Osteopathy: what is it and what is it for?

When we talk about integral therapieswe talk about treatments that They not only cover pain as a symptom, but also the person which is behind One of these therapies is osteopathy and, more specifically, comprehensive or holistic osteopathy, which can help with a wide variety of injuries, pains and disorders.

In this article we will see what osteopathy is and, more specifically, holistic osteopathy, which considers work on the structure, viscera and fascias to be inseparable from work on emotions.

What is osteopathy, a holistic natural therapy

Each body expresses outwards what happens inside and has its own language to communicate with us. You can do it through, for example, a sore back, a whining knee, a swollen belly, etc. It depends on ourselves if we want to hear it and interpret those signals.

Allopathic medicine has not ceased to divide the human body and divide it into different parts and specialties. He has lost sight of the body as a whole and of the person himself.

That’s why, more and more natural therapies want to offer a holistic perspective (from the Greek helloswhole, whole), in which each reality is conceived as a whole, different from the sum of the parts that compose it.

Holistic osteopathy takes into account the different structures of the human body (its skeleton and different tissues, its organs and viscera, and the skull with the nervous system), the interrelation between them to see the totality and the individual that inhabits it.

The objectives are look for the origin of the problem to be treated andat the same time, carry out work of prevention of future injury or illness.

What is osteopathy based on?

Osteopathy as complementary therapy is based on four fundamental principles:

The body is a unit: A movement restriction in one joint, a contracture or a congestion, for example, will be reflected in other body partswell they are all related and interconnected.“The artery is supreme”: with this expression osteopaths mean that the unimpeded flow of bodily fluids is an indicator of good health. When a stagnation of any liquid occurs, a dysfunction appears.Structure governs function: in this case “structure” refers to the musculoskeletal system and “function” to the physiology of each area. There is an interdependent relationship between the two, so alterations in the structure can lead to functional defects and vice versa.The body regulates itself: The body has mechanisms for self-healing. According to this principle, chronic injuries occur when the body’s self-healing capabilities are compromised.

What is osteopathy for?

The effectiveness of holistic osteopathy lies in its deep knowledge of the functioning of the body and in its ability to accompany you towards the restoration of balance.

Not only reduces pain and improves injuries or limiting conditions, but addresses the cause that has generated them, thus favoring optimal health and not just an asymptomatic state.

Osteopathy allows the body to achieve global harmony, restoring mobility to those structures that for various reasons had been losing it. This way, the body becomes much more efficient when it comes to solving problems on its own.

The osteopath always tries to determine what is it that destabilizes the person, that is, the origin of the pathology.

Let’s imagine for a moment that when we got home we found a puddle of water in the kitchen. We call the plumber and he tells us to dry the water every time he appears and leaves our house without looking for the source of the leak.

However, when we feel musculoskeletal pain that has appeared in a non-traumatic way, conventional medicine only treats the discomfort (the puddle, in short) and not its cause.

For the osteopath, initial inspection, assessment and interview are essentialand each patient is a unique case.

Typical neck pain, for example, can come from both a joint problem and a visceral disturbance around the stomach. This is possible because compensations occur and different parts of the body share nerve innervations.

On the other hand, hip or back pain can appear due to poor foot support, due to a poorly healed sprain. In the face of injury, the body makes adaptations in the posture in order to maintain its functionality and suffer less pain. If these adaptations are not corrected, they can trigger new dysfunctions or injuries in the long term.

Therefore, the true cause can only be discovered through a thorough examination of the patient. To find it, it is essential that the patient explain any perception or change experienced in the body.

Are who inhabit our body and, consequently, those of us who know each other best.

What does an osteopath do and what pathologies does he treat?

Osteopaths don’t just treat musculoskeletal problems. More and more patients come to us for constipation, headaches, dysmenorrhea, infertility, colic in babies, pathologies in children and a long etcetera.

It is so because the holistic vision of osteopathy manages to accompany peoplewhatever the problem, until reaching a self-regulating state of health and prevent future injuries.

The osteopath’s job is to discover points of imbalance between the different systems and work them so that the body itself can solve them thanks to its self-healing mechanisms.

Is about joint work between the patient and the osteopathwho guides you on the path of rebuilding your well-being.

Anyone can experience osteopathy and its way of understanding the body on a day-to-day basis.

The next time you suffer mild typical discomfortsuch as a pain in the neck, see if it coincides with what you are experiencing stress or digestive changes. You can ask yourself: when did the pain appear? What did it coincide with? How do I feel in general?

In the case of neck pain, to feel the relationship of the discomfort with its originwhich may be located elsewhere, you can self-massage the lower area of ​​the head (suboccipital zone), insisting on the lateral points behind the ears.

You can too lie down with your head on top of a book for 2-3 minutes. You will probably notice that both your neck and head have relaxed and the discomfort is less.

How is the osteopathy treatment

An osteopath aims to restore the function, stability and mobility of the structures of the body to help him heal himself.

To do this, you can combine different manual techniques. For example, the craniosacral therapy is a specific technique acts on tissues surrounding the brain and spinal cord to recover the so-called “primary respiratory movement”, rhythmic, involuntary and of cerebral origin, which influences the functioning of health in general.

Osteopaths dedicate a good part of their efforts to manipulation of soft tissues, and specifically the fascias, the tissues that surround and communicate the organs, bones and muscles.

Osteopathy uses precise techniques to undo tensions and blockages that prevent the normal functioning of the body.

Osteopathy is not usually painful, although it is not unusual to feel pain or stiffness in the first days after of treatment, especially if you are receiving therapy for an inflamed lesion.

In general, the first appointment will last between 45 minutes and an hour.. Some specific treatments last around 30 minutes.

A treatment requires a specific number of sessions for each person and situation. The course of treatment It will depend on the evolution of the symptoms.

The sessions they meet with enough distance to give time of action to the body’s own forces.

In general, the number of sessions is usually less than with other therapies and the benefits are experienced from the first session.

The patient may receive advice on self-help and exercises to help you recover and prevent symptoms from coming back or get worse.

Problems that are solved with osteopathy

Patients often go to the osteopath by own choice and without medical referral.

In many cases they go because they haven’t found persistent solutions over time with other therapies or directly seek a more comprehensive approach to their injuries.

Although osteopathy can address many disorders, among the most prominent indications are the following:

back problems and herniated discs.sciatica difficult to resolve.pubalgias and others hip problems.digestive alterations and associated discomfort. Headaches and jaw problems.Disorders of pelvic floor.childhood pathologies such as infant colic, malformations at an early age or problems related to growth.