Osteopathy for Back and Neck Pain

Osteopathy employs a combination of philosophy and alternate medicine for treating a disease in the human body. The origin of osteopathic treatment dates back to 1874, when A.T Still, a physician at Missouri tried to find some alternative medicines for some diseases where the conventional treatments just did not seem to work. Still believed that all illness begins with any type of malfunctioning of our spine; and hence to cure the illness the problem with the spine must be corrected instead of treating the disease itself.

Osteopaths help by augmenting the healing ability of our body. It takes into account the inter–relationship of the body's nerves, muscles, bones, connective tissue and organ systems. The various organs of our body are connected to the spine with different nerves. The functioning of the body is controlled by the signals sent by the spine. When the spine sends wrong signals to an organ, the organ starts functioning abnormally resulting in a restrictive barrier which gives rise to health problems. Still believed that this can be corrected if the patient is made to follow some specific motions guided by the physician to avoid the voluntary contraction of the muscle by following these movements under the direction of an osteopathy practitioner.

The Osteopath does manual adjustments of the spine disconnecting the dysfunctional body part from the restrictive barrier, thus regulating the function of the nerves and relieving pressure on the nerves which eases pain. Most practitioner will use the technique along with the normal course of treatment including medications, surgery etc.

The diagnosis by the Osteopaths is called the palpatory diagnosis i.e. the feel of the tissue, muscle, and the movements at the inter-vertebral joint. The palpatory diagnosis can detect very minute spinal changes which are not detectable by the X-rays. Once they detect the problem, they use manual strength to give relief to the patient.

Osteopathy can treat many types of illness but is most effective for back and neck pain, and can reduce the amount of medications required. Another application of Osteopathy is Craniosacral therapy which has become very popular recently. In this therapy the bones of the skull are carefully manipulated to cure different types of illness. While there are many health conditions which may be benefited by Osteopathy, it should be definitely avoided in patients with fractured or dislocated joints or any problems associated with the bones.

About the Author

Daniel Blinman is writing on behalf of Bristol Positive Health, who are Bristol osteopaths and Osteopathy Bristol