Osteopathy is now part of my regular health regiment, but it hasn’t always been that way. Shawna, the owner, and osteopathy practitioner at Knead to Balance, asked me to write an article about how osteopathy has become a part of my regular health routine. 

My first osteopathy appointment was over 25 years ago. I was 20 something years old, I didn’t know anything about osteopathy, I went once and for another 20 years I didn’t make another osteopathy appointment. Looking back, I was young and naïve and like so many people I wanted instant results. 

Fast forward 20 years, now I am Gen X in mid-life (no crisis yet), over the hill, on the back nine, the seventh inning stretch, whatever you want to call it. Where did the time go? More about me, I have worked in an office environment since 1999; I am 5 foot 10 inches tall and 230 pounds. Like many people working at a desk combined with, a long commute, poor food choices, weekend alcohol consumption, and a lack of consistent exercise has resulted in me carrying around an extra 20 to 25 extra pounds. 

I struggle with work life balance meaning, I do not take enough time for my mental and physical wellbeing. I know I need to exercise more, but I just cannot seem to get into a consistent routine. Over the years my lack of exercise is correlated to back issues; two to three time a year I hurt my lower back and it gets progressively worse every year. My chronic back pain led me to schedule another osteopath appointment because nothing else was working. A sit/stand desk, daily stretching, moderate exercise, and regular osteopath appointment has helped alleviate my back pain.  

Many people have a health epiphany; we wake up feel energetic and say today is the day I start exercising again! Full disclosure I have had many, but one day I jumped on the treadmill and decided to ease into my workout with a fast paced 30-minute walk. I did this for about a week, every second day slowly ramping up the treadmill pace. During the second week I started to get a pain in my right knee 10 minutes into the treadmill workout. Despite the pain I just kept going, I said to myself well you haven’t done this in 6 months just work through it. I finished the workout and every day my knee pain got more and more painful during each workout.  

After the fourth day of trying to work through the pain it was too bad, and I had to stop. My knee did not hurt when walking around doing day to day activities it only hurt when I was on the treadmill.

Since Osteopathy, had helped my back pain I decided to book an appointment for my knee pain. During my Osteopath appointment, Shawna noticed that my right kneecap was out of alignment. She used osteopathy techniques to realign my kneecap with my leg. The next day I tried the treadmill again and to my surprise I did not feel any pain. This is no exaggeration; the pain was literally gone.  Great! I was able to continue with my workouts.

After a month went by, I reflected on my osteopathy appointment.  What if I decided to continue to try and work through the pain, would I have done permanent damage?  Would it have eventually led arthroscopic surgery? I had already had surgery from a football injury in my 20s What if I decided to see a regular physician and was prescribed anti-inflammatory or a painkiller? All what ifs that I avoided with osteopathy.

I firmly believe everyone should take control of their own health. If you have any kind of pain or ailment, be sure to look at all your options. Most definitely I recommend osteopathy as a part of your health and wellness repertoire.