| In Britain over 5 million people a year | | | | within itself all the necessary |
| visit an osteopath, many of them now | | | | mechanisms for its own defense against |
| referred by a doctor. In the United | | | | injury and infection, and for |
| States, where osteopaths are also | | | | restoration to normality following |
| medically trained doctors, the figure is | | | | trauma. This defense and restoration |
| in excess of 100 million. | | | | take place best if the body is |
| Osteopathy was devised in 1874 by Andrew | | | | maintained in optimum condition, when |
| Taylor Still. He trained as an engineer | | | | there is maximum structural mobility and |
| before receiving formal medical training | | | | flexibility. |
| at Kansas City School of Physicians and | | | | Osteopathy is therefore aimed at |
| Surgeons, after which he worked as an | | | | encouraging the body's internal |
| army surgeon. He was unhappy with the | | | | mechanisms to focus on their own |
| often brutal medicine of his day, and he | | | | self-corrective function on the |
| felt that stimulating the body's natural | | | | imbalance. The osteopath's aim is to |
| powers of self-healing would be | | | | correct the dysfunction so that the body |
| preferable. He was interested in the | | | | is then in a fit state to heal itself. |
| body as a machine and became aware that | | | | Osteopathic treatment is concerned as |
| many illnesses were the result of a | | | | much with maintenance as with cure. A |
| misalignment of the body's structures. | | | | regular checkup enables the osteopath to |
| Manipulation could restore the balance | | | | detect and restore areas of dysfunction |
| and cure illness, he believed. | | | | before they manifest as disease. |
| His philosophy was that "structure | | | | Osteopathy employs a wide range of |
| governs function," a belief that remains | | | | manipulative techniques, varying |
| one of the basic principles of modern | | | | according to the part of the body being |
| osteopathy. He claimed that tension in | | | | treated. Tight muscles will be relaxed |
| muscles and misaligned bones places | | | | in order that fluids may flow freely, |
| unnecessary strain on the body as a | | | | allowing blood to carry nutrients and |
| whole. The initial strain can be caused | | | | oxygen to where they are needed, and |
| by any number of factors, such as | | | | allowing the waste products in the |
| physical injury, or habitual poor | | | | lymphatic fluid to drain away. Some |
| posture, or by destructive emotions such | | | | regions may require gentle, slow, |
| as anxiety and fear. Adjusting the | | | | low-velocity touch, while soft tissues |
| framework of the body would relieve that | | | | and some joints may need flexing or |
| strain and enable all the systems to run | | | | massage. Joints with reduced mobility |
| smoothly so that the body would heal | | | | may require joint mobilization therapy. |
| itself. | | | | At all times, however, it is the entire |
| Modern Therapy | | | | body that is undergoing treatment. The |
| Osteopaths regard the body as a unit, a | | | | local body area, which is subject to the |
| whole being made up of contributory | | | | presenting complaint, naturally receives |
| parts. An abnormality in the structure | | | | close attention, but the osteopath also |
| or reaction of one part exerts an | | | | minutely examines the rest of the body |
| abnormal influence on all the other | | | | for other factors that may predispose or |
| parts, which in turn affects the whole | | | | contribute to the complaint. |
| body. The normal, healthy body contain; | | | | |