Osteopathy: treatment by healing hands

• 2012

1. alternative medicine
2. The concept of osteopathy
3. Branches of osteopathy
4. Doubts about the treatment by healing hands

alternative medicine

Osteopathy aims to stimulate the body's self-healing powers. When treating by healing hands to be released blockages, which can be in the form of tense muscles, limited joints and disturbed internal organs. What lies behind the theory and whether this treatment is really effective, you will learn here.

The concept of osteopathy

Osteopathy as a holistic alternative medicine assumes that the body is always in motion - inside and out. If this mobility is restricted or blocked somewhere in the body, pain or illness develops. The osteopath senses the cause of movement restrictions and tensions specifically on bones, tissues, organs and skull bones. If he has found the root of the complaints, he tries to fix them with manual techniques. The treatment focuses on the self-healing powers of the body, which the therapist activates with his healing hands, for example by loosening the tissue. Osteopathy is used inter alia for the treatment of back pain and herniated discs .

Branches of osteopathy

Osteopathy is divided into three treatment areas, which are used depending on the nature and location of the complaints.

Parietal osteopathy treats disorders in the musculoskeletal system. Muscle tension and dysfunction of the joints are treated here, among other things.

In visceral osteopathy, however, disorders of the body's own mobility, the mobility of the organs to each other and the enveloping and supporting muscle and connective tissue are treated.

Controversial is craniosacral osteopathy . She wants to relieve discomfort through a rhythmic movement of body fluids, especially cerebral water. By massaging the head and skull seams, the pulsation of the cerebral water should be transferred to the so-called craniosacral system, ie to the meninges, the individual skull bones, the spine and the sacrum and thus have an influence on the whole organism. Craniosacral osteopathy assumes that rhythms are inherent in the body, which control the vitality of humans, and which must be harmonized in the event of disturbances.

Doubts about the treatment by healing hands

Although many patients are enthusiastic about the success of treatment, there is still no reliable scientific evidence for the efficacy of osteopathy . Therefore, experts recommend a conventional medical examination before treatment by an osteopath. Thus, it can be avoided that malignant or progressive diseases are overlooked as a cause, for example, for back pain.