Traditional Medicine Compared to Osteopathic Treatments

Back pain is a common ailment that affects people of all ages and can significantly impact daily activities.

Traditional medicine often prescribes pharmacological treatments, but guidelines support the use of non-pharmacological options such as spinal manipulation. Osteopathic Medicine uses a range of gentle techniques to manipulate the muscles, soft tissues, and joints in affected areas to increase the range of motion, reduce pain and improve overall function.

Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment (OMT) is particularly effective for lower back pain, and although its use is not widespread, it remains a viable alternative to traditional treatments.

OMT involves hands-on techniques that aim to correct or improve somatic dysfunction in the body, addressing the underlying causes of pain. Overall, Osteopathic Medicine offers a valuable approach to managing back pain that is worth considering as an alternative or complementary treatment.

Prevention is Better Than Cure

Back pain causes 5 million people to consult their doctor every year and will cause pain to one in 5 of us at some point in our lives.

As mentioned in an Essential Osteopathy article, in the majority of cases, the problem comes on slowly, starting as backache, and reduced movement, and can also include shooting pains in the legs. It can be caused by many different factors including arthritis, trauma, slipped discs, or sciatica – leg pain due to trapped nerves. More recently it has been linked to people having increasingly sedentary lives (especially as a lot of people now have their workstations set up poorly at home) rather than traditional industry-related injuries such as burns and cuts.

Increasingly doctors are left with limited options (such as medications and physiotherapy for which there is often a long waiting list with which to help patients) so the person is left trying different therapists and therapies for a cure.

Research seems to show that surgery is not a quick fix for back pain and is only necessary in less than 4% of cases. It indicates that prevention is indeed better than cure and that exercise and good posture are very important, particularly in conjunction with a therapy such as Osteopathy.

Citation: Essential Osteopathy article…

If you wish, learn even more about back pain prevention, here: https://www.essentialosteopathy.co.uk/blog/back-pain-prevention-better-cure/

Osteopathy is a type of medicine that can help treat a lot of different conditions. People of all ages can benefit from it, including babies, kids, adults, pregnant women, and seniors.

Dr Emmy
Durango Osteopathic Care, PC

Phone/text: 970-828-6500