Osteopathy is a type of health care system of diagnosis and treatment that emphasizes relationships between body structures and their physiological function in the body, and the ways it can be affected through manipulative therapy. Its name derives from Ancient Greek “bone” (osteon) and “sensitive to” or “responding to” (pathos).
Osteopathy as practiced in Canada and other countries around the world differs greatly in scope and approach from osteopathic medicine in the United Sates, where a branch of the medical profession called osteopathic physicians is trained and certified to practice all modern medicine. Elsewhere osteopaths are trained in manual osteopathic treatment to relieve symptoms and ailments. In the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia and New Zealand osteopaths are registered and regulated by law as therapists but may not practice medicine (although Canada, like Germany, allows US-trained osteopathic physicians to practice). The two branches of osteopathic profession are distinct and function as separate professions.
Osteopathy is a form of drug-free non-invasive manual medicine that focuses on total body health by treating and strengthening the musculoskeletal framework, which includes the joints, muscles and spine. Its aim is to positively affect the body’s nervous, circulatory and lymphatic systems.
This therapy is a unique holistic (whole body) approach to health care. Osteopaths do not simply concentrate on treating the problem area, but use manual techniques to balance all the systems of the body, to provide overall good health and wellbeing.
Dr. Andrew Taylor Still established the practice of Osteopathy in the late 1800s in the United States of America, with the aim of using manual ‘hands on’ techniques to improve circulation and correct altered biomechanics, without the use of drugs