Osteopathy
Our Leeds Clinic offers Osteopathy. Osteopathic treatment is one of the most widely used of the complementary therapies and is recognised as a distinct primary care specialty.
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The Osteopathic Approach to Health |
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Osteopathic medicine is a science, an art, and a philosophy supported by an ever expanding base of scientific knowledge. It aims to help restore harmony to the living body by encouraging its inherent self-defence mechanisms.
Osteopathic concepts emphasise the following principles:-
The human body, through a complex equilibrium system, tends to be self-regulatory and self-healing in the face of disease processes.
The human body is an entity in which structure and function are interdependent.
An imbalance in one part of the body will affect the function of the rest so that a holistic and structural-functional approach to treatment by manual therapy is favoured.
At some time in their lives, most people will suffer from injuries to, or conditions arising from their musculo-skeletal system. When this happens, it is more and more commonly the osteopath who is treating them. Why is this? The reason is that Osteopathy is effective.
A 1986 survey published by 'Which' magazine showed that nearly 90% of patients claimed to have received considerable benefit from osteopathic treatment. Because of this, an increasing number of medical doctors are acknowledging the effectiveness of an osteopathic approach to treatment in many cases.
Osteopathy is not a new speciality. It is about as old as modern medicine and like medicine its techniques are constantly evolving.
Formerly the term 'osteopathic treatment' suggested to most people the use of a manipulative procedure consisting of a high speed thrust designed to normalise muscle and joint function. Today the osteopath has a wide range of techniques to choose from, and while some conditions may require a direct manipulation, osteopathy nowadays tends towards gentler, more subtle methods. Cranial osteopathy uses very gentle methods to correct disturbances to tissue mobility in the skull and throughout the body. It can help with a wide variety of problems.
Wide Benefits of OsteopathyWhatever the condition treated, an osteopath can offer advice and will encourage preventative care so helping their patients to reach their optimum level of health.
These procedures allow the modern osteopath to treat a great variety of conditions successfully. These include the adaptive postural strain found in children, stresses resulting from pregnancy or occupation and injuries received during sporting and other activities. Tension headaches often arise due to stiffness in the neck of shoulders and osteopathic treatment can be very effective for this. Pains caused by degenerative changes also often respond to the more gentle techniques of osteopathy. Pathological conditions cannot be treated by osteopathy but there is a wide variety of other less obvious problems that respond well to treatment amongst which are asthma, bronchitis and migraine. In some of these instances the symptoms are caused directly by faults in the musculo-skeletal structure, and in some cases by interference with the normal supply of blood or nerve impulses from the relevant spinal segments.
To most people osteopathy is understood to be a method of manipulation of the spine to relieve back pain. Whilst it can offer effective relief to people suffering in this way, osteopathy is a modern scientifically based system of diagnosis and treatment of faults which occur in the muscles and joints of the body. These faults as well as causing local pain and discomfort can also have wide ranging effects on the well being of the individual. Other parts of the body can be affected by altered posture or gait or by direct injury to the spinal region causing alteration to the normal blood and nerve supply.
Our Osteopath can offer specific help for the following conditions :-
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Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) |
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In cases of chronic back pain, or pain in the knees and hip joints the problem may stem from biomechanical dysfunction that starts from the feet. Proper diagnosis of this as the cause using the Gait Scan technique means that the use of prescription orthotics can in many cases help reduce the pain arising from such problems and even elliminate it completely. These devices are used to help the foot to regain its proper mode of functioning and can relieve pain not only in the feet but also in the knees, hips, low back, upper back, neck and even headaches.
Selecting an Osteopath
Who is an Osteopath?
Statutory regulation of the Osteopathic Profession under the General Osteopathic Council (GOsC) is mandatory following the passing of the Osteopaths Bill in 1993. Since this was fully implemented in May 2000, it is now illegal for anyone who is without recognised training and qualification and registered with The General Osteopathic Council to call themselves an Osteopath or to offer osteopathic treatment.
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Since May 2000 an Osteopath is someone who holds a recognised qualification and who is a member of the statutory register of osteopaths maintained by the General Osteopathic Council
Osteopathy at The Woodhouse Clinic
More Information on Our osteopath, Dr Alan Apling BSc PhD DO, who is registered with the General Osteopathic Council.
Further information on Osteopathy is available from the Osteopathic Information Service
