Over the years many people have asked me the same question over and over again, “what is Osteopathy?” As a result I have spent the last few months compiling some notes and putting them together to form a simple model that people can, hopefully, relate to. Here is what I came up with.
My belief is that the body is constantly in motion, everything to do with the body is moving. The nerves stretch and the fluids inside the nerves move to generate an action potential or nerve impulse. Obviously the blood and arteries move. The organs, every single one, have their own independent rhythm and movement. We breath, our lungs expand and so do our ribs. Our bones have a certain rhythm as they manufacture our blood and change shape dependant on forces. The brain is full of a fluid called cerebro-spinal-fluid (CSF). This has its own rhythm too as it pumps around the brain, spinal cord and to some extent the peripheral nerves. Even our emotions, which when stripped down to the basics are just hormones and chemicals, move.
So every structure, whether it be muscles, bones, ligaments or organs are surrounded by and filled with fluid, they have a movement. The basic cell of the body vibrates to its own frequency. The cellular exchange of fluid between cells, which is constantly occurring, is movement. All these different rhythms create a harmony, a sense of vitality, an overall buzz.
When I put my hands on a body I try to tune into to this vitality, this motion. Does the body feel alive or tired? Is it straining or is pulsing strongly? Is it slow or fast?
“If something stops moving it is no longing living.”
With my hands I can sense how active the body is and here is the key. If any area in the body has reduced movement or is impeded or is struggling to perform its job properly, which in this case will translate to a movement, then it will create tension to the surrounding structures that are in contact with it. This tension that spreads out from the structure that is not doing its job properly can be felt. It is like lines or waves of hardness that pulls the hand to that area.
An example for this:
If I was to hold a simple piece of string in the air without a weight at the bottom and you felt it, you would be able to move it without much resistance. It will have a certain springiness or give to it. If I was to then put a weight on the bottom of this string and you then felt it again. It would feel different, tighter, less flexible. You would probably say “it feels tense”.
This is exactly what I feel when I touch the body. A line spreads through the body that is more tense/heavy than that of the other tissues I am feeling. As an Osteopath I try to train myself to follow that line. Because I follow these lines I believe they will lead me to the most important problem in the body. I then treat this structure and restore the motion to it. The negative effect this structure has on the surrounding tissues will also correct itself. As the body begins to repair itself it can be common for other symptoms to arise. That is why, sometimes, when a patient is treated they can come back to their next appointment with completely different symptoms. Often the patient will comment they had these symptoms before and a story begins to unfold of previous injuries, traumas or difficulties.
The body is brilliant at adapting and molding itself to problems and like an onion, layers of problems can build on each other, often without symptoms. If we take a disc prolapse for example. It is not uncommon for a full prolapse to occur during a very easy or light movement. A very common cause is picking up a pen from the floor or a toothbrush from the sink. The reason for this is because the body has adapted itself to micro tears to the disc over a prolonged period of time through various forces inflicted upon it. Scar tissue is laid down and the disc is repaired. Unfortunately with each repair a weakness has been created. Interestingly scar tissue is not flexible and due to this it restricts movement on any structure associated with it. That is why surgeries, if possible, should be avoided because of the scar tissue build up. Since the scar tissue limits movement, it will also limit the function of that structure and eventually adaptation from the body can no longer occur. The injury ignites into a serious problem or in this case a full disc prolapse.
It is the question ‘why’ that is the important one that Osteopaths ask themselves. ‘Why’ has this patient got a headache? Maybe because they have a stiff neck. ‘Why’ has this patient got a stiff neck? The story goes on.
There are 2 very key areas to Osteopathy that I want to explore in greater depth later, visceral and cranial Osteopathy. Visceral meaning organs and cranial meaning head.
One final note about Osteopathy before I finish.
Like many other health care professions we also use these similar techniques, below.
Pre and post surgery rehabilitation.
Posture analysis.
Ergonomics.
Cracking/manipulation/HVT.
Massage/sports massage.
Trigger point therapy.
Muscle inhibition/MET/PRI/counter strain/
General joint mobilization/articulation.
Spinal corrections.
Exercise training/strengthening.
Core strengthening.
Dietary advice.
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