Osteopathy Information
Osteopathy is an established, recognised system of diagnosis and treatment that lays its main emphasis on the structural integrity of the body. Osteopathy is a branch of mainstream medicine that follows the philosophy that the body is a whole system. Osteopaths are trained in palpation and manipulation techniques to diagnose and treat various illnesses and dysfunctions. The body has the ability to heal itself and the Osteopath is the facilitator in that process. 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.
Osteopathy is based on the hypothesis that many of the system’s health problems are payable to misplaced vertebrae which hamper the system’s own self-healing procedure. Osteopaths put good importance on ‘lesions’ which happen when a joint becomes jammed and thus restricted within its normal range of campaign. Lesions in the lower backwards can reduce away circulation which may head to disease, they can too induce disk harm and inflamed nerves. As an addition to osteopathy, a pupil discovered that there is a mild campaign in the joints of the cranial bones and that when these bones get misaligned and limit this campaign.
For reasons such as a birth defect or a blow to the head, then this can lead to disease. It is through this discovery that cranial osteopathy was developed, and just like osteopathy it involves the manipulation of the cranial bones. Osteopathy is a naturalistic, vitalistic, holistic and drugless approach to health and disease. It is based on the idea that man is not a collection of parts but a synthetic whole imbued with spirit. The body functions as a total unit and possesses self-healing and self-regulating mechanisms. Osteopathy maintains that there is a reciprocal relationship between structure and function.
The osteopath may use blood and urine tests to aid diagnosis and will pay close attention to certain areas with palpation. There are several techniques that the osteopath may use to treat the patient’s condition, such as needle cracking, soft tissue technique which is similar to massage, osteopathic manipulative therapy which is used to restore movement in the musculo-skeletal system, or movement of the joints to restore muscle alignment. The technique will depend on the diagnosis of the health problem. The osteopath will most likely give advice on posture, nutrition, exercise and relaxation in addition to the manipulation treatment.
Cranial Osteopathy
Cranial osteopathy is a specialist technique used to manipulate the bones of the skull with a touch so light that many people can barely feel it. Advocates claim it is based on sound anatomical and physiological knowledge combined with palpatory skills that are finely tuned and extremely sensitive qualities of touch.
It was developed in the 1930s by American osteopath William Garner Sutherland, a disciple of Andrew Still. His osteopathic training taught him that the bones of the skull, which are separate at birth, grow together into a fixed structure and are immovable, but he noticed that these bones retained some potential for movement even in adulthood. If they could move, they could also be susceptible to dysfunction. With experimentation on himself and others, he discovered that compressing his skull could have severe mental and physical effects. He discovered that the cerebrospinal fluid that surrounds the brain and the spinal cord fluid had rhythms, which he called “the breath of life,” because the rhythms appeared to be influenced by the rate and depth of breathing. By gently wanipulating the skull he found he could alter the rhythm of this fluid flow.