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The modern term 'Osteopathy' dates from 1874 when Andrew Taylor Still used this word to describe his style of viewing and treating the body.

Osteopaths use their hands to feel changes in the muscles, joints and other tissues of the body and so detect problems.  Treatment is also performed using the hands and comes in many forms, though the common thread is the aim of helping the body to work effectively and efficiently.

  Manipulation of all kinds had already been practised for thousands of years, even Hippocrates who lived 460-360 BC described how manipulation was related to treating disease.  What made Still's work special was his attempt to demonstrate how each part of the body relies on each other part to remain healthy, and his belief that humans were made perfectly and so disease arises only when something interferes with the natural healing processes of the body.  The factor that causes the interference may be related to the person's job, home life, diet, exercise level, mental pressure, posture, etc.  In reality the underlying cause is usually a combination of many factors.

Because the body parts are so reliant on each other, Still saw that a problem with one area of the body which may not be apparent to the sufferer might show itself by producing clear effects in another area.  An obvious case with respect to back trouble is sciatica where it is possible for a painless disc prolapse within the spinal column to produce a lot of pain in the calf and foot, even though there is nothing wrong with the foot at all. 

What is sometimes not so obvious are the many other connections that occur between the supporting framework of the body (i.e. the muscles, joints and bones) and the internal organs.  For example, the physical support for the stomach attaches under the diaphragm and the nerves that supply the stomach come from the base of the skull and the middle of the spine (Thoracic Segments 5-12), and so it isn't surprising to find subsequently that problems in the muscles and joints at these places can give rise to problems related to digestion in the stomach and vice versa.  This means that although the majority of an osteopath's work is in treating back pain there are many other conditions that may be helped.

Still also tried to get away from the idea that we are bound to become ill just because we meet someone with a transmittable illness.   Often, if we have a cold when meeting somebody we will say 'don't come too close I don't want to give this cold to you'.  Still understood that if our immune system was working at peak efficiency any of the cold virus that entered our body would be quickly dealt with, and so the importance of keeping the body working efficiently was recognised.  We often suffer from the illness because our body has been unable to stop the virus from multiplying rather than because someone gave it to us in the first place.

  Since the time of Still this idea has been developed and we now have the concept of an infective dose; that is a certain level of infective agent that will produce disease in the body.  This level is very different for different agents, but the dose necessary to cause disease would need to be increased in an efficiently functioning body and decreased in someone who is already frail.

This idea also holds true for injuries to the body and the subsequent speed of recovery after damage occurs.

Another important view is not to see our symptoms as being directly caused by the disease.  If we have a cold then the runny nose and sore throat are not directly caused by the virus, they are caused by the way that our own body tries to fight the virus.  The runny nose attempts to wash out the nasal cavity and the sore throat is due to the glands within the immune system swelling in size so that the blood can flow through them more quickly resulting in the virus being fought off.   This means that it is not always right for us to try to remove the symptoms of the disease, but it is right to make the body act as efficiently as possible. 

For example, if we have food poisoning it would be wrong to prevent the body's normal response of being sick as this would result in the toxic effects of the poison having a far greater impact on the body.  The only time we need to address symptoms is when they in themselves are becoming dangerous, for example in our  case of sickness, if the person is becoming dehydrated, or loosing blood, etc.  This becomes more of a problem if the person is already frail or very young, or the symptoms are major or persistent.

For the majority of people, symptoms of an illness should be seen for what they are: the body's natural response to a harmful substance in an attempt to remove that substance.  The difficulty with this view is deciding if the symptoms are major or lasting too long and this is where a consultation with the GP or osteopath is most important.  No symptom should be ignored, it is important to understand why the body is reacting in a certain way, but once this is known it is more important to help the body fight the original cause than to try solely to remove the symptom.

Symptoms of illness or injury need to be understood rather than feared and so if you have any concerns at all about a particular problem then contact your General Practitioner or Registered Osteopath at the earliest opportunity.