Osteopathy

What is Osteopathy?

Dr. A. T. Still

Osteopathy was founded about at the end of the 19th century by the American doctor A.T. Still, who came to the decision to utilise a different and straight approach to the patient without chemical intermediates. The word "Osteopathy" is frequently misunderstood while in the reality it comes from the ancient Greek "Osteon" (Bone) and "Pathos" (Pain), so strictly interrelating Health and osteoarticular structures.
The principles on which Dr. Still has based his therapy are:

• the globality of the human body;
• the relationship between structure and function;
• the self-recovering capacity of the human body.

As a consequence Osteopathy by means of a simple manual treatment, cures the symptom by leading the body structures to work in the correct way. By structures we mean not only the muscle-skeletric system (even if this is the main subject) but also the entrails and the connective tissue for what concerns the different specializations.
Osteopathy intervenes where a limitation of movement has come out, in one or more areas of the body, such as to modify the postural equilibrium of the patient. As an example, a fall on a shoulder can cause a limitation in the movement of the homer, but also of the clavicle, and, for the rebound, of one of more vertebras of the cervical back segment. The pain disappears within a short time but the articulation limits and the muscle-ligament tensions, which are associated to those, remain and influence the local mobility. The mechanisms of mechanical compensation which are naturally adopted by the body and the local modifications of the nervous-vascular system can cause symptoms, in the time to come, often in a point distant from the trauma.
Osteopathy Expert takes care of the mechanical aspect of the human being and therefore his evaluation is oriented to this aim, with the target to detect the points of higher articulation limits, to understand which are the main ones and to treat them.
The treatment is exclusively based on a manual one and includes manipulations of articulations, muscle and fascial relaxing techniques, to the cranial-sacral and entrails techniques.

Craniosacral mechanism

In the early 19th century, Dr. W. G. Sutherland, observing the cranial sutures, which seemed modelled to permit micro-movements, was upset because of an intuition which he got. He devoted several years attempting to demonstrate to himself that he was wrong. He had instead the confirmation that for what concerns cranial structures there is some elasticity that permits some rhythmic movements independent from the respiratory rhythm but consequent to the motility of the central nervous system.
This motility of expansion (with ventricular filling) and return to normal condition (with partial ventricular emptiness) has a rhythm of about 10-12 pulses per minute and is transmitted through the meninx to the cranial bones and to the sacral bone (the meninx which go into the spinal cord and are inserted at the level of the second sacral vertebra).
Any traumatic event both at the cranial level and the sacral can have a negative effect on this mechanism in its rhythm or in its width, causing effects of different types both at level of central vegetative nervous system and at the circulatory level.
In addition, if the trauma event occurs in neonatal or early childhood period it will influence the growth of the skull bones and of the other parts of the body too.
The osteopath is in a condition to detect, by feeling the skull and the sacral, the quality of the movement and he has the possibility to intervene by techniques of gentle manipulation to get a recovery to a normal condition or in any case to improve the situation.

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Osteopathy, as a "Holistic"science (i.e. that aims at equalising of the patient in his wholeness and not the cure of the symptom) has a very wide application field. Nowadays it is mainly utilised for the cure of painful afflictions of the backbone and of peripheral articulations but it results also effective in most disorders of equilibrium, in the pains from congestion as otitis, rhinopharyngitis, sinusitis, circulatory, digestive, gynaecological disorders and in insomnias which are not originated by viruses, tumours, infections that damage the integrity of the structure. The osteopath who has attended an adequate course is in a condition to evaluate the counter-indications to some techniques according to the type of patient and his problems.

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