A lot of people doubt OMM, and I just wanted to post my experience with an osteopath I'm seeing.
My family physician (MD), told me my posture is horrible, and that I needed to see a specialist about it. After discussing chiropractors and orthopedists, we decided I should give a DO a try.. One that actually does OMM obviously.
I called my state DO medical society, and they referred me a DO that only does OMM. He has an FM/EM background, but no longer practices in those fields.
Within 5 minutes of examining me, he found that my T3 vertebrae was out of alignment. He did some sort of adjustment, it popped, and immediately I could tell a difference.
He's also certified in cranial OMM. Frankly, before this experience, I thought cranial was BS. He had my lie down, with his hand under my back at my T3, and started rubbing my head. After awhile he says, "So... When you were 15, something traumatic happened to you." This is true, I was in a car accident. I tell him this and he says, "No, this was emotional.." Well, without going into details, yes, something emotionally traumatic DID happen to me when I was 15..
This physician didn't know me at all and doesn't know anyone who knows me. I asked him how in the world he could possible know something happened to me 17 years ago, and he said "practice."
Anyway, I left that visit standing up straight. Two weeks later, I am still standing up straight. Yes, the first two days after treatment were a bit painful... but it was worth it.
I admit there could be a psychological component to this on my part, but whatever.. OMM is working for me.
Hello all premed SDNers. I still remember what that was like, and now I'm an OMM specialist looking at this topic from a much different perspective. If any of you have honest questions about what we do, I will try to check back here from time to time and provide some insight. There is very little understanding out there of what we do and what we can do in our specialty, so I hope to help with that. There certainly are some questionable people out there that carry physician licenses, so please take everything claimed with a grain of salt. Many of the stories on here are second or third hand, so skepticism is the correct response- the ideal however is open minded skepticism that recognizes the possibility of truth when it sees it, no matter how seeming unlikely based on your past experience. Your experience will not be the same as those who have studied this material in depth with masters around the U.S. for a decade or more, so some suspension of disbelief may have a big payoff down the road.
To the OP, I am glad you are feeling better- which is a testimony to the doc that treated you... however, even if he was able to palpate such detail- it would have served you and this SDN audience better if he had simply kept his mouth shut as he worked.
🙄 With experienced hands it is quite easy to know the difference between an injury that is 5+ years old vs an injury that is 5 days old or an injury that someone is faking to get narcotics. That level of discrimination is more than enough to help your patients and do your job.
I can say a lot about what I do every day- but without detailed descriptions and rationales for my approach it would be easy to discount my testimonials out of hand as they would seem too good to be true. When I myself was in your position I wouldn't have believed much of what I do now on a routine basis, so I am not in the least offended by people who use proper discernment and question what I do- though rudeness is not necessary.
At the core of Osteopathy is the notion of understanding and treating the cause of disease... which surprisingly is not the way mainstream medicine works for the most part. If it did, there would be no need for us and healthcare in general would be a lot less expensive. Most of mainstream medicine targets symptoms, which means the best it can offer in many cases is the management of disease. To cure you need to find causes- and to do this you need to know a lot about what you're treating- not just the "what", but especially the "why". That is where many Doctors, including some OMM specialists, sometimes come up short.
I get many of my referrals from very mainstream sources- such as local MD's and specialists (orthopedic surgeons, neurologists, pediatricians, OB's ENT's, etc.) as well as from patient referrals. I treat a wide variety of conditions... especially chronic pain, radiculopathy (burning pain or numbness), postural problems, motor vehicle accidents, neurodevelopmental delays, etc. I do not use manipulation for everything- there are certainly times surgery is the best way to address the cause of a health condition, or nutrition, specialized exercises, or sometimes a medication (though I tend to write few scripts). There are also times when symptom management is the first priority (i.e. chest pain where heart attack is likely) and in these cases mainstream medicine is absolutely critical to long term patient health.
I would encourage anyone who thinks they want to learn more about osteopathy to read A.T. Still's Philosophy of Osteopathy which can be downloaded for free at:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/236291/The-Philosophy-of-Osteopathy-by-AT-Still
Please realize it is a product of the time he lived in and mainstream medicine of his day couldn't even handle symptoms well, and I don't think he would have been as violently against mainstream medicine if it had saved his children's lives as it surely would have today. This said- his approach still has incredible value even with today's technology- both from the perspective of reducing healthcare costs and alleviating human suffering, as I prove to myself each and every day in my clinic. Read it, come to your own conclusions, and ask your questions here and I'll try to help answer them.
Best of luck
Dr Waddington
