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