A Brief History of Osteopathy

Osteopathy’s goal is often to lessen pain. It often, but does not necessarily, target the tissues where the patient locates their pain. Pain can be referred from other sites. When nerve fibers enter the spinal cord and at various relay stations in the brain, stimuli, when strong enough can cross react with other nerves in the same region. This can lead to pain being felt elsewhere. Dysfunctions in the body cause it to not work as efficiently as possible. They create tensions or blockages that get in the way of healthy movement of joints, tissues or fluids. These dysfunctions may or may not contribute to local symptoms. Say a person has a deep scar. That scar may not be painful, but the tissues that connect to, or are anchored by that scar create secondary problems elsewhere in the body which lead to the patient experiencing pain at a distance. Maybe the tension leads to compression of a nerve which impacts the nerves or blood supply. Maybe the tension changes the direction of forces on a tendon insertion or joint which leads to local breakdown of the tendon at that insertion or altered mechanics of the joint. Maybe the tension leads to creating a stricture at a bend in the colon which impedes the flow of stool contributing to constipation and abdominal pain. Maybe the tension leads to spasm of blood vessels in the area with resulting decreased blood flow to and/or from a region. Without addressing the scar, its impacts will cause recurrent pain and dysfunction. These are considerations taken into account by a treating osteopath. Things get complicated when one considers that most injuries lead to more than one local tissue disturbance. Add in that the body has a finite ability to cope with a burden of accumulated injuries. Sometimes a new injury is the “straw that breaks the camel’s back” and all the body’s compensations crumble in the face of a new insult. Under those circumstances, just correcting the most recent injury is not sufficient to bring about symptom relief and it is necessary to help the body rebuild normalcy from the ground up. This leads to treating multiple regions that all could have some distant connection to the patient’s pain. A healthy wetlands ecosystem needs to have free flow of water and nutrients. Birds fly, fish swim, and mammals crawl through the wetlands. The ecosystem is adversely impacted when a damn is built to block flow, when drainage ditches cause shunting of water from one region to the next, when nets or fences block the movement of the animal species. The ecosystem is adversely impacted by disease or invasive species coming in, when the rains don’t fall, when a nearby feedlot starts leaking manure into the waters (i.e. don’t eat crap). Health of the body metaphorically is akin to that ecosystem. Running a bulldozer to move ground is one type of trauma, a backhoe digging a hole could be another source of trauma. Sometimes the wetland will be able to re-establish flow and function, sometime is won’t. Nature can use erosion or collateral waterways to maintain relative health. Sometimes an injury is more like a culvert or concrete irrigation ditch. The change to the environment is too much. As fluids are diverted there will be local areas that start to wither. Nearby areas may become wetter or dryer. Soil conditions will change, and different species will be favored. The role of the osteopath is to assist your body in becoming the healthiest ecosystem it can be, removing barriers and re-establishing the normal flow of fluids and species across its landscape.

Dr. Jed Downs discusses common causes of falls and slips as aging sets in, and exercises and ideas for therapy that can help with balance issues.