Chemical Informatics

Osteopathy - An American Form of Healthcare Practiced Globally - Key Events of its Development

Osteopathic Healthcare – began as an American form of patient care and is licensed in all states with 56 osteopathic medical universities in the United States and several hundred osteopathic schools globally. Doctors of osteopathic medicine, referred to as DO’s are common across the world today thanks to a relatively new medical theory developed in Missouri in 1874. Dr. Andrew Taylor Still of Kirksville, Missouri came up with the principles of osteopathic medicine, which trained both women and men in a health-focused philosophy that every biological system within the body is connected and depends upon one another to function correctly. Dr. Still's ideas focused on diet/nutrition, exercise, mental health, and manipulation (an adjustment of the body's structure from abnormal back to normal). He believed that if you wanted to cure disease, you needed to treat the whole body, not just the area that is ill. Osteopathic care covers the full “body-mind-spirit” triune. Additionally, osteopathic healthcare embraces natural forms of healing and approaches pharmacology that works in harmony with the total patient. Recent indiscriminate treatment by medical doctors for pain symptoms of the head, neck, back and feet with opioids have created a crisis of patient addiction and death. Osteopathy can often relieve these symptoms of pain by addressing the patient’s underlying structural and nutritional issues. The first group of 21-DOs that matriculated from what is now known today as A.T. Still University-Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine has turned into more than 114,425 practicing physicians. The profession has grown significantly from one man’s vison to become a major player in healthcare with 25% of all USA general practice doctors being osteopathic physicians –with on-going, significant growth worldwide. Experience the story of Dr. A.T. Still and osteopathy.

Author(s):

Jason Haxton

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