Everything’s Connected: Osteopathy’s Holistic Approach to Pain and Wellness
Because Osteopathy is a holistic approach to realigning the body, it can help with many conditions. Osteopathy emphasizes manipulation of the muscoskelatal system, cranial bones and visceral treatment to positively affect the body’s nervous, circulatory and lymphatic systems. People commonly seek out osteopathy for pain, especially lower back, upper back and neck pain. Because of the positive effects throughout the body’s systems, osteopathy often helps conditions such as sleep problems, headaches, digestive problems and even infertility.
Some other specific concerns that I address with Osteopathy:
Newborn babies sometimes develop positional plagiocephaly (“flat head syndrome”) in which a flat spot develops on the head because the baby sleeps in one position. Because of the baby’s soft skull, this will affect bones long-term if not corrected. Babies with this condition continue returning to the same position when the parents try repositioning (the root cause being neck issues often developed during delivery). This can usually be fixed in 1-2 gentle sessions of osteopathy.
Some babies experience reflux during feeding. Typically, a doctor will prescribe a powder to be added to the milk. However, this is not very convenient for the parents and simply reduces symptoms. An osteopath can assess and treat the underlying issue.
Snoring in children is an indication of tongue misplacement. Getting this assessed and treated early can prevent cognitive and physiological problems as the child grows and develops.
Osteopathic manipulation shouldn’t be done while there is active infection or inflammation. Some examples of such exclusions include a broken bone or dislocation, a bone or joint infection or active rheumatoid arthritis. In cases where such issues are identified or other treatment is needed, an osteopath will refer you to other practitioners.
About Osteopathy
Osteopathy’s goal is to find the root cause of your pain or other health issues. The key principles are based on all parts of the body functioning together. If one part of the body is restricted, then the body adapts and compensates, eventually leading to inflammation, pain and various health conditions. Osteopathic treatment reduces these restrictions therefore reducing pain, stress and providing greater mobility so the body has the opportunity to heal itself.
Too often medical solutions are focused on treating symptoms instead of root causes. Imagine if you are sitting at home watching TV when you’re disturbed by the sound of your smoke detector. Symptom-based treatment is like turning off the smoke detector to stop the noise, while leaving the fire burning in the other room.
Osteopathy believes the body has everything in it to heal itself. As an osteopath, I do a thorough assessment to find the root issues. This includes talking with the patient to establish the current situation and history. I also observe the patient, which gives me a lot of information. Then, I will test key areas of the body I have identified based on the information I have gathered.
Case examples: A patient was having pain in her arm with no apparent cause. During the assessment, I found out she had a history of asthma. It turned out the root cause was in her chest and the treatment to that area resolved her pain quickly.
Another patient had neck pain and limited movement along with headaches and some vomiting. After observation and assessment, I did a manipulation of her diaphragm. After many previous unsuccessful solutions, she was amazed at how easily and quickly her pain went away.
Because of osteopathy’s belief in the body’s ability to heal and adjust, I usually do one treatment focused on the primary underlying concern and then allow the body two to three weeks to adjust. During follow-up sessions, I can observe how the body has adjusted and do follow-up treatment.
Denis Boisseau provides a wide range of osteopathy treatments including joint manipulations, muscular, soft tissue, visceral and cranial treatments. He received extensive training in France and mentoring from recognized osteopaths before relocating to Shanghai, where he provides consultations in Body & Soul’s Four Seasons Clinic – Jing’an and our Century Park Clinic – Pudong.