Osteopathy

The Origins of Osteopathy

The Founder – Dr. Andrew Taylor Still

Dr. Andrew Taylor Still was born in 1828 and became a medical doctor, studying along side his father during the Civil War, who was a physician and minister.  Apprenticeship was the only way to become a physician since there were no medical schools at the time.  After the war, Dr. Still moved with his new wife and baby to Kansas. 

Dr. Still’s vision for a different approach in caring for patients was born out of several tragedies in his life.  Tragedy first struck when his wife and child died.  He married again, lived on a farm and had 5 more children.  This was a difficult experience, alternating between feast and famine. Tragedy dealt him another round of unimaginable grief.  All five of these children died, mostly from trauma and infection, despite having the best allopathic medical care available in the 1800s.  His thoughts about a new way to care for patients were born out of his experiences with his children’s illnesses.     

Faith in God gave Dr. Still the courage to move on with his life.  Through his practice of contemplative prayer, he received the intuitive insight that since God was perfect, and man was created in God’s image, man must be perfect as well.  Therefore, man must have all the capabilities of healing contained within him.  He believed we have within our bodies, the chemistry needed to heal ourselves and the mechanism to do it. 

Around the age of 40, Dr. Still began taking action towards his vision of how to care for patients.  He developed the field of Osteopathy in 1874 and became the world’s first Osteopath, abandoning the use of drugs to treat disease.  His American School of Osteopathy, founded in 1892, at Kirksville, Missouri, is now known around the world as the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine.  Dr. Still lived to the ripe age of 89, an uncommon accomplishment in the early 1900s.

Dr. Still became a thought leader in the medical field.  He . . .

·         Believed physicians should study prevention as well as cure, treating the patient and not symptoms.

·         Thought the most important drugs and the ones most worthy of study are those produced within the body. 

·         Understood the forces interfering with the body’s normal function needed to be removed and once removed the body was capable of healing itself.

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

·         Studied the anatomy of the human body intensively using bodies dug up from graves to know their anatomy really well. 

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

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

·         Denounced the use of forceps in the birth process, stating it caused severe damage to the newborn.

·         Predicted we would become a country of drug addicts, if doctors did not stop over-prescribing addictive medications.

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

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

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

The Principles of Osteopathy

As the founder of Osteopathy, Dr. Still developed the three main principles of osteopathy:

1.  The body is a whole. 

2.  The body is a self-regulating, self-healing mechanism. 

3.  Structure and function are related. 

A common complaint heard by osteopaths is about how previous care providers focused only on the part of their body that was injured or not functioning well.   Osteopathic patients are often amazed at the difference in perspective and treatment when the body and person are considered as a whole entity.  This perspective expressed by the three main principles of osteopathy leads one to question the following:

·         How does structure affect health?

·         How does the whole body connection affect health?

·         How does the mind affect the body?

·         How are these issues helped by Osteopathy?

To address these questions, here are cases examples from my practice illustrating how these principles were applied.

·         A patient came to me with low back pain.  Her treatment consisted of working on her upper back and neck area.  This produced a much freer feeling in their low back and relief from the pain.

·         A child came to me with neck pain.  I noticed a problem with her right big toe during the palpation portion of the examination.  Once the pressure was relieved the treatment for the neck pain worked beautifully.  I could not help her neck until I released the toe.

·         A patient developed gastritis and esophageal reflux after her son was sent off to war.  Her condition became chronic, unresponsive to medicine and lead to constipation.  Upon discussing what was going on in her life, I discovered that she would physically hold her breath and her abdomen muscles while suppressing her feelings of fear and anxiety about her son.  The tension held in the chest and abdomen reduced the flow of fluids which in turn reduced the normal activity of the bowel.  Her body wanted to cry out, “from the gut”, to express the feelings of sadness and fear.  By inhibiting the need to cry, her abdominal muscles became more and more tense. 

This demonstrates how the muscles responded by entrapping energy within the abdomen.  This patient developed a physical illness which appeared to be a simple medical condition.  By uncovering and addressing the emotional root issue her path to recovery possible.

·         A patient consulted with me for a new onset of low back pain.  She never had problems with low back pain before and it was limited to one section of her low back.  Upon physical exam and treatment I could feel that she had a forward tip of the pelvis that was not common for her.  When I asked her about it she told me that she had been trying a new riding technique and she was supposed to move from her sacrum. 

I educated her about the location of her sacrum being lower than where she was tightening and how she was moving from her 4^th lumbar vertebra instead. I released the tension there and she felt better.  Upon follow up she reported how she was riding differently with her new knowledge of anatomy.  Her back did not hurt anymore.

The reason that the low back hurt was due to the vertebra being held in a rotated position by muscle spasm.  The vertebra could not perform its function of transmitting weight properly through the spine to the legs and produced pain.  When the proper position of the vertebra was corrected it could function properly.

·          A patient developed pain in her jaw and began grinding her teeth for the first time in her life. She is in her 50s.  I asked what was going on in her life and she revealed that she had just lost not one, but two close friends, one unexpectedly.  The increased tension in her neck and jaw was directly related to her inability to express her grief fully at that particular moment in time.

Osteopathy uses gentle hands-on treatment to improve the body’s function.  It works through the subtle motion present in the living body at all times.  When that motion is lost or inhibited there is discomfort, pain and disease.  This loss of motion is called somatic dysfunction.  I am among the few osteopaths that have studied both the fascial (connective tissue) and the biodynamic models of treatment. 

When the symptoms of pain and stiffness appear, the emotional state of the patient must be explored in order to clear any significant causative factors.  I regularly take the necessary time with patients to uncover situations contributing to their physical symptoms.  Negative emotional states such as stress, fear, anger, depression, loneliness, low self-esteem and anxiety have a detrimental impact on health by increasing the muscular tension which in turn pulls on the skeletal structure and reduces the flow of all fluids within the body. 

Osteopathy also has a spiritual component.  I practice osteopathy as it was intended and include the spiritual component in working with my patients appropriately.  This does not negate the science behind the principles of the osteopathic practice.  Nor does my practice of osteopathy or osteopathy in general promote a particular religious or spiritual philosophy rather it recognizes that a person’s spirituality is an important component of healing. 

The Other Contributors to Osteopathy

The above physicians have played a significant role in developing my healthcare philosophy.  I opened the Center for Holistic Living and selected services based on the natural healing wisdom I gained from these thought leaders. 

William Garner Sutherland, D.O. studied with Dr. Still.  He developed cranial osteopathy.  Although cranial osteopathy is named after the cranial research done by Dr. Sutherland, it is a whole body phenomenon.  He believed that biomechanics affected the cranium just like any other part of the body. His studies revealed how the cranium, its connective tissue, the brain itself and the cerebrospinal fluid move in relation to the body.  His landmark studies have revolutionized how osteopathy is practiced adding great depth to the understanding of the body and profound healing possibilities. 

Dr. Robert Fulford was one of the original students of Dr. Sutherland. He disagreed with Dr. Sutherland’s belief in the fluid model.  Instead, he proposed a fascial model. Dr. Fulford went on to expand his philosophy to include the life force energy.  He used the percussion vibrator (hammer) to increase the energy across a fascial plane so that energy would be able to flow through it. He thought that energetic medicine was the medicine of the future. Dr. Fulford taught me to use the percussion vibrator.  He learned to approach and think about health issues as they relate to principles of life force energy. 

Dr. James Jealous teaches osteopathy with an emphasis on the fluid aspects and biodynamics of the body in relation to its embryology. He studied with Dr. Anne Wales, a student of Dr. Sutherland.  He effectively teaches a technical approach to osteopathy in perfect alignment with the understanding of the founders of osteopathy.

Dr. Wilhelm Reich was the first western physician to “discover” the life energy through strictly scientific principles and observations.  His contribution to the understanding of how energy functions, its pulsating nature and its effect on the human psyche and general health is indispensable information.  This information is extremely useful in understanding the function of emotions and common experiences like anxiety and stress.  I use Dr. Reich’s understanding of energy on a daily basis in caring for my patients.