Osteopathy is a “manual medicine”. Its practitioners palpate the body to detect stress or imbalances that cause discomfort or disease, then are manipulated to restore the balance. According to them, osteopathy is a complete system with its own methods of diagnosis and treatment: it treats a wide variety of ailments.
According to the osteopath, the physical ailments as psychological resonances have throughout the body. Thus, poor posture, accidents, stress or negative thoughts do not disturb one system (musculoskeletal, digestive, neurological, vascular, hormonal, etc..), But the whole body. To treat each problem, we must restore harmony in the musculoskeletal system and in each of the other systems.
In the language of osteopaths, this harmony is often reflected in the terms mobility and motility, motility designating all proper motions to an organ or system. A healthy body is equipped with excellent motility, not only in his joints, but in all tissues of the body: bones, muscles, nerves, ligaments, tendons, fascia, liquids, etc..
One of the distinguishing characteristics of osteopathy is also taking into account the overall structure of the body and its movements, be they large and powerful or whether fluctuations in pain perceptible.
Fundamentals
>>The first of the four fundamental principles of the approach stipulates that structure governs function, that is to say that the various bodily functions are in close interrelation with the structure of the musculoskeletal system.
>>The second principle states that there are functional unit: it is technically impossible that happens anything in a body part without the other parties are affected. This explains that the manipulations are sometimes remote areas of central pain – on the diaphragm to treat the back, for example.
The osteopath is not interested merely in discomfort, but considers the patient as a whole to be evaluated as a whole. He must discover the exact cause of tension and blockages that restrict the mobility of different tissues. Osteopaths are trained extensively to gain a deep understanding of body structures (bones, joints, organs, viscera, muscles, etc..) And an extreme delicacy of touch, capable of detecting hidden tensions and movements particularly subtle. Unfortunately, the term osteopathy, with its Greek prefix osteo meaning both “structure” and “bone” can give a too restrictive approach.
The osteopath Philippe Druelle compares his work to that of a watchmaker “With hands, we put in motion all the functions of the body so they can come into interrelation with each other and maintain the status health of an individual.
>>The third and fourth principles relate more to the preventive aspect of osteopathy: the role of arteries is absolute – a body well irrigated, there would be no congestion or cellular degeneration – and there is self – body possess or could generate substances and processes required for treatment.
Tags: body, detect stress, manual medicine, Osteopaths, treatment
