied, an osteopath will consider the kind of discomfort that a patient is experiencing during the particular session and what part of the body is affected.
Medical history, past symptoms, the current state of health, and lifestyle will already have been factored in the beginning when deciding on a treatment plan to follow.
These treatments are often combined with recommendations on exercises, diet, and other lifestyle aspects to ensure long term pain relief and enhance recovery. Osteopathy has been reliably used to treat a variety of ailments. Some of the most common being lower back pain, uncomplicated neck pain, arthritis, shoulder pain, and various sports injuries.
As said, osteopathic treatments aim to provide relief from pain and discomfort. Like a book, the body keeps your story of strains, traumas, and past injuries. Trained hands will use this knowledge to restore health in the body.
Using a very gentle touch, we will help the zones of your body that have become defective to function to their full potential once again. The patient will feel the soft touch of the practitioner, and sometimes feel some heat or fluidic movement from the tensions melting away gradually.
Patients will often feel their body release, and access a deep relaxing state during the treatment. By combining these three approaches, your Osteopathic manual therapist will be able to use the right technique to best treat the root of your health problem. How Does Osteopathy Work? Structural Osteopathy: Structural techniques deal with joints, bones, ligaments, and muscles of the body. Visceral Osteopathy: What if your back pain was caused by your guts? We will look at: your chest with your heart, lungs, and part of your air tract and digestive tract in your neck your abdomen and all the organs and viscera it contains your pelvis with the colon, the bladder and prostate for men , and for women: their gynecologic system The idea behind visceral work is to release tension in the guts that is affecting the rest of your body.
One main difference is the use of scans — Chiropractors have modules in their training that enable X-Ray scanning to help with their diagnoses. Physiotherapists and Sports Therapists use more massage and exercise therapy to help treat pain and dysfunction. Physiotherapists have a wider baseline knowledge of general conditions due to their course structure, whereas Osteopaths and Chiropractors mainly focus on musculoskeletal healthcare.
This treatment option is one of the main reasons Osteopathy works, but I have realised that people form two categories with regard to their opinion on manipulation; they either love the idea or loathe it! The question is; how does it work, and will it relieve the pain? The manipulation actually results in a cavitation, or gapping, of the joint. This produces a crack as the air pressure suddenly changes, which causes bubbles within the fluid in the joint to collapse.
Manipulation has been shown to be effective in treating both muscle and joint pain , as well as an improvement in posture according to Morningstar et al. Oscillations are a very gentle but effective form of loosening soft tissue and joints by rhythmically moving the body in a gentle back and forth motion. Spinal manipulation formed a significant part of my under-graduate osteopathic training and can be a useful technique for acute neck pain and stiffness, e.
Some physiotherapists will learn spinal manipulation as part of their postgraduate study. The key factor is that whoever you see for spinal manipulation, they must have extensive experience, and it is important you carry out some research beforehand. As mentioned earlier, osteopaths often treat more holistically than physiotherapists.
An osteopath may treat one part of the body to reduce pain in another. For example, they may treat your right shoulder pain by treating on your left hip.
Particularly if they are a naturopath and osteopath this combination is not uncommon. Furthermore, some osteopaths will treat your internal organs, these are called visceral techniques.
Physiotherapists would not carry out such techniques and are more likely to treat the local area affected.
Both osteopaths and physiotherapists will specialise in certain areas as they develop their experience and progress their interests and career. Due to the variety of specialisms within the professions, I would advise that you enquire about the skills and experience of the individual clinician you plan to see.
For example, at Complete Physio we have physiotherapists that specialise in:. The reality is there are probably more similarities than differences! It is not often related to whether your clinician is a physiotherapist or osteopath, but more their individual experience and training.
I would always advise you to research your therapist before you see them or call their clinic to find out more information. At Complete we are always happy to speak to you before you book to answer any questions. This will help to ensure you find the right therapist for your specific problem.
If you would like an appointment to see Francesco or Chris please contact or email info complete-physio. Origins and Philosophy The origins and underlying philosophies of physiotherapy and osteopathy differ. This is not surprising as they essentially treat very similar conditions.
Osteopathy Osteopathy is a distinctive form of medical care. Training and Education Both physiotherapy and osteopathy are undergraduate degrees BSc Hons studied at a university.
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