I guess I should have a quick post here…
It’s not magic, it is pure mechanics! If a part of the body is out of alignment then the surrounding muscles and ligaments are put under undue stress & strain so predispose that part to injury. We try to reverse this pattern to remove the problems at their root cause. An Ostepath will look at the whole body looking for patterns that may have caused the problem you are experiencing.
Not sure I can see how a physio is going to be a better manipulator when an osteo spends 4 years studying manipulation and a physio 3-4 years on a wider curriculum.
Do want to be manipulated or do you want to get better?
The two are not exclusive, but the whole idea of physios doing all that ‘wider curriculum’ stuff is to be able to help people, rather than make fancy cracking sounds…”
Physios do not have a wider curriculum of ‘stuff’ to learn we both learn about the human body, physiology, anatomy and mechanics. Osteopaths have a 4 year MSc and contrary to some people’s belief it is not all about manipulation!
Manipulation forms a part of my treatment of patients, Soft tissue massage is manipulation! Rehabilitaion of a patient requires looking at lifestyle, exercise, posture etc as well as adjusting bones and muscles.
Fancy clicks are usually just the ‘icing on the cake’ in a treatment the rest of the treatment is designed to do most of the work.
I would like to point out that there are awful Physio’s, awful chiro’s and awful osteopaths out there go on a recommendation from friend or colleague to make sure you get the right one.
I treat musculoskeletal conditions, other conditions appear to get better in the process sometimes which is great my patients love that bit!
I do not create patient reliance, I actively discourage too regular treatment.
If you really want this evidance based medicine then the UK BEAM trial showed that Osteopathy helps musculoskeletal conditions.
I prefer to rely on the fact that 93 percent of my patients get better from my treatment in a shorter period of time than they expected (and yes I did do the proper statistics on this!)
sorry for the essay!