Fighting the Battle vs. Winning the War: Osteopath vs. GP
by Andrew Mitchell

We have all experienced it: we go to the doctor with back complaints, she diagnoses the problem, gives us some medical advice on what activities to avoid, along with a prescription for painkillers. We take the painkillers, follow the advice, and after some time the problem disappears. Or so we think. Two months later, our back gives way again as we attempt to lift some heavy luggage, and are forced to launch ourselves in the vicious doctor-drugs-advice cycle all over again.

Treating psychical injuries is always an uphill struggle, unless you can find a way to eliminate the problem completely. This is where the role of an osteopath becomes central, since osteopaths don't just treat the symptoms of a problem (as your local GP would), but will look at the entire body take the extra step of finding not only the cause of the ailment, but the cure as well. There are a range of other factors that differentiate an osteopathic doctor from a medical doctor:

1. Osteopathic doctors are more specialized in the anatomic workings of the body. They receive special training in the musculoskeletal system, while medical doctors merely have a general background knowledge. Osteopaths therefore have a therapeutic as well as diagnostic advantage; they know how one system in the body affects the other in greater detail.

2. Osteopaths can use Osteopathic Manipulative Training (OMT) - a special diagnosis technique with the hands. This form of diagnosis gives the body opportunity to heal itself naturally by allowing the blood to flow free to the areas that need it most.

3. Osteopaths also use their hands to manipulate the muscles in your body to cure the problem (not only to diagnose). Where Medical doctors will use recommend rest and prescribe anti-inflammatory medication, Osteopaths employ a much more natural approach. By loosening up muscle tensions and stimulating blood flow, they encourage the body to engage in its own healing processes, leading to the elimination of the problem entirely.

4. Osteopaths looks at history of the problem, while doctors deal with the symptoms at hand. If a patient has a problem with his knee, for instance, a medical doctor would take a patient's history through means of laboratory-type procedure, such as blood tests and other physical examinations. An osteopath would acquire this same history by asking the patient whether the knee joints were stiff in the past, whether the pain becomes worse when the leg is placed in a different position, or if increase activity had worsened the problem in the past. By delving into a patient's history, osteopathic doctors attempt to discover the root of the problem, and proceed to tackle it at the source.

The benefits of osteopathy are therefore numerous, but do they override the advantages of visiting your local GP? That is for you to decide. Depending on the nature of your ailment, you might even want to see both. The primary question you have to ask yourself whether your physical problem is a reoccurring one, and whether you want to treat the symptoms, or cure the disease.