Osteopathic Medicine is a finely honed tradition of Medical Science and Medical Philosophy started as a school in the late 1800’s as the brainchild of the brilliant Physician and Educator, Andrew Taylor Still, M.D. One of Dr. Still’s students Palmer started the discipline of Chiropractic Medicine. At this time in American history industrialists, trying to corner the pharmaceutical industry, eliminated the many Homeopathic and Naturopathic Medical Schools that actually vastly outnumbered the M.D. schools at that time. The Osteopathic Model and its Medical Schools survived this assault due to political influence as major politicians had Osteopaths as their personal physicians.
The conflict between the M.D. approach and the D.O. approach was bitter but Osteopaths came to incorporate M.D. treatments and philosophies because they are effective but M.D. Schools continue to ignorantly reject the miraculous treatments and philosophies
of the Osteopathic, Chiropractic, Naturopathic and Homeopathic Models. Dozens of Osteopathic Medical Schools exist in the United States where these effective principles and philosophies continue to be taught whether the individual graduates of these schools
use them in their daily practice or not.
Osteopathic Medicine is a distinctly “holistic” model that views patients from the top down like Chinese Medicine, Naturopathic Medicine and Homeopathic Medicine. Efforts are made to design and implement treatments taking into account all aspects of the being from the spiritual to the mental to the physical. M.D. medicine in its worst manifestation
limits understanding of patients to the purely physical mechanisms of cellular biology and organ function. Each system has its inherent strengths and weaknesses. M.D. medicine is most effective in dealing with severe acute illness and the complications of severe chronic disease being weakest at preventive care and restoration of the basic and intrinsic healing powers of the human organism.
Osteopathic Medicine in its pure form incorporates M.D. philosophies and treatments with Osteopathic principles resulting in a markedly superior practice of medicine and outcomes whether the public or the medical profession understand this or not. Osteopathic Physicians receive all the training and knowledge that their M.D. counterparts receive often graduating from the same residency programs. Most people think Osteopathic Doctors are Chiropractors or glorified Chiropractors but the training is identical to that of an M.D. with the addition of these remarkable philosophies and techniques.
Some Osteopathic Physicians continue to use the skills they mastered in Medical School. Others specialize in musculoskeletal disorders refining and perfecting more advanced skills. A very highly trained and tested practitioner of these techniques can be found through the American Academy of Osteopathy (www.academyofosteopathy.org) or through the “A.M.A.” or Osteopathy the American Osteopathic Association (www.osteopathic.org). Expert craniosacral Osteopaths can be located by contacting the Cranial Academy.
Osteopathic Medicine is the source of some of the greatest and most effective forms of physical manipulation and the root of Chiropractic Medicine. We gained so much understanding and so many marvelous treatments from the compassion and steadfast
loyalty of generations of Osteopathic Physicians. I am proud to count myself as a practicing Osteopathic Physician holding this beautiful system forever in my heart for the benefit of my patients!