Osteopathy and You

Thursday, January 20th, 2011

Continuing with our look into 'What is Osteopathy', Nicholas Coysh BSc (Hons) talks you through what may be involved on a visit to an osteopath.

About Osteopathy

Utilising gentle techniques an osteopath will work with your body to create the perfect conditions to encourage the healing process. Osteopaths consider each person as an individual and treat accordingly.

Professionalism and Safety

To qualify, an osteopath must study for four to five years for an undergraduate degree. This is similar to a medical degree, with more emphasis on anatomy and musculoskeletal medicine and includes more than 1,000 hours of training in osteopathic techniques.
By law, osteopaths must register with the General Osteopathic Council (GOsC). The British Medical Association’s guidance for general practitioners states that doctors can safely refer patients to osteopaths.

Your Posture

An osteopath will usually look at your posture and how you move your body. They may also assess what happens when they move it for you and see what hurts, where and when.

Trouble Areas

Using touch, an osteopath may also find the areas which are sensitive or tight and this helps them to identify what’s going on. With this done they can assess your condition. Sometimes an osteopathy is not appropriate for you and they may then refer you to your GP or another specialist such as an orthopaedic surgeon.

Your Treatment

Osteopaths use a wide range of gentle manipulations, depending on your age, fitness and diagnosis. Treatment is different for every patient but may include techniques such as different types of soft tissue massage and joint articulation to release tension, stretch muscles, help relieve pain and mobilise your joints. Sometimes, when they move joints you may hear a ‘click’. This is just like the click people get when they crack their knuckles. Often they will discuss exercises that you can do to improve your posture and movement in your workplace and everyday life. An osteopath may feel your pulse and check your reflexes or take your blood pressure and refer you for clinical tests, such as x-rays, if they think you need them.

What They Do

Although osteopaths treat many conditions, most people think of them as ‘back specialists'. Back pain is what many osteopaths treat a lot of the time. Osteopathic treatment does not target symptoms only but treats the parts of the body that have caused the symptoms. Osteopaths have a holistic approach and believe that your whole body will work well if it is in good structural balance.

Imagine, for example, a car that has one of its front wheels not quite pointing straight. It may run well for a while, but after a few thousand miles, the tyre will wear out. You can apply this example to the human body, which is why it is so important to keep the body in good balance. Using a wide range of techniques, including massage, cranial techniques (sometimes referred to as ‘cranial osteopathy’) and joint mobilisation, this breadth of approach allows them to focus on every patient’s precise needs. Osteopaths assess and treat people of any age from the elderly to the newborn and from pregnant women to sports people.

How They Do It

Before treatment is started a full medical assessment is made. Taking the time to listen to you and ask questions to make sure they understand your medical history and your day-to-day routine, the osteopath may ask you about things like diet, exercise and what is happening in your life, as these can give clues to help their diagnosis.