Osteopathy is an approach to healthcare that emphasizes the role of the musculoskeletal system in health and disease. It is practiced in Canada, the European Union, and Australia. Osteopathy is not to be confused osteopathic medicine in the United States. Osteopaths in Canada use a manual, hands on approach to assess and treat patients, whereas Osteopathic Physicians from the United States are medical doctors who treat with pharmaceutical drugs and surgery.
Osteopathy is a form of complementary medicine, emphasizing a holistic approach and the skilled use of a range of manual and physical treatment interventions in the prevention and treatment of disease. In practice, this most commonly relates to musculoskeletal problems such as back and neck pain, but is not contained to these issues. Osteopathic treatments have been proven to treat everything from Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), and Asthma, to Gastric Reflux/Heartburn, as well as countless other chronic conditions. Osteopathic principles teach that treatment of the musculoskeletal system (bones, muscles and joints), along with the viscera (organs and related tissues) and craniosacral system, stimulates the recuperative powers of the body to fight the disease or chronic issues on its own, without the use of pharmaceutical drugs.
What can be treated using Osteopathy?
Osteopathy is a gentle, non-invasive therapeutic approach used to treat:
· Back pain
· Headache
· Neck pain
· Shoulder pain
· Athletic or work related strain injuries
· Muscle or ligament strains, ankle, elbow, knee
· Pregnancy and childbirth, gestation, labor and post-partum
· Muscle tension headache independent or associated with migraine
· Sinusitis, allergic rhinitis, Otitis media
· Infant colic, plagiocephaly
· Osteoarthritis
· Pneumonia, bronchitis, congestive heart failure
· Gastric reflux/Heartburn
· Anxiety and depression
· Vertigo