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- What is Osteopathy?
- What is a D.O.?
- What is Osteopathic Manipulation?
- What is Cranial Osteopathy?
- What can be treated?
- What if more is needed?
- What is Functional Medicine?
- What does holistic mean?
- What does functional mean?
- What kinds of treatment are available?
- What is ACAM?
Osteopathy is a unique branch of American medicine founded over 130 years ago by a frontier physician named Dr. Andrew Taylor Still. Dissatisfied with the medical treatments of his day, he studied the qualities of a healthy lifestyle to better understand how disease can develop.
Underlying his treatment philosophy was the idea that the body contained mechanisms to heal itself and that the body is always working to find a point of internal balance and optimal function. His in-depth studies of anatomy led him to develop hands-on treatments for the entire body. He founded the first school of osteopathic medicine in Missouri in 1874.
A doctor of osteopathy (D.O.) is a fully licensed medical physician. A D.O. can do anything in medicine that an M.D. can, including write prescriptions, order and interpret medical tests and procedures, perform surgery, and deliver babies. D.O.s and M.D.s often train side-by-side in the same hospitals and clinics, and a D.O. can practice in any medical specialty just like M.D.s.
D.O. training includes four years of medical school, taking the same courses that M.D.s do. However, osteopathic training also includes hundreds of extra hours in the hands-on treatments that Dr. Still pioneered. This is added to the standard curriculum hours, not in place of any basic science training.
What is Osteopathic Manipulation?
Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment (OMT) or Osteopathic Manual Medicine (OMM) refers to the distinctive hands-on treatments that D.O.s can offer their patients for a wide variety of medical problems. Most people think of joint cracking when they think of manipulation therapy. While D.O.s are taught how to do this type of manipulation, not all of them use it. Many other types of gentle, non-traumatic treatments are taught which mobilize the fluids and soft tissues of the body including the muscles, ligaments, tendons, and connective tissue.
Very few D.O.s choose to use OMT/OMM in their practice as a primary means of treatment.
Traditional osteopaths utilize hands-on treatment as the foundation of their medical practice, although not in place of conventional medical treatment when needed. With a solid scientific understanding of the structure and function relationship, any medical condition can potentially be addressed and possibly helped by osteopathy.
Cranial Osteopathy is an advanced level of treatment requiring many additional years of training to develop highly sensitive hands-on diagnostic and treatment skills combined with a very solid understanding of anatomy, physiology, biology, and embryology. It was pioneered and developed by William Sutherland, D.O. in the early 1900s. He expanded the knowledge of osteopathic treatment of the body to the bones of the cranium, discovering subtle, rhythmic movements in cranial bones and fluid movements that express throughout the entire body. Cranial osteopathy is not the same as “craniosacral” treatment.
Every person is unique and requires highly individualized treatment. Traditional osteopathy is not cookbook medicine! Examples of treatable conditions include, but are not limited to:
- Birth trauma, colic, spitting up, ear infections, learning disorders, delayed development
- Asthma, sinusitis, bronchitis, headaches, digestive disorders, neurological disorders
- Acute pain from injury or illness, traumatic pain from accidents, chronic pain. This includes neck pain, TMJ and jaw pain, back pain, joint pain, sciatica, head trauma, sprains, strains, and fractures.
No single treatment modality can fix everything. Often one is so debilitated by illness, stress, or chronic pain that the body response is limited or the treatment does not last. That is what led Dr. Klausner to offer functional medicine to his patients.
Functional medicine is a holistic approach to assessing, preventing, and treating complex illness and disease using conventional and complementary methods of diagnosis and treatment.
Holistic is a term that is used when all the functions of the body, emotions, mind, and spirit interact to produce health and vitality or illness and disease. One’s environment and lifestyle are factors as well.
The term "functional" is used when evaluating basic anatomy and physiology like blood chemistry, nutrients, organ function, and environmental conditions that produce symptoms which often are the first signs of disease.
What kinds of treatment are available?
The following are examples and there are others which Dr. Klausner can discuss with you.
- Chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia - conventional and holistic approaches
- Bio-identical hormones for women (menopause) and men (andropause)
- Diet, nutrition, and lifestyle changes
- IV therapy for nutrition or chelation of heavy metal toxins
- Allergy and digestive testing
- Mold, neurotoxin, and Lyme disease diagnosis and treatment
- Hands-on osteopathic treatment for structural issues
ACAM is the acronym for the American College for Advancement in Medicine - a membership and teaching organization for doctors practicing functional medicine.
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