The body is programmed to heal and repair itself 24/7. Sometimes the body gets stuck and cannot go any further (like an itch you can’t scratch) and needs a helping hand. Enter the osteopath. In effect, osteopathic treatment helps the body heal itself. I often tell my patients, that I don’t actually heal you, it’s your body that does all the work, I just provide the opportunity.

Compensations Are Solutions

Here’s how it works. When something gets stuck or out of place the body creates a compensation as the best possible solution under the circumstances. In the simplest terms, the work of an osteopath is to find what is blocked and not moving properly in the body, be it a muscle, ligament, bone or organ and provide a means for the body to re-establish a better and more physiological movement.

The Fulcrum

The method that I like to use most often is to create a fulcrum for whatever is blocked in the body. How does this work? The body is continuously occupied with problems that it is trying to resolve and this takes energy. Lets take the example of a displaced sacrum. When my hand provides a support or fulcrum for this blocked sacrum, the body no longer needs to support it. In essence, my support replaces the bodies need to exert itself. Therefore, it now has more energy to devote to correcting the problem. And this is what happens, the body re-organizes the tissues around the temporary fulcrum that I created allowing the healing to take place.

Yes, the body heals itself with a little help from the osteopath!

What ever the body needs to get done, it prioritizes the tasks at hand. We know that survival is programmed into the body so if for example, when hypothermia sets in, (the body temperature drops too low) blood is first withdrawn from the arms and legs in an effort to keep the core temperature of the body stable. This is an intelligent survival strategy.

Other strategies exist when the body is dealing with injuries. Critical injuries that need immediate attention are given priority over others that are less important. And so it goes, the body has limited resources apportioning energy to all tasks at hand according to a hierarchy of needs.

Freeing up Energy in the Body
Creating a support or fulcrum, for an injured vertebrae in the lower back will do some of the work that the body exerts. And this frees the body of the necessity of doing that work. The effect is to allow the body to invest its energy into something else, which is usually to better heal itself.

Find it, Fix it, leave it along

Finding an injury, even if it’s unrelated to the problem at hand and fixing it, is always worth while. Why? Because this frees up energy, even if this problem is somewhere at the bottom of the bodies priorities list.

Naturally we’re always looking to solve the main issue, but if along the way we find something which is not directly related to the issue at hand it still pays to fix it./p>

Osteopathy works in unique ways that distinguishes it from other types of therapy
The work of an osteopath is very gentle. So gentle, that I often get asked – what exactly are you doing? People feel that the work is so subtle that their curiosity is aroused and they wonder – How does osteopathy work? They feel better, but don’t know how they got there.

Here’s an Illustration
The body has an innate intelligence, it strives to nourish itself, repair itself and whenever there is an injury, it strives to protect itself.

Not only on a conscious level do we protect our selves by being extra cautious – but even at an unconscious level, the body possesses a reflex to protect itself.

Gentleness Wins Out
There’s an ancient bit of wisdom that says: Water is the most powerful of all things, because without effort it penetrates everything.

Working Under The Radar
During the many years of clinical practice I have witnessed this protective mechanism of the body. If for example I was to use force in trying to get beyond a muscle to an underlying injury, the body would immediately tense up and resist – making the work difficult and even impossible.

On the other hand, working very gently and with respect I am allowed to pass beneath the radar of the body. The tissues let you in. You can accomplish so much more with gentleness.

To the outsider and even the patient, it appears that we are hard at work and concentrating, but our hands are hardly moving! “What are you doing?” I am often asked. Well now you have a better idea.

Well That Depends
Interesting question. Patients ask me if they should go for a massage.” Well, that depends.” I tell them, and here’s why.

An Illustration
Imagine that you injured your elbow. All the muscles around this joint will go into spasm as a way of immobilizing the joint. The body has its own intelligence and knows that this joint needs to be protected.

The Bodies Reaction to Injury Creates its Own Problem
After some time the contracted muscles become sore. This is because a tense muscle tends to produce lactic acid, which increases muscle pain.

So now, in addition to the joint pain, you also have some local muscle pain. Massaging the area, (provided there is no inflammation) can release the muscle spasm, improve circulation and relieve the pain of the spasm. Then, people feel better – for now.

But the body is smarter than that – it knows that there is an underlying injury to the elbow joint and before you know it, the muscle spasm returns. And here begins the endless cycle.

The solution in this case is to treat the underlying injury and the whole problem goes away.

So my advise is – if the problem is muscular in origin then massage can help, if it’s a joint problem or some deeper injury then osteopathy is recommended. Although this is a simplification of the issue and other factors come into play, the general principle applies.