Osteopathy An Approach to Healthcare
Commonly known for treating back and neck
pain, osteopathy has organizations such as the American Osteopathic
Association in the United States in which fully licensed medical
physicians and surgeons belong.
There are many approaches to healthcare, osteopathy takes the
approach that the musculoskeletal system has a major role in health
and in disease. The interventions osteopathic manipulative medicine
is part of that approach. These interventions are used in the
prevention and in the treatment of disease. Commonly known for
treating back and neck pain, osteopathy has organizations such as
the American Osteopathic Association in the United States in which
fully licensed medical physicians and surgeons belong. In the
United Kingdom (UK) recognize graduates of Bachelors of Osteopathy
and Bachelors of Osteopathic Medicine, or Bachelors of Science in
Osteopathy or Osteopathic Medicine from their university system and
require them to register with the UK regulatory body, the General
Osteopathic Council.
In the United States, Osteopathy began to be practiced in 1874
when Andrew Taylor Still, M.D. practiced a healthy lifestyle,
nutrition, abstinence from alcohol and drugs, and practiced
manipulative techniques to improve physiological function of the
body. He believed that disease was caused when bones became out of
place, causing disruption of the flow of blood and nervous impulses
through the body. He proposed that manipulating bones could cure
diseases in order to restore the original flow of blood.
Osteopathic medicine practices include a drug-free system that
relies on manipulative techniques instead of drugs. In
approximately 1895 a distinct manipulative profession called,
Chiropractic began.
There are principles that are followed by those who practice
osteopathy and include that the body is a unit, and that the
structure and function of the body is inter-related, and that the
body has self-regulatory mechanisms that allow the body to defend
and repair itself. Osteopathic principles also state that
environmental changes can overcome the body's ability for self
maintenance, and when this happens disease occurs and that the
nerves have a critical role in the controlling of fluids in the
body, and that there are components to disease that manifest and
contribute to the disease state in the body.
Those who practice osteopathy use manipulative therapies to
alleviate lower back pain, tension headaches, and some use
osteopathy to try to manage other medical conditions such as
asthma, middle ear infections, menstrual pain and pulmonary
infection.
There are principles that are followed by those who practice
osteopathy and include that the body is a unit, and that the
structure and function of the body is inter-related, and that the
body has self-regulatory mechanisms that allow the body to defend
and repair itself. Osteopathic principles also state that
environmental changes can overcome the body's ability for self
maintenance, and when this happens disease occurs and that the
nerves have a critical role in the controlling of fluids in the
body, and that there are components to disease that manifest and
contribute to the disease state in the body.
In order to treat disease, osteopaths endeavor to trace the
changes in function occurring in the body over time so that an
understanding of what occurred to alter the relationship between
structure and function can be determined.
The belief of a body that can self-heal is not a new belief. The
belief can be traced back to the time of Hippocrates.
Osteopaths believe that with good circulation, a balanced diet,
and a positive attitude, the body can heal itself. Osteopaths
believe that disease comes from within the individual who is
suffering.
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