What Does an Osteopath Do?
The fast answer?
Heal pain and disfunction within your body.
But to understand that, you need to understand the mentality that Osteopathy approaches health with.
See, we know that pain is always just a result of either
- bio-mechanical disfunction or,
- bio-chemical disfunction which stems from a bio-mechanical function.
Doctors and physiotherapists always prescribe a medication, or an exercise – trying to eliminate the pain, and it’s not necessarily wrong – but neither are fully addressing the root of the issue.
What an osteopath does is remove the pain, first by addressing the bio-chemical disfunction, but then, (and far more importantly) repairing the bio-mechanical disfunction so the pain doesn’t come back.
It makes sense though.
We do the same thing with our vehicles.
A car has four wheels and drives along the road surface. If you hit a curb, or drive on a lot of bumpy roads (like Edmonton’s pot-hole-ridden streets), those wheels will gradually fall out of alignment with each other.
Once they are out of line, you’ll have symptoms like strange tire wear, or even stress on other parts of the car (like the wheel bearings or ball joints)
So, you go to get your wheels aligned. This removes the stress on the car, puts the tires straight on the road again but in the process, the mechanic may tell you the ‘bad news’.
“I can do the alignment, but the problem is, you have a damaged tie-rod. In order to make sure you don’t have this problem again soon, we’re going to need to replace it.”
Well, obviously, you fix the mechanical problem while you’re there, addressing the symptom. If you don’t, the symptom will only reappear after a day or two.
This is how Osteopathy works. If you have a symptom (aching back, sore ankle, tight hamstrings), it’s a result of something bio-mechanical.
While a doctor or a physiotherapist will help eliminate or at least manage the pain (the symptom), but if the bio-mechanical issue remains, it’s like sending out a car with a broken part after a wheel alignment!
So, Osteopathy discovers what bio-mechanical issue needs to be addressed so that
- the symptom can disappear, and
- healing can occur faster
So, if you or someone you know is experiencing symptoms of a body, organ, or skeletal misalignment, contact Kyle today!
If you’re on your phone, Click this link