Shrewsbury Osteopaths
Susan and Richard Allen DO
41 Armoury Gardens
Shrewsbury
SY2 6PL Tel:01743 365746
| What is Osteopathy? |
Osteopathy is a hands on therapy designed to
release abnormal stresses and strains in the body. It was created
and structured by Dr. Andrew Taylor Still in the mid to late 19th
century. He was an exceptional man who was profoundly influenced by
his experiences as the son of a frontier doctor working with Native
American society. He suffered the death of his wife and children
from spinal meningitis and this led him to question entirely the
basis of medicine at that time and his lack of skill to help them.
|
Dr. Still saw the human being as a unity of mind, matter and motion.
Motion is key to Osteopathy, all tissues and fluids must move if
they are healthy, where there is stasis or lack of motion there is a
problem. He saw the body as a carefully balanced unit and believed
that if the structure were balanced so would be the internal
function including the mind and emotions. This led to the principles
of diagnosis and treatment, which would become Osteopathy.
It is based on the ability of the body to heal itself and with the
right input, allow the forces of healing to resolve the symptoms. Most
of the time the body does this automatically, but sometimes the bodies
reflexive ability to compensate to trauma and strain becomes overloaded.
This is when it needs some help.
Often we are asked why, if it is so versatile is it called Osteo
(meaning bone) pathy (help)?
Dr. Abehsera, an Osteopathic teacher explained that when Still
came up with the name, he was referring to the bones as the struts
of the connective tissue continuity of the body.
Connective tissue is the most ubiquitous tissue in the body and
extends to the cellular level where it connects all cells to each
other, forms the internal scaffolding of the cell and goes on to
connect across the nuclear membrane where the DNA exists within this
connective tissue and water environment. Modern biophysics is now
showing that the structure of the cell has a huge influence on its
function. Still knew this 150 years ago, truly a man of genius. So,
structure – function reciprocity is a relationship throughout all
tissues and levels in the body, right down to the cellular level.
Osteopathy is best known for the treatment of back / joint and muscle pain. Its applications are far wider. The principle of the structure – function relationship mean that the internal environment of the body can be influenced by its structure i.e. muscles and bones via nerve, blood, fluidic and connective tissue pathways.