Anecdotes Involving OMT...

[carn311]

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Is there anyone here who has experienced OMT first hand? On themselves or a close acquaintance? I'm going to an open house at NYCOM in November and they will be demoing OMT and I'm curious as to what I should expect. Doesnt the fact that you can do this on healthy people and it wont have any affect on them suggest that OMT as a whole has no affect? Or is this logic flawed?

 

[DD214_DOC]

Is there anyone here who has experienced OMT first hand? On themselves or a close acquaintance? I'm going to an open house at NYCOM in November and they will be demoing OMT and I'm curious as to what I should expect. Doesnt the fact that you can do this on healthy people and it wont have any affect on them suggest that OMT as a whole has no affect? Or is this logic flawed?

You should put the worms back into the can.

 

[carn311]

Why does everything on this board have to be so controversial? Lets all just take a deep breath and relax...

 

[OSUdoc08]

Is there anyone here who has experienced OMT first hand? On themselves or a close acquaintance? I'm going to an open house at NYCOM in November and they will be demoing OMT and I'm curious as to what I should expect. Doesnt the fact that you can do this on healthy people and it wont have any affect on them suggest that OMT as a whole has no affect? Or is this logic flawed?

I haven't seen a completely healthy person before. Everyone has tight muscles or stiff joints somewhere in their body.

 

[Raven Feather]

Is there anyone here who has experienced OMT first hand? On themselves or a close acquaintance? I'm going to an open house at NYCOM in November and they will be demoing OMT and I'm curious as to what I should expect. Doesnt the fact that you can do this on healthy people and it wont have any affect on them suggest that OMT as a whole has no affect? Or is this logic flawed?

I'm not trying to be mean or anything but if all you are doing is going to an open house and you will get to see OMT as an observer--just expect to watch OMT. Were you just trying not to offend anyone to lead into the question of the validity of OMT? 😕 😳

 

[carn311]

I'm not trying to be mean or anything but if all you are doing is going to an open house and you will get to see OMT as an observer--just expect to watch OMT. Were you just trying not to offend anyone to lead into the question of the validity of OMT? 😕 😳

How in the heck is it offensive to question the validity of something? I have yet to see it...or even talk to anyone who has and I have yet to see conclusive research that it is affective. I have every right to question. I am asking you for ANECDOTAL evidence that OMT is a valid method of treatment. I accept the fact that this is a controversial topic but you guys are just too uptight..Im not out to insult you...geesh... 🙄

 

[Raven Feather]

How in the heck is it offensive to question the validity of something? I have yet to see it...or even talk to anyone who has and I have yet to see conclusive research that it is affective. I have every right to question. I am asking you for ANECDOTAL evidence that OMT is a valid method of treatment. I accept the fact that this is a controversial topic but you guys are just too uptight..Im not out to insult you...geesh... 🙄

I'm not being uptight, I told you I wasn't trying to be mean since you can't see my nonverbal communication online and such. The way you posted your questions is obviously confusing to me. You ask about anecdotes then relate it to what to expect at an open house then go on to ask the validity..

As far as the offensiveness, some people here would see this question negatively. I, personally, don't but the way you worded your post made me think that maybe you were trying to be polite about asking the validity of OMT. Guess not.

 

[HunterGatherer]

You are going to see a demonstration on OMM. I doubt that you are going to be convinved of the validity of OMM from the deomstration or any posts on the board. Your best bet is to find a DO that practices OMM and talk to them and their patients or get treatment done on yourself.

Talking to OMM patients first hand about their treatments is what made me interested in OMM.

See you there!! 🙂

 

[Shinken]

Is there anyone here who has experienced OMT first hand? On themselves or a close acquaintance? I'm going to an open house at NYCOM in November and they will be demoing OMT and I'm curious as to what I should expect. Doesnt the fact that you can do this on healthy people and it wont have any affect on them suggest that OMT as a whole has no affect? Or is this logic flawed?

First of all, you have all the right in the world to question the validity of something. However, I suggest you experience it first in order to have a more informed opinion.

Many people on this board have yet to set foot in an osteopathic medical school, yet they think they know everything about the validity (or lack thereof) of a modality of therapy that's more than 130 years old, performed until this day, and performed by such medical professionals as physical therapists, physiatrists, occupational therapists and sport therapists and trainers.

First, don't expect fireworks. OMT are simple physical techniques that deal with the musculoskeletal system. OMT will not cure asthma, will not cure cancer or anything like that. Got a sore neck? OMT will help. Can't expand your chest while breathing deeply? OMT will help. Have a tight calf? OMT can certainly deal with that.

Also, you can perform OMT on healthy people with no problems. If you take Ibuprofen without pain or headaches, if you don't feel anything does that mean that Ibuprofen is a farce?

 

[Shinken]

Sorry, I forgot the main point of your post. Here are some anecdotes from my clinicals:

* A patient with plantar fasciitis achieved complete pain relief in two sessions of OMT. He swears by it and says "I didn't think it would work but it did."

* A child (2 wks old) was constantly spitting up his food after every feeding. After a single session of OMT the child stopped spitting up (like night and day! even I was amazed).

* Patient with a tight neck cannot rotate head to the left, only to the right. One session of OMT and he was able to rotate both ways freely and without pain.

Also, pregnant women love OMT, particularly soft tissue techniques in the lumbar region where so much tension develops.

Some people might say that OMT works due to the placebo effect. I say "WHO CARES!!" If I can help my patient, I don't care why they got better as long as they got better (besides, I doubt a 2 wk old baby responds to placebo).

 

[jonb12997]

Tuesday noon after OMM Class: Bite into Carrot, Jaw seized up
Tuesday 6pm: Can't eat anything but applesauce and mashed potatoes
Friday 10am: See an OMM Fellow & OMM Attending here at UNE, work on me for an hour, BLT, FPR, Counterstrain, etc.
Friday 6pm: able to eat soft foods
Saturday noon: able to eat normal food

This is in comparison to another person I know who had the same type of problem and was treated "allopathically" (muscle relaxants, botox, PT, etc.) she's still dealing with the problem 6 months later, whereas I haven't had any problems since

 

[carn311]

Sorry, I forgot the main point of your post. Here are some anecdotes from my clinicals:

* A patient with plantar fasciitis achieved complete pain relief in two sessions of OMT. He swears by it and says "I didn't think it would work but it did."

* A child (2 wks old) was constantly spitting up his food after every feeding. After a single session of OMT the child stopped spitting up (like night and day! even I was amazed).

* Patient with a tight neck cannot rotate head to the left, only to the right. One session of OMT and he was able to rotate both ways freely and without pain.

Also, pregnant women love OMT, particularly soft tissue techniques in the lumbar region where so much tension develops.

Some people might say that OMT works due to the placebo effect. I say "WHO CARES!!" If I can help my patient, I don't care why they got better as long as they got better (besides, I doubt a 2 wk old baby responds to placebo).

Thank you so much for both of your posts. They were exactly what I wanted to hear. There are one or two DOs in my area by none practice OMT. And because I've heard nothing but either indifference or scorn on relation to OMT from the MDs in the area I just wanted to carry both sides with me to this open house so that I can have... well, and "open" mind. 😀

Thanks again.

 

[Shinken]

Thank you so much for both of your posts. They were exactly what I wanted to hear. There are one or two DOs in my area by none practice OMT. And because I've heard nothing but either indifference or scorn on relation to OMT from the MDs in the area I just wanted to carry both sides with me to this open house so that I can have... well, and "open" mind. 😀

Thanks again.

Also, realize that OMT is a physical skill. It's like attending med school and trying to learn how to play tennis really well. How many med students would graduate playing tennis well? Not many I would say. The same with OMT.

It's hard to keep up with the academic demands of med school while at the same time trying to become proficient in a physical skill. Therefore, many DO graduates don't perform OMT because they're not proficient enough. Others because they went to DO school as a backup and want to be "MDs with a DO degree." Some of us actually want to become good at it. Make sure you shadow a DO that incorporates OMT in his/her practice. You'll be so amazed you'll wonder why anyone would want to practice primary care medicine any other way.

 

[raptor5]

Some people might say that OMT works due to the placebo effect. I say "WHO CARES!!" If I can help my patient, I don't care why they got better as long as they got better (besides, I doubt a 2 wk old baby responds to placebo).

Placebo effect cannot explain the spasm and release sometimes felt by the physician during a counterstrain technique. After that experience I am sold on counterstrain.

 

[beastmaster]

Is there anyone here who has experienced OMT first hand? On themselves or a close acquaintance? I'm going to an open house at NYCOM in November and they will be demoing OMT and I'm curious as to what I should expect. Doesnt the fact that you can do this on healthy people and it wont have any affect on them suggest that OMT as a whole has no affect? Or is this logic flawed?

Hey carn. I don't know the details about your open house, but we had an OMM case presentation on our first day of school so I can tell you a little about that.

They used an actual patient who receives OMM as part of a treatment regiment at the NYCOM clinic. Patient has a long history of back problems due to various accidents and back injuries. Patient aggreed to be used as part of a demonstration for a class. The OMM professor took a history, probed about accidents and tried to get as many clues as he could. Then he did a physical exam that incorporated some osteopathic diagnostic techniques (literally ascertaining functional deficiencies and structural assymetries). He concluded by presenting a treatment plan that involved (weekly?) OMM sessions. He did a technique or two and sent him on his way. I suppose since it was our first class the emphasis was on the diagnostic side.

You guys may get a more exotic demo. Point is, though, if the department needs someone with back pain willing to be treated in front of a group of interested people they have (clinic patients, OMM professor's own patients, student participants -- many have back problems and usually volunteer during class to show it).

BTW, all of you attacking this poster are idiots in my book. Asks an innocent question and has crap stuffed back in his face about something irrelevant to the question. Are you going to attack your future patients because their complaints come out a little weird and incompatible with how you're used to seeing a disease presented ?? The purpose of the post was to gather information about what to possibly expect at the open house, not to start a debate about scientific validity.

 

[DD214_DOC]

Sorry, I forgot the main point of your post. Here are some anecdotes from my clinicals:

* A patient with plantar fasciitis achieved complete pain relief in two sessions of OMT. He swears by it and says "I didn't think it would work but it did."

* A child (2 wks old) was constantly spitting up his food after every feeding. After a single session of OMT the child stopped spitting up (like night and day! even I was amazed).

* Patient with a tight neck cannot rotate head to the left, only to the right. One session of OMT and he was able to rotate both ways freely and without pain.

Also, pregnant women love OMT, particularly soft tissue techniques in the lumbar region where so much tension develops.

Some people might say that OMT works due to the placebo effect. I say "WHO CARES!!" If I can help my patient, I don't care why they got better as long as they got better (besides, I doubt a 2 wk old baby responds to placebo).

Isn't this all anecdotal evidence, the very thing science has demonstrated cannot be trusted? Some people swear by magnetic therapy and prayer, and some even show improvement. This doesn't mean it was caused by magnetic therapy and prayer.

 

[Taus]

You are correct, it is anecdotal, which is exactly what the OP asked for.

Here's my anecdote:

As a current MSI at PCOM I was having a lot of problems with soreness between my shoulder blades and definite pain when someone pressed on my T-4 and T-5 vertebre spinous process'. It had been there for around 3 months and I had been treated repeatedly by my MD internist at home ( who prescribed some muscle relaxers and said to let it rest) and by chiropractic care 3x a week for a few weeks (there were no DO's on my insurance who do a lot of OMM near my house). Moral of the story: I went to the OMM clinic here at school to be treated by one of the fellows. It turned out that the problem was some extreme tightness in my rhomboids and a little damage to the supraspinous ligament. A little bit of myofascial release and HVLA, and 3 weeks later I am still without pain. She said that in 2-3 weeks from treatment I might need another one to make it last, but if not, I'm good to go. About the pain when you press on T-4/5, turns out that trauma to your supraspinous ligament (running vertically and superficially b/w your spinous process'-those bumps you see running down your back) leaves pain that lasts for a few months before healing because there is so little blood flow to it.

So there's your anecdote. And if you want research or other health professionals to tell you about myofascial release and details of functional anatomy, ask any physical therapist, athletic trainor or PM&R doc and I'm sure they'd be happy to tell you that its not only the DO's who use this stuff. Regarding the other proposed efficacies and aspects of OMM (espec. somato-visceral and vice versa), I haven't learned about them yet, but as far as treating musculoskeletal dysfunction/pain (purely somatic stuff) its been proven to work. I don't know the links to all of the current research, but there have been some incredible double-blinded studies (with placebo/sham OMM, etc) done recently by the PCOM faculty (especially Dr. Michael Kuchera) that have shown very positive results. The two that I am aware of deal with post-operative recovery time and sprained ankles. If you do a search on google for them I'm sure that you will be pleasantly surprised.

wow..that was longer then expected....enjoy the OMM display at NYCOM

 

[JMCarpenter]

I have an anecdote from my first month of med school...

My first week of classes I came down with an upper respiratory infection that eventually resulted in an ear infection. My hearing got so bad, I could barely hear professors during class, everything was muffled and it felt like I had wads of cotton stuffed in my ears. I went to my OPP instructor who looked at my ears, said it was viral and that liquids would be my only cure (which is what I figured anyway)... but he had one of our OPP fellows take a look at me.

I know cranial is a controversial technique with some DOs/DO students, but the fellow worked on me for about 10-15 minutes with cranial and I could literally feel my sinuses and my ears become unblocked. I could actually hear afterwards and the sinus pressure almost completely disappeared.

That was from my very first week as a DO student and I can tell you I was drinking water like it was my job... and nothing helped... it wasn't going away, but one treatment with cranial and I was cleared.

This is an anecdote of cranial but since then I've been treated for neck pain and back pain and I can tell you that OMT has worked 10x better than anything I've tried before.

 

[CoverMe]

Having never been "OMM'ed" before, I my first (and only) experience (other than what my fellow students and I do to tweak each other in lab every week) involved a sore wrist. I've had problems with the wrist at various times since 1988, have had it x-rayed, braced, and injected. Nothing but time has helped (the tenderness would go away after a few weeks each time, with no real "triggering" events that i could link to the wrist).

During the 3rd week of school my wrist was so bad, i could barely take notes. I could extend the wrist MAYBE 15 degrees, and flexion was at maybe 30 degrees. After lab one day, I asked my advisor (who's something of a Guru) to take a look at it. He asked me to get on the table, and proceeded to work me over, from the feet up. When he got to my right shoulder, he said "Ah HA!" and "Sorry, but this is going to hurt a bit." He then pushed, pulled, tweaked, and rearranged my shoulder to his liking (no HVLA, just remodeling).

He asked me what I had done to my right shoulder and the answer made the problem seem a bit obvious... lots and lots of shooting shotguns, playing polo, shot/disc in HS and other shoulder-injuring types of moves. Corresponding with the onset of wrist pain, incidentally.

He then handled my wrist for a few seconds, said "Hummm, kinda crunchy, but it's not the problem, your shoulder was." He advised me to leave it alone for the weekend, take advil if my shoulder hurt from being rearranged, drink lots of water and let him know if it didn't improve. By monday my wrist was COMPLETELY pain-free, with extension at about 80 degrees and flexion at 60 degrees (equal to my left wrist). A month later, and everything is still good to go.

I already believed in OMM... i've seen amazing things. But I also know what I was dealing with and for how long my stupid wrist has hindered me (for example: I did all my push-ups in police academy on my knuckles, to avoid pushing my wrists into extension).

Now i just can't wait to learn some "really good stuff" so i can go back and OMM my friends and family. I tell my friends that I want to be an OMMinatrix... or maybe just a black belt in OMM. 😀 😀 😀