WHAT IS OSTEOPATHY?

Osteopathy vs Other Manual Therapies

    Osteopathy has two types, Doctor of Osteopathy (DO) and Osteopathic Manual Practitioners (DOMP), the difference between them is that DO are physicians that can prescribe medications and diagnose conditions. While DOMP cannot diagnose and prescribe medications, but most of the techniques that they administer are the same such as joint mobilization, muscle energy technique, facilitated positional release technique, cranial therapy, and visceral therapy. 

    Osteopathy has a holistic approach in treating patients with acute, subacute, or chronic pain in the musculoskeletal, neuromuscular, and even visceral. The common question people ask is "How would you differentiate Osteopathy from Chiropractors, Massage Therapists, and Physiotherapists?" the normal way of answering it is by saying that Osteopathy is a combination of theses three professions, but differentiating it from the other three would be the best satisfying answer for the patients and people that are interested to get an Osteopathic treatment. 

    The difference between a Massage Therapists and an Osteopath is that Massage Therapists only focus on soft tissue technique, which an Osteopath is capable of doing as well, while the techniques that Osteopaths have that Massage Therapists do not administer is joint mobilization techniques for the ligaments of the joints. visceral osteopathy and they even have cranial therapy. Physiotherapists focus more on treating the patients by prescribing therapeutic exercise and stretching, while DOMP and DO normally uses that technique as a take-home treatment for the patients after a session with joint mobilization, MET, and other techniques. Chiropractors are more focused on spinal manipulations and perform a high-velocity low amplitude technique, which most people feel skeptical about it or afraid of the cracking sound, and some of the patients especially the elderly cannot take this treatment due to osteoporosis. It is really a heavy technique and may have some negative consequences if the technique wasn't executed correctly and precisely, especially the HVLA on the cervical spine. Manual Osteopath, on the other hand, has a gentler approach compared to Chiropractors and have a traction technique combined with mobilization that is very great for people with osteoarthritis. Osteopaths have a holistic approach meaning that they do not just treat the symptoms, but finds and treat the root or the cause of the disease. One of osteopathy's principles is that "the body is a unit" meaning one dysfunction in the structure or function in any components of the body can affect the whole body. For example, when someone is stressed it can negatively affect their internal organs, when someone has a problem with their kidney it can be associated with lower back pain, and if someone has a lesion or muscle spasm on the suboccipital muscles it can cause them a headache. That is why Osteopathy is one of the greatest treatment because they integrate different techniques to cure not just the symptoms, but the root of the disease.

Disclaimer: Despite the differences of each manual therapies have, it is still recommendable to receive different treatments if the health condition is not changing or having any results from one field of manual treatment.

Osteopathy As Oasis

    Have you been working all year or just have chronic pain in your body that makes you feel like you are on a long journey in the desert, where the weather is too hot and you are extremely exhausted to the point that every step you make feels heavy and you just need a refreshment? A solution for your pain? And desperate to find a sanctuary that can save you from a cycle of constant pain, frustration, and depression? What you need to find is an Oasis, a location in the desert where water and fertile area can be found! This place is a safe haven for people and wild animals surviving the scorching desert, especially for those who ran out of resources for survival. Osteopathy is like an Oasis it becomes most of the time the last resort for patients that are desperate in seeking a change in their body's function or structure. Some of the testimonies from patients that have been treated with osteopathic manual treatment are, they have tried different fields of manual therapies such as Chiropractors, Physiotherapists, and Massage Therapists, Acupuncturists but it did not change their condition significantly. This led them to try osteopathic manual treatment and surprisingly the results were dramatically better and the beneficial changes lasted longer. 

    Manual Osteopathy has also been proven as an efficacious alternative medicine for postoperative treatment, reducing inflammation, or any conditions where NSAIDs, analgesics, or opioids is normally used as a remedy. According to a research study by Trang (2015):

        Morphine and other opioids remain essential analgesics for alleviating pain. However, their use is plagued by major side effects, such as analgesic tolerance (diminished pain-relieving effects),                hyperalgesia (increased pain sensitivity), and drug dependence (pg. 13879).

Opioids can have adverse effects if used for a longer period of time that can be detrimental to the patient's recovery. Not only opioids but even corticosteroid injections have sequela for long-term use, which may result in osteoporosis, aseptic joint necrosis, adrenal insufficiency, gastrointestinal, hepatic, and ophthalmologic effects, hyperlipidemia, growth suppression, and possible congenital malformations (Buchman, 20001). Other examples are, anti-inflammatory drugs have a possibility to disrupt renal function, react with platelet aggregation, and increase the risk of gastrointestinal harm and bleeding. Analgesics medications have adverse neurologic effects and have negative impacts on visceral motility (Racca et al., 2017). Despite the adverse effects of these prescribed medicines, it is still essential for immediate treatment for patients, because manual treatments such as osteopathy have some contra-indication, one of them is it cannot be applied on the first week after the surgery. But if the patient has any medical conditions that do not require any surgical incisions such as, lateral epicondylitis then the osteopathic manual treatment can be applied immediately. 

    In a study called "Muscle Energy Technique Versus Corticosteroid Injection for Management of Chronic Lateral Epicondylitis: Randomized Controlled Trial With 1-Year Follow-up", it has been proven that MET, which is one of osteopathic technique, have a progressive significant improvement and lasting beneficial outcomes compared to corticosteroid injection. Another study called "Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment Improves Heart Surgery Outcomes: A Randomized Controlled Trial", have shown that osteopathic manual treatment (OMT) combined with regular cardiovascular rehabilitation program produced greater improvements in patients that have postoperative pain, which is sternal pain, compared to just cardiovascular rehabilitation alone. This study had shown a piece of evidence that OMT can reduce the intake of analgesics for patients with sternal pain, which in result saves the patients from dealing with detrimental side effects that can prolong their hospitalization. 

    Osteopathy is an Oasis, a sanctuary for people who have been on a long journey in the wilderness that has run out of resources for survival, who have tried anything to be relieved from acute or chronic pain. Osteopathy is a non-invasive, pain-free, cost-effective, safe, satisfying treatment for patients, and has no adverse effects instead it has a beneficial outcome that can last for a lifetime.