Manual dexterity: osteopathy from “A” to “Z”

Back pain, migraines, poor quality of sleep, old injuries that constantly remind you of themselves – all these are alarm bells that it is time to take care of your body and consult an osteopathic doctor. Remember that everything in our body is interconnected, and if you have pain in your arm or leg, it does not mean that the cause lies in them, perhaps you have displaced vertebrae or, for example, twisted the pelvis. As a result, the whole body is in an uncomfortable and unnatural position. As a consequence, there is a pinpoint aching pain in various areas.

What is osteopathy?

Osteopathy is a scientifically proven method by which the doctor uses his hands to work on the human body.

This is important to know: osteopathy is recognized as official medicine. It will be taught in medical universities in Russia on a par with pediatrics and medical science. Since 2018, osteopaths and relevant specialized clinics will undergo mandatory accreditation.

All techniques of influence are divided into three groups:

• Structural (working with the musculoskeletal system);
• visceral (working with the internal organs);
• craniosacral therapy (working with the central nervous system).

The contact is through the hands. The sensations are partly similar to massage, partly to manual practice, but everything is more physiological. The basic osteopathic course consists of about 3 thousand manipulations. Before each action, the specialist conducts a test: feels the tissues, diagnoses the patient’s problem and affects the deep layers of tissue.

How did osteopathy appear?

The founder of osteopathic teaching back in the XIX century was Andrew Taylor Still. His whole family died of meningitis in 1894, which made him extremely disappointed in the traditional approach to treatment. By profession, Still was a surgeon, which is why he decided to penetrate deeper into the mysteries of the device of the human body. As a result, he was able to notice many surprising patterns, but most importantly, he realized that the treatment must involve two people – the doctor and the body itself.

Still described his own observations in the book “Osteopathy: Research and Practice”, which became the manifesto of osteopathy of that time, as it laid down the basic principles of this medical doctrine.

The human body always strives for recovery, and the osteopath only facilitates this process

The body is a unified whole, not a mechanistic set of organ systems. Blood nourishes the muscles, muscles hold the bones, etc. If an organ is positioned correctly, it will work correctly. The main thing in osteopathy has become the knowledge of the correct location of organs and the ability to move them from a state of pathology to normal.

When should you see an osteopath?

Ideally, an osteopath should monitor the health of a person from the moment of birth, because even in normal (uncomplicated) birth, the baby has to get to the light through obstacles, and any wrong action, both on the part of the mother and the doctor will immediately affect the state of his body.

Factors for treatment in children:

• Consequences of birth trauma and surgical intervention;
• enuresis (urinary incontinence);
• encephalopathy;
• strabismus;
• seizures and epilepsy syndrome;
• attention deficit disorder;
• nervous disorders;
• psychomotor and speech delays;
• intellectual maturation problems;
• neurological disorders;
• headaches;
• ENT diseases;
• disorders of the musculoskeletal system (torticollis, poor posture, flat feet, etc.);
• diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.

Factors for treatment in adults:

• post-traumatic syndrome;
• consequences of surgical operations;
• painful head spasms and migraines;
• dizziness and impaired cerebral blood flow;
• high intracranial pressure;
• musculoskeletal system ailments (intercostal neuralgia, sciatica, joint and spinal pain, osteochondrosis);
• chronic gynecologic diseases;
• ENT diseases (bronchitis, snusitis, rhinitis, hearing problems, stuffy ears);
• various diseases of different systems of internal organs dystonia;
• chronic fatigue and exhaustion.

What is osteochecap?

In order to understand this question, we turned to the doctor of medical rehabilitation, neurologist of Osteopathy and Classical Medicine Osteo Poly Clinic Olga Shalneva. Starting from the first consultation, an osteopath must necessarily monitor

• how the patient holds his head;
• how he sits on the couch or chair;
• the patient’s posture.

If necessary, the doctor will also study the results of laboratory tests, ultrasound and tomography. Next, the doctor examines and interviews the patient, using a special diagnostic technique. Its essence is that the doctor’s hands are able to feel the slightest deviations and anomalies in the location of bones and ligaments. An experienced osteopath knows the key points on the body, which will signal the organ that requires treatment. By muscle tension, an osteopathic physician is able to read malfunctions in the internal organ systems.

Themain idea of osteopathy is that the vast majority of diseases are caused by weakness, excessive tension or stiffness of muscles and joints

For therapy, the osteopath selects different types of techniques, which we have already mentioned above. Structural ones stand out for their more active, yet gentle action to relieve spasms and limb movement restrictions. The practitioner uses his or her hands and emphasis on the spine as leverage. The passive (functional) technique is characterized by even more gentle movements of the practitioner and responds to the natural rhythms of movement in the body (e.g. breathing). At first glance, it may seem that the osteopath has absolutely no effect on the patient. But this is not the case. Its effects are much deeper than the treatments performed by a chiropractor or massage therapist.

At the end of any osteopathic session, the patient undergoes a special test to compare the initial state and improvements that came after the delicate medical manipulations. As a rule, the treatment session lasts from 40 to 120 minutes. A huge plus for the patient is the complete relaxation of the entire body during the session and after the procedures. Remember that during an osteopathic session you do not eliminate the problem, but only start the process of change. That is why it is so important to follow all the recommendations of the doctor in the next 3-4 days after the session: do not get hypothermia, do not engage in heavy physical exercise, if necessary to perform a set of exercises or taping the surface of the body.

Where to undergo osteochecap? Since 2018, osteopaths and relevant specialized clinics are required to undergo mandatory accreditation. Therefore, we recommend that you go to licensed and specialized clinics for consultation. For the consultative part in writing the material, the editorial staff turned to the doctors of Osteo Poly Clinic.

The price of the question: from 5000 rubles.

Required frequency: depends on the problem, but at least 2-3 times a year.