Osteopathy is the practice of manual manipulation of your body to restore your body to its natural state.  The goal of an osteopath is to treat you until your body is healed.  Once your body is on its way to feeling better or your issue has subsided there should be no need to continue with Osteopathic treatments; however, sometimes Osteopaths may recommend a maintenance program for you which is still less visits.  Be aware of any extended health practitioner or program that continues to book you appointments with no end of treatments in sight.

This article will discus how Osteopathy can help your muscles, tendons, ligaments, joints, circulation, and nerves.

How Osteopathy benefits your muscles.

Everyone experiences some sort muscles soreness or discomfort.  Each persons’ muscle ailments and osteopathy needs are different. For example, you could work in a skill trade and your body may have pain from wear and tear from overuse and muscle imbalances. When your muscles are working properly, they are balanced, and getting proper blood flow and nutrition.  When there is muscle pain it can indicate there is an imbalance in the muscle causing overuse symptoms such as tendonitis along with pain and swelling.

Or perhaps you work in an office, and you are sitting for long periods of time which is causing you pain.   This muscle pain or discomfort can come from restricted blood flow to the problem area because sitting for most of the day may restrict blood flow to your lower back and legs. Many people have back pain as a direct result of their office job. Typically, back pain resonates on one side or one area of your back. For example, if you have back pain in your lower right side of your back, the pain is from your muscles shortening and cramping.  On the left side of your back it is the opposite, your muscles are lengthened and are fighting to stabilize your back. Now ordinary movements are painful because the muscles in your lower back are imbalanced.  Osteopathy treatments can help treat this type of muscular imbalance and pain and help with a speedy recovery.

How Osteopathy helps your ligaments.

Your ligaments attach bone to bone they stabilize bones structure by keep them together. If a bone is out of alignment, it can put tension on a ligament. Osteopathy can help put your bone structure back into proper alignment decreasing stress on your ligaments and encouraging blood flow to the area since ligaments do not have a good supply of blood.

How Osteopathy can help your joints

Your joint connects your bones together allowing your body to move in various ways.  The most obvious joints are your large one like knees, elbows, and shoulders. The stapes is the smallest joint in your body located in your middle ear.  Your body’s joints take a lot of wear and tear.  The joint could be out of alignment causing soreness, inflammation, and degeneration.  Osteopathy will help to realign your joints which in turn will increase circulation through blood flow and lymphatics to help keep the joint healthy.

How Osteopathy helps with your circulation.

Poor posture, injuries, lifestyle, can all contribute to poor circulation.  Symptoms of poor circulation are swelling, pain, hot and cold body temperature in localized areas, and inflammation. Inflammation is an increase of fluids gathering and pooling in a problem area. When there is too much fluid in an area it can come with its own set of symptoms and problems such as tissue discoloration, tissue breakdown and nerve pain to name a few. Osteopathic treatments can help to remove the pooling and improve your circulation by promoting good nutrition to the affected area.

How osteopathy can benefit your nervous system.

Nerves sense and send information back and forth to your spinal cord and brain.  The nervous system is very complex; for instance, nerves give us sensations and information about pain, numbness, disturbed sleep to an overactive or sluggish digestion.  Osteopathy will help the nervous system return to a more regulated state by taking away the stressors that could be causing the over stimulation, or the opposite where there is not enough feedback to allow for healthy nerve stimulation into the area. You can read more about Osteopathy and the services we offer here kneadtobalance.com/osteopathy. Osteopathy is an excellent way to help the body to relax so the body can self regulate and heal on its own because the body knows best.