When I made my first physician visit in northeast Missouri and saw the ‘Doctor of Osteopathy’ diploma, I thought he was an M.D. with a bone specialty. Most of the country, most of the world doesn’t really know what osteopathy is. From the prepper viewpoint, that’s rather a shame; as osteopathy is a good fit for prepping.
In this podcast, Salty and I talk it over:
What osteopathy is, and isn’t
Andrew Taylor Still started the first school of osteopathy in Kirksville, MO in 1892. Still was disgusted with the ‘modern medicine’ of his day (which was frankly terrible, with bleeding and purging being two of their favorite approaches). He developed a system of manipulation of the skeleton and muscles to get people aligned and get the fluids flowing properly to support better body function.
Andrew Taylor Still ditched the (terrible) late 19th century medicine in favor of a whole body wellness approach.
Sound new-agey and hokey? For some conditions (such as many cases of back pain and headache), manipulation works great. For many other conditions it’s useless as a cure and can only serve to help the sufferer feel a little better. Fortunately, as standard medicine improved, the osteopaths adopted all the good new stuff, but kept their manipulation to deal with the subset of problems that manipulation really helps.
Modern osteopaths are fully trained, fully certified physicians. They can prescribe any drugs and treatments, work in any hospitals, and train in any medical specialties (I’ve been very happy with the work of some osteopathic surgeons). Their training and work looks a lot like the more common kind of physician (medical doctor), but has two main differences.
Osteopaths are taught musculoskeletal manipulation
If you’ve got an infection, manipulation won’t get rid of it. If you have low back pain, headaches, pain when you walk, weakness or restricted motion from an improperly healed injury, or that sort of thing, manipulation can work wonders.
We’re not talking the stereotypical ‘back-cracking’ here, at least not mostly. These physicians are taught techniques both subtle and gentle. I’ve been amazed by limping in to an appointment, having the doc spend five minutes feeling what was where, and gently moving my leg a few inches in a particular way. It felt like a gentle stretch, no cracking or pain. I thought it was a nothing … until I stood up and walked away completely pain-free for the first time in a week. And it stayed fixed.
Osteopathic physicians are offer all the same medical treatment options as medical doctors in the U.S. … plus manipulation, which is Wonderful for some problems but little help with others.
Why should I care about osteopothy?
Why would a prepper care? An example will give you an idea. I play a full-contact sport. My team’s doc is an amazing human being who volunteers to help uncrinkle our battered selves while he trains students in sports med manipulation. Several times, he or his students fixed a problem that tend to recur in me (due to a genetic quirk on my part). When the problem occurred when medical care was impossible (yep, an ice storm), I could direct Salty in how it was done and he was able to make me uncrippled and pain-free.
If you ask your physician to explain what she’s doing and why, you can learn a few things that may come in handy. More commonly and therefore importantly, you can ask the physician to explain ways to stretch and train your muscles that helps keep your particular problems from recurring. It’s minor medical treatment yes, but it can be of high value and requires no resources beyond being a little informed.
By the way, if you have reason to see a physical therapist, the same approaches apply. These professionals are also well trained in some sorts of manipulation. They understand your visits with them are limited (by insurance rules if nothing else) so they’re often into teaching you how to keep the program going yourself, and what you can do to prevent problems from recurring.
The osteopathic mindset
The second difference between medical doctors and osteopaths is more subtle, but still powerful. It’s a matter of mindset. Many medical doctors have fallen into a ‘find what’s broken, fix that, done’ mentality. The downside of this is that humans have immensely interrelated systems, not only in the physical realm but the psychological is a big deal too. From its inception, osteopathy was about the wellness of the person rather than simply the curing of a medical problem.
Osteopaths on average spend more time on each appointment, more time talking to patients about their whole wellness situation (diet, lifestyle, other medical issues), more time on physical diagnosis. There are several prepper relevant outcomes to this.
One is in preventative medicine. There is no better medical prep than reducing your needs for medical care. The healthier you are, the better off you will be, regardless of the type or size of the emergency. Having a medical practitioner who’s paying attention to your overall health and helping you understand how to maintain it is, therefore, a valuable prep.
Osteopathy and drugs
Another important outcome is drug-related. Osteopaths definitely do prescribe drugs when needed. On average though, they are more likely to pursue less drug-intensive therapies, and give more weight to issues such as potential side effects and interactions. As a single isolated example, when my own father switched from an M.D. to a D.O. as his personal physician (at my suggestion), he dropped from taking twenty prescriptions (!) to twelve immediately. And he felt better, not worse, for the loss of those drugs. The interactions and side effect harms were outweighing their goods.
In an emergency, drugs may not be available. Needing fewer of them simplifies your prepping situation. Having a physician who looks for non-drug solutions in the first place helps you along the path to fewer medical needs.
Wrapping it up
Last but not least, having someone teach you to use the stretching and strengthening, and some self-manipulation techniques, to deal with musculoskeletal issues is likely to be very valuable in emergencies that make you more physically active. Do you expect those back injuries are going to become less common when people are having to chop wood and haul water instead of just moving the occasional bit of furniture? I’m positive the tips I got from our team doc saved me from real injury multiple times when sport or work at The Place got me twisted in bad directions and applying bad forces.
