Osteopathy
What is Osteopathy?
Osteopathy is a practice of medicine based on the principles that the body has an innate capacity to heal itself, and that there is an inseparable relationship between mind, body, and spirit. The body is always trying to express health; it is always seeking wholeness.
“We are talking about a living body as a unit, a living self-regulatory mechanism, a living structure and function that is reciprocally interrelated, and a living therapy based on this understanding. These mechanisms are alive, they are healthy.” Rollin E. Becker, DO, Life in Motion
A.T. Still, MD, DO, Founder of Osteopathy
Andrew Taylor Still grew up on the frontier in Missouri. His father was a preacher and a physician. Still also became a physician, but his view of medical practice was irrevocably changed by several life events. Still served with the Union in the Civil War and witnessed wartime injuries that modern medicine could neither palliate nor cure. Personal tragedies, including the loss of his first wife and several of his children due to diseases of the day led Still to become intimately aware of the failures and toxicity of orthodox medical practices. Still was compelled to find a better way. He intensely studied nature, anatomy and physiology, realizing that the self-healing capacity of the body could be supported and optimized by working with the relationship between structure and function. He started applying these principles by using his hands to effectively treat people with all types of acute and chronic injuries and illnesses. Dr. Still rebuked the idea that he ‘created’ osteopathy because he said it was always there and it is based on Natural Laws. Still founded the first school of osteopathic medicine in Kirksville, Missouri in 1892.
Osteopathic Medical Education in the U.S.
Doctors of Osteopathy (DOs) are fully licensed physicians who graduate from a four-year osteopathic medical school. The medical education of an osteopathic physician is unique because the curriculum includes extensive training in anatomy, osteopathic principles, diagnosis and osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT), as well as comprehensive training in conventional medical sciences, clinical diagnosis and treatment. Thus, DOs have the educational foundation to provide to their patients a more integrative approach to health issues.
Following medical school graduation, most DOs attend postgraduate residency training lasting 3-5 years depending on the medical specialty they choose to pursue. Some also continue on to specialty fellowship programs. DOs and MDs train side by side in residency programs. DOs and MDs educated in the U.S. are the only physicians fully trained and licensed to practice the full scope of medicine, including prescribing medication and ordering diagnostic tests.