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Osteopathy v
Chiropractic
The most common
question I get asked is what is the difference between
osteopathy and chiropractic. There is no simple
answer
Variable
Practices vary from
country to county and person to person so I can only paint
with a very broad brush and talk in terms of
generalities.
Bear in mind that I
am talking from an Australian perspective here.
More
time
On the whole
osteopaths take more time. My consultation time is 40
minutes. This goes more or less for most Australian
osteopaths. Say 30 to 45 minutes. The average chiro
treatment lasts for 5 to 10 minutes. They rely more on
shorter treatments with higher frequency.
Classic chiropractic
focuses on the spine. The logic being that most of the
nerves that serve our bodies come from the spine, so all you
have to do is treat the spine and everything else will
be fine.
Osteopathy
Osteopaths have a
different perspective. We see the body as a single unit.
Everything effects everything else. The nervous system is
a two way street.
The information (and
hence instructions) that travels out from the brain and
spinal cord is complemented by the information that travels
into it from the organs and the muscles,
joints and nerves of the torso, head, neck,
arms and legs. So to not take these into account means
that you miss a great deal that may be very
relevant.
Classic
The classic example
of this is the effect that the calves have on the
pelvis and hence spine. The vast majority of people
that I treat with low back pain have a twisted pelvis. The
vast majority of these twisting pelvises are caused by
tight, unbalanced calves. When that is the case, it doesn’t
matter how much you adjust the spine, it will keep coming
back until the calves get sorted out.
There are many ways
to address muscle, joint and back problems. There are many
systems, many ways of looking at the same
problem.
Range of
Motion is King
When I treat
someone, I check them from head to foot. Range of
motion is my primary concern. Joint mobility should be the
same on both sides. If it's not, I always take the mre
flexible side to be the base line and work the other side to
try and get balanced mobility on both sides. It sounds
simple but it works gangbusters. Results are usually
excellent and often border on the
miraculous.
Nowhere near
enough
Just 'cracking' the
spinal joints is not enough. Not by a long shot. No
way.
The 4 basic
principles that I always address are flexibility of the joints, alignment of the bones, and suppleness and strength of the muscles. Anything less
would be inadequate.
Revolving Door
Syndrome
Yet a lot of
chiropractors just crack a few spinal joints and say come
back in 3 days, then 3 more, on and on and on. The
reason you have to keep going back is because the treatment
is grossly inadequate for most problems. Not all, but most.
Hence what I call The Revolving Door Syndrome, you get
some relief, but it doesn't last long and you have to keep
going back. Sound familiar?
Classic
Chiropractic
A classic example of
this is chronic or recurring low back pain. The fundamental
osteopathic question is not 'Where does it hurt'?, it is
'Why does it hurt there'? Someone comes in with low back
pain, chronic or recurring, doesn't matter. The average
chiropractor cracks their back, it feels better and they
tell them this will take a quite a few treatments to fix.
Maybe 10, maybe 20, maybe more. The patient feels better for
a day or 3, then the pain comes
back. And so it goes,
treatment after treatment, but the pain keeps coming back.
It helps, but it doesn't fix the problem. In and
out in 5 or 10 minutes, again and again and
again.
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