Medical Secret

America's Best Kept Medical Secret

Why is Osteopathy America’s Best Kept Health Care Secret?

Healthcare in America today is largely based on the traditional use of drugs and surgery.

Take a pill and feel better.

Have a surgery and get rid of the problem.

Rarely, if ever does it address let alone correct what caused the disease in the first place. We seem to want to be an ostrich, putting our heads in the sand of unwillingness to deal with reasons we get sick.

Fortunately, the tide is turning, in part due to the rapid escalation of traditional health care costs, and because individuals are searching in greater numbers for new options that create natural health and maintain wellness.

Osteopathy is based on the fundamental belief that the body is capable of healing itself and maintaining wellness.

The practice of osteopathy involves removing obstacles to the natural process of healing and wellness.

There are two primary physical obstacles to the process of healing and wellness.

The first obstacle involves the structures of the body and how these function in relation to one another. If there is tension or misalignment within the body, healing will be hindered.

The second obstacle is related to how various fluids move through the body. When blood, lymph or spinal fluid can not flow easily throughout the tissues, healing is compromised.

Osteopathy addresses why illness has happened by working on the structure and fluid movement within the body to support a state where the healing process can naturally occur.

So why is osteopathy a health care secret?

And how does an individual decide which type of doctors to see?

First, it is because most people do not understand the critical difference between an osteopath and a traditional medical doctor or other healthcare professions.

In order to make an informed decision, it is beneficial to understand the differences between all those professional designations behind the name of a physician or doctor, such as D.O., D.C., M.D., N.D. and O.D.

If you are confused, you are not alone. Many would be hard pressed to correctly answer questions about what differentiates these types of doctors. Here is some information to help you understand the differences between the credentials.

The D.O. signifies a Doctor of Osteopathy
The D.C. designates a Doctor of Chiropractic
The M.D. represents a Doctor of Medicine
The N.D. stands for Doctor of Naturopathy
The O.D. is the abbreviation for Doctor of Optometry

There are a lot of misperceptions about these fields. The dictionary provides the following definitions:

Chiropractic is a system of therapy which holds that disease results from a lack of normal nerve function and which employs manipulation and specific adjustment of body structures.

Medicine is a substance or preparation used in treating disease.

Naturopathy is a system of treatment of disease that avoids drugs and surgery and emphasizes the use of natural agents like air, water, and sunshine and physical means such as manipulation and electrical treatment.

Optometry is the art or profession of examining the eye for defects and faults of refraction and prescribing correctional lenses or exercises.

Osteopathy is a system of medical practice based on a theory that diseases are due chiefly to loss of structural integrity which can be restored by manipulation of the parts supplemented by therapeutic measures.

The osteopath has an education very similar to the traditional medical doctor.

The number of years in undergraduate school, graduate school and residency programs is the same in most cases. Even the subjects studied are similar between the two. Both are qualified to prescribe drugs, perform surgeries and often specialize in an area of practice, such as internal medicine.

Dr. A. T. Still was the founder of osteopathic medicine. He was born in 1828 and lived to be 89, a rare age to attain in the early 1900s. He stood apart from the majority of physicians practicing medicine back then. Some of his beliefs were revolutionary and controversial.

Dr. Still . . .

Was among the first to identify the human immune system and develop a system for stimulating it naturally.

Protested the use of forceps during childbirth claiming it caused nerve damage to the newborn.

Was the first to welcome women and minorities into medical school.

Predicted that this country would become a nation of drug addicts and alcoholics within the century if physicians did not quit over-prescribing addictive drugs.

Believed that the most important drugs and the ones most worthy of study are those produced within the human body.

Objected to the use of leeching and purging which were commonly accepted medical practices at the time.

Warned that women were far too often the victims of needless surgeries.

Assumed that the human body is in nature and function designed to operate as a perfect, harmonious whole, and that disease in one part affects all other parts.

Identified the sacrum as a movable bone 35 years before allopathic medicine recognized it as such.

Thought that physicians should study prevention as well as cure, and treat “patients”—not “symptoms”.

Founded and dedicated the Science of Osteopathic Medicine to the search for holistic health-care principles, treatment and therapies.