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Osteopathic medicine is a distinctive form of hands-on medical care founded on the recognition that all body systems are interrelated and dependent upon one another for good health.
At Hawaii Osteopathy, we seek to utilize the principles of Osteopathy to provide the least invasive way to provide the body with the tools it needs to restore its own health. While many of our clients benefit greatly from hands-on treatment, we also offer a wide range of evidence-based conventional, functional, and restorative treatments to support optimal health.
What is Osteopathy?
Osteopathy is a system of medicine created in 1874 that recognizes the interrelationships of the body, mind, and spirit and restores the self-healing capacities of each patient through manipulative techniques. This requires recognizing which parts of the body are out of place and obstructing vital functions (such as compressing an important blood vessel or restricting the motion of a critical joint) and then applying the appropriate hands-on technique to restore the healthy function of that structure.
Since various tissues can lock up the body, a variety of different Osteopathic techniques exist to address the root cause of each structural misalignment. Some of these techniques use targeted applications of force to resolve the existing dysfunction, but many others are very gentle and instead utilize the inherent forces within the body to resolve the existing structural dysfunction.
Most frequently, manipulative therapies are utilized for musculoskeletal issues (such as back pain or a frozen shoulder), and many other schools of healing have adopted specific Osteopathic techniques to address the musculoskeletal problems they see. At the same time, when the appropriate manipulative technique is used in conjunction with an understanding of the functional relationship between a restricted structure and the physiology of the body, Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine can be utilized for a wide range of other conditions (such as those resulting from the impaired function of an internal organ).
What is Restorative Medicine?
Frequently, illnesses or injuries can cause one to lose a function of the body, dramatically altering the sense of ease and quality of one’s life. We believe that, through understanding the structural-functional relationships at work in each disease process, this loss of function does not have to be permanent and that the lost function can be restored.
In many cases, precise Osteopathic Manual Treatment, through restoring the natural structure and functional relationship of the body, is sufficient to restore the function that has been lost. However, additional integrative therapies such as nutritional support, light therapy, an injection, or an intravenous infusion are needed in many other cases.
We utilize the current characteristics of the tissue to determine when restorative therapy is also necessary and to select the most appropriate one. Some of the most common uses include normalizing the function of an over-activated or under-activated nerve, addressing complications of an existing scar, and regenerating damaged tissue that has lost its ability to heal.
What is Cranial Osteopathy?
Cranial Osteopathy is an Osteopathic discipline that most directly touches the interface between the body, mind, and spirit. It arose from the recognition that the skull is composed of numerous bones and membranes that all follow a slow rhythmic motion and are connected to the rest of the body. Because of how tightly packed things are within the skull, a wide range of issues can emerge when part of the cranium (such as a nerve or artery) becomes compressed and its intrinsic motion is disrupted. Cranial Osteopathy seeks to recognize where these disruptions occur and mobilize the skull's inherent forces to restore its normal function.
Within Osteopathy, Cranial Osteopathy is considered to be the modality that can most directly restore the normal function of the nervous system. Some of the conditions commonly treated with Cranial Osteopathy include headaches, eye issues, dizziness, tinnitus, anxiety, insomnia, dental issues like TMJ dysfunction, concussions, and traumatic brain injuries. However, depending on what is occurring within the cranium, many other complex illnesses will also often respond to Cranial Osteopathy.
Osteopathy recognizes that one of the most common causes of structural dysfunction in the body is a traumatic injury (such as a car accident). These injuries can often cause strains to become lodged within the body, gradually distorting its structure and function. The cranial system is particularly sensitive to traumatic injuries. Within Cranial Osteopathy, we frequently observe injuries that occurred at birth or early in childhood, which decades later are still causing chronic issues for the patient. Because of how often cranial issues contribute to a patient's current issue, we frequently utilize this method of healing.
