Osteopathy is a way to detect, treat, and prevent health problems by moving, stretching, and massaging a person's muscles and joints, increasing joint mobility, relieving muscle tension, reducing pain, improving blood supply to tissues, and helping the body heal. An osteopath aims to restore normal joint function and stability to help the body heal on its own.
Osteopathic
doctors receive additional training in the musculoskeletal system. But they also learn all the other parts of modern medicine.They can prescribe medications, perform surgeries, perform tests, and do everything else you would expect from a doctor. Osteopathy, or osteopathic medication, focuses on improving the overall health of the person receiving treatment. Osteopathic manipulative medicine (OMM) is a tool that osteopathic physicians use to support this process. OMM is a gentle and practical treatment to reduce tension and restrictions in the body.
These restrictions can come from injury, illness, surgery, radiation, or simply aging. They can cause you to feel pain, have less flexibility, or have trouble doing your usual daily activities. Through sessions with an osteopath and ongoing monitoring of symptoms, you can dramatically benefit from treatment. Improving body function, increasing energy levels, and improving mobility can help you live a healthier life.
Most students who apply to osteopathic medical school first earn a bachelor's degree, and many also have a master's or doctorate degree. Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) patients can schedule an appointment for osteopathic evaluation at Linda B.
Osteopathy
can be used to treat a wide variety of conditions, such as pain (especially stress-related pain), inability to relax and improve your overall health. Visitors to an osteopath should ensure that their doctor is accredited by the American Osteopathic Association (AOA) and is licensed to practice.Some osteopathic techniques can improve lymphatic health and produce internal improvements in the body without the need for invasive surgical treatment. People who have osteoporosis, bone cancer, or other joint problems should not receive osteopathic manipulative treatment. All ODs are trained in osteopathic manipulative treatment, sometimes called manual manipulation or OMT. Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) use OMT to treat mechanical pain (muscle, tendon, or bone pain due to structural imbalance) and a wide range of health conditions.
Handling and hands-on work are gentle, but due to the physical work carried out, a patient with osteopathy may feel pain for the first 24 to 48 hours. Many osteopathic physicians also work as primary care physicians in fields such as family medicine, internal medicine, and pediatrics. Osteopathic professionals further examine your health and identify areas that need to be addressed, which you may not have considered before. From there, they will develop an individualized plan for the patient with osteopathic treatment and ongoing counseling.
Osteopathic treatments can have a positive impact on the nervous, circulatory and lymphatic systems to improve body function and overall health. Prevention is an important part of the osteopathic approach to medicine, so your DO will likely give you advice to help you avoid injury or illness in the future.
