Osteopathy

Osteopathy is a set of manual techniques used to eliminate some muscular and musculoskeletal pains and to correct disorders of the organs, intestines and skull.

Contents

What is osteopathy for?

    • The body is a unit. A therapy must therefore not only focus on one painful zone, but on the whole body.
  • The function depends on the respective structure. You can’t treat the knee as if it had the mobility of one shoulder.
  • Osteopathy does not heal, but creates the conditions for the body to heal itself.
  • The Law of the Artery: A disorder that slows or blocks blood flow can cause skeletal muscle disease. Blood vessels, which are structures of connective tissue and muscles, also need to be treated.

This science is recognized by many European and non-European countries: France, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium, Sweden, England, Canada, United States, Australia, etc.

How does osteopathy work?

Most often, patients think that the osteopath is the specialist who performs manipulations on the vertebrae and then relocates them “krick-krack”.
This is only one of the techniques performed, but it does not benefit all patients. Because there may also be some contraindications.
Today, everyone knows that shoulder pain can be caused by the joint between the shoulder blade and arm, but also by internal organs, diseases of the lower extremities (for example, poor foot posture), pericarditis or a tumor at the tip of the lung.

Assessment is the most important task that a professional must perform, for two reasons: to understand whether the treatment is contraindicated and whether the treatment treats the cause of the disease, rather than its consequences.
Osteopathy does not directly cure the symptoms to which the patient refers. Rather, it looks for the causes and eliminates them, even if this treatment is carried out on other parts of the body. That is why it is also defined as “holistic”.

Osteopathy consists of three sub-areas that are interconnected:

  • Parietal osteopathy: the structural part refers to the musculoskeletal system, i.e. bones, joints, muscles, ligaments, tendons, joint capsule, nerves, etc.
  • Craniosacral osteopathy: acts in the cranial area on the head joints (jaw, cheekbones, etc.).
  • Visceral osteopathy: treats connective tissue, intestines and internal organs.

Osteopathy also affects the blood circulation of tissues, attenuating the transferred pain, which can be the cause of the patient’s symptoms.
This therapy is excellent for preventing and avoiding recurrence.
Osteopathy can also be used to treat children and infants. In these cases, the results are even better, because the body is even more malleable.

What are vertebral manipulations or thrust?

To perform these techniques correctly, it is necessary to bring the patient’s joint close to its limit of motion and perform rotation or passive traction at high speed, but with a small radius of action.
In the context of osteopathy, manipulations are to be carried out within the physiological joint area. A vertebra must never be luxated or subluxated. These are orthopedic techniques that must be performed by specialized orthopedists.
Thrust (small rapid movement) is used because it has important neurophysiological effects. This rapid stimulus stretches the joint capsule and removes the facet joints from each other. In this way, it activates the Pacini corpuscles.

The Pacini corpuscles are part of the nervous system and send the signal to the spinal cord to inhibit the motor neurons, which are the nerve bundles that cause muscle contraction.
The signal causes the muscle to relax and stop cramping.
Studies of “Maigne and Guillon” also show the effect on the internal pressure of the intervertebral disc on corpses.
At the first stage of manipulation, intervertebral disc pressure increases, and thereafter decreases.
With a herniated disc, the effect may be a slight displacement of the intervertebral disc, which stops pressing on the nerve

The effects of osteopathic vertebral manipulation are:

  • elimination of muscle spasms,
  • restore the axis position of the facet joints and thus the correct gliding of the vertebral bodies with each other,
  • restoration of normal blood flow,
  • Restoration of the former pain threshold.

What are the indications?

Osteopathy is indicated for joint pain, muscle pain, pain of ligaments, nerves, intervertebral discs, etc. Some functional imbalances can be solved by osteopathy; for example, diseases such as gastritis, hiatal hernia, constipation, urinary incontinence, asthma, menstrual pain and diseases of the genital organs.
The treatment of internal organs can also be carried out in patients who have lumbo-sacral symptoms or dorsal symptoms, because often the pain in these structures originates from the organs (stomach, liver, etc.).
Skull osteopathy is used in patients who have symptoms such as: headache, migraine, sinusitis, hearing disorders and, together with the dentist, treats disorders of the temporomandibular joint and malocclusion.

Read more:

Loading...