WHY DID YOU CHOOSE OSTEOPATHY AS A PROFESSION?

 

    

               Osteopathy a hands-on treatment that alleviates the symptoms such as acute and chronic pain, inflammation, muscle spasm, or any problems that relate to musculoskeletal, neuromuscular, and visceral pain. Osteopathy uses a holistic approach to cure not just the symptoms but the root of the condition. A treatment where it does not require any invasive procedure for the patient to get well, and a treatment where there is completely no harmful side effects. Who wouldn't love such an amazing profession like this? 

            When people have problems in their body, whether it is from an accident, or chronic pain from a certain medical condition, or any conditions from moderate to severe. They need to seek help in one of the medical field professions, and most of the treatments are always associated with pain and complications. For example, any kind of surgery is associated with postoperative pain because the patient underwent an invasive procedure. Chemotherapy can be painful and cause anxiety to patients because of the insertion of an intravenous catheter (most people have trypanophobia or extreme fear of needle pain), and it is associated with generalized chronic pain in the muscles and can cause headaches. Prescribed medicines can come with harmful side effects depending on the number of doses and on how long it was prescribed to be used. Examples of common harmful effects from medicinal drugs are nausea, dizziness, upset stomach, and skin irritation these are only the mild ones. Getting a wisdom tooth extraction has some complications such as generalized pain and depending on how close the wisdom tooth is to the nerve it can lead to numbness of lips for life. Radiation therapy is used to destroy cancer, but it can develop different types of sarcoma. Despite these complications, primary, secondary, and tertiary care is mandatory for people to get cured of their condition. That is why I chose Osteopathy as a profession because I can work in a medical field that helps people get better in their worst condition without any incision procedure, no detrimental side effects, and it is cost-effective. A treatment where patients can be healed while experiencing relaxation and anxiety-free from any kinds of complication. 

Life Story

            I would like to share my personal story on how I chose manual osteopath as my profession, to inspire people that might be going through the same season that I have been through. I was in my last year at the University of Saskatchewan doing my Bachelor's Degree in Kinesiology and wasn't sure what I will do after my graduation. I was one of those students who is studying in the University and yet do not have a clear picture of who they would want to become because they are lost and do not have a goal, an individual who just went with the flow just to say that at my age at least I was doing something productive. At that time I cried out to God and prayed to give me a vision because it says in Proverbs 29:18 "Where there is no vision people perish..." then suddenly while I was just scrolling down on my newsfeed on Facebook. I saw a caption where it says "Highest income for Kinesiologist" from the National Academy of Osteopathy (NAO) and obviously, that hooked me into researching what Osteopathy is all about. During my research about Osteopathy, it was indeed an answered prayer from God because it reminded me of my dream back then when I was still living in the Philippines. My dream was to be able to provide healing for a patient by only using my hands without any noninvasive procedure. Since then I did not regret my decision in registering as an online student at NAO, because my friends and family experienced great results from manual osteopathic treatment. According to the feedbacks of my friends and family, the treatment that they have received from me for low back pain has a longer beneficious effect compared to the treatment they have received from a Massage Therapist or Chiropractor. Most of them have greater sleep induction after the treatment, which helps them feel more energized the next day and feels great when they went to work or school. Muscle spasms were significantly reduced, helping them to get back at their full range of motion without restrictions and pain. Tension headaches were gone after performing mobilization, muscle energy technique, and cranial osteopathy on the cervical spine and neck, and suboccipital muscles. I chose manual osteopathy as a profession because it is my calling!

Science-Based Research for OMT

        Another main reason to choose Osteopathy as a profession is these scientific evidence research studies that prove Osteopathy as a great alternative medicine. Medicinal drugs are commonly used by all physicians to alleviate or eliminate any symptoms of any disease, acute pain, chronic pain, infection, etc. These prescribed medications such as opioids, analgesics, and NSAIDs are predominantly used for patients who underwent surgery even though they have detrimental adverse effects or complications. For example, it can delay recovery, build analgesic tolerance, a patient can become drug dependant, induce severe medical conditions (gastrointestinal bleeding, neurologic complications, and myocardial infarction), and many more. Despite these side effects it is still used primarily for postoperative treatment because physicians cannot introduce any manual therapeutic treatment on a freshly stitched incision. It should be at least after 1 week from surgery, before any sorts of osteopathic manual treatment can be applied and it will "neither be too soon or too late" (Racca et al., 2017, pg. 151). Osteopathic manual treatment had defeated corticosteroid injection therapy when it comes to long term treatment for patients with lateral epicondylitis, in terms of the progressive significant improvement in pain-free grip strength and visual analogue scale. Corticosteroid injection was indeed b
etter during the first 6 weeks of treatment, but then it started to decline and lose its significant value. Another study has shown that prolong use of corticosteroids leads to complications such as osteoporosis, aseptic joint necrosis, adrenal insufficiency, gastrointestinal, hepatic, and ophthalmologic effects, hyperlipidemia, growth suppression, and possible congenital malformations (Buchman, 20001). Whereas, the muscle energy technique group, one of the osteopathic manual treatment, had shown greater improvement on results without a single adverse effect. MET is not just a pain-free satisfying technique, it is also a cost-effective treatment. Lastly, osteopathic manual treatment is an efficacious postoperative treatment for patients that undergo heart surgery with sternal pain. This is a major finding for the advancement of OMT practice because OMT combined with rehabilitation program surpasses the outcome of just a normal rehabilitation program alone. OMT also reduced the intake of analgesics, which prevented the patients from acquiring the consequences of prolonged use of analgesics or opioids. OMT was then concluded that it should be included to a cardiovascular rehabilitation program not only because it is cost-effective, but it also improved the functional capacity of the patient, rib cage motion, and pain relief from the chest wall during deep breathing. Osteopathy is an alternative medicine for chronic and acute pain, for postoperative treatment, and for patients that do not want to deal with medicinal drug’s adverse effects to get healed.