Osteopathy is an established, recognised system of diagnosis and treatment that lays its main emphasis on the structural integrity of the body. It is distinctive in the fact that it recognises much of the pain and disability we suffer stems from abnormalities in the function of the body structure as well as damage caused to it by disease. Osteopathy uses many of the diagnostic procedures used in conventional medical assessment and diagnosis. Its main strength, however, lies in the unique way the patient is assessed from a mechanical, functional and postural standpoint and the manual methods of treatment applied to suit the needs of the individual patient. Osteopathy does more than just address problems of the musculoskeletal system. The British Medical Association in its report Complementary Medicine: New Approaches to Good Practice describes osteopathy as a ‘discrete clinical discipline’. Osteopaths use a wide variety of approaches to treatment and can bring relief or improvement to many conditions affecting, for example, children, the elderly, sportsmen and women, or to problems which arise during or after pregnancy. A thorough knowledge of the basic medical sciences followed by an extended period of clinical training is central to the osteopath’s ability to make a differential diagnosis and to distinguish conditions which are amenable to osteopathic treatment from those which are not. The history of Osteopathy Osteopathy was developed over 100 years ago by a Union Doctor in the American Civil War called Andrew Still. He had always cleared his own headaches by cracking his neck and he reasoned that the spine was the source of good health, so rather than offer drugs, he began to investigate the manipulation of the joints which he believed would release the body's abilities to heal itself. |
