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How does osteopathy work?

Osteopaths believe that if the body works together as a whole, good health and functionality may be achieved. Accordingly, they use their hands-on techniques to improve circulation and correct errors in our skeletal systems.

This means that these practitioners can examine how your skeleton, joints, muscles, nerves, and circulation are affecting your health and wellbeing. This helps them diagnose your condition and the state of your wellbeing better. Osteos then use their hands to treat you and ultimately prevent illness and injury. Osteos provides natural pain relief and has proven to help many problems, including tennis elbow, migraines, menstrual pain, digestive issues, and muscular and joint pain.

Drug-free, stress-free treatment

Osteopathy is typically a drug-free practice, which means you may be able to use it as a standalone treatment. However on occasion, depending on the severity of your injury or illness, your osteopath might recommend medication or a different form of treatment. It is typically a stress-free treatment and should not cause you any distress.

If you have pre-existing injuries that require hands-on treatment, the pressure applied to the sore areas might result in immediate discomfort as your practitioner tends to the area. However, your Osteo will have several techniques that they can use to possibly avoid any discomfort or unwanted sensations. If you have any concerns, pre-existing ailments, or questions, it is important that you communicate this with your osteopath.

Now that we have an idea of what osteopathic treatment entails and its benefits, let’s delve deeper into other important aspects such as the recovery time, different techniques and the scope of osteopathy.

How long will it take for my local osteopath to make a difference?

Each patient’s level of injury or pain varies and hence, it is difficult to consider a generic time frame within which one may start reaping the benefits of osteopathic treatment. However, to put things in perspective for prospective patients, one can consider an average of 7-8 weeks before they start seeing concrete results.

Painkillers provide short-term relief and are meant to be used in a particular way. If you find yourself resorting to tablets frequently, it may be time to see you osteopath. Pharmaceutical treatments may have side effects and are only effective in the short term, but if you’re looking for more permanent relief, you need to treat the cause of the pain.

Here are a few things you can do to ensure a speedy recovery after your osteopathy session:

1. Adequate rest: After every session, ensure that you get adequate rest and don’t stretch your body to the limits. It’s better to exercise in moderation in between sessions.
2. Be patient: If you are an athlete who wants to make the playing team for the next match and are in between treatment sessions, it’s best to be patient and wait for your body to full heal, even if you start seeing positive signs before all your sessions are done with.
3. Home remedies: Apply ice on the affected areas as this is one technique that mostly comes in handy and helps in keeping the pain at bay.
4. Follow a strict diet: In almost all cases, your osteopath will inform you about what you need to avoid and what you must include in your meals. Your success is directly linked to how disciplined you are. Do follow this advice if you want to heal fast and effectively.

Is osteopathy only for athletes or very fit/active individuals?

Osteopathy sounds like it is meant for osteoporosis or a serious medical conditions, but this is not the case. Osteopathy helps regular people with regular lives and desk jobs just as much as it helps the pro athlete. It can even help with common issues like lack of sleep, digestive problems and headaches.

Here are a couple of key aspects about osteopathy that make it a widely accepted form of therapy:

1. Holistic healing: Osteopathy helps in improving circulatory, lymphatic, nervous systems and thus improves the overall health of an individual.
2. Manual approach: The diagnosis and treatment are both done manually, with the help of the osteopath’s hand movements. In today’s day and age, this all-natural technique is considered rare and is welcomed by many.

Different techniques used in osteopathy

As a discipline or treatment form, osteopathy has many different techniques that can be used depending on the patient’s condition. Let’s look at some of the most important techniques that osteopaths employ to get you back in shape:

1. Dry needling: As the name suggests, this technique makes the use of an acupuncture needle which is placed on a trigger point or into a tight muscle band to generate an instant release response in that area. Dry needling is often used when other treatment options fall short and is ideally meant for patients who are grappling with hip pain, groin pain, tennis elbow, Achilles tendonitis, sciatica or even headaches.
2. Cranial-Sacral osteopathy: This is a comparatively gentle technique that aims to strengthen and align the flow of cerebrospinal fluid which is instrumental in maintaining your brain’s health.
3. Counterstrain: In this technique, a tight muscle is restored to its normal resting length and condition in a gentle manner.
4. High Velocity, Low Amplitude: A technique used specifically to improve joint movement, it is only used if the patient feels comfortable given that there are certain risks involved. However, only experienced and well-qualified osteopaths will use this technique on you and hence, you need not worry about the procedure.
5. Articulation technique: This involves passive mobilization of the joint in question or the spine to improve overall joint movement.
6. Muscle energy technique: This is a manual therapy in which the osteopath uses the muscle contractions to relax and normalize tight muscles which in turn lead to a better range of motion for the joints.
7. Soft tissue technique: This is a commonly used massage technique that relaxes tight muscles or fascial structures through light, medium or high pressure.