Osteopathy: an Effective Treatment for Sport-Related Injuries

Whether you’re a world class athlete, or you haven’t laced up your running shoes in years, everyone gets injured at some point in their life. Injuries can vary greatly in severity and require a variety of different treatments. Those with injuries from sports are particularly susceptible to long-term ailments. Many require surgery, with long recovery times and painful physical therapy. However, there are many alternative and complementary treatment options that can enhance recovery time and ease pain. This article will look at one of those treatment options, osteopathy, to learn about its history, and how all people, particularly those with sports-related injuries, can benefit from its practice.

Osteopathy, as defined by Osteopathie Quebec, is a natural medicine that restores functions in the body by treating the causes of pain or imbalance. The term natural medicine may put some people off, but it simply means that there is no external medicine, and no invasive surgery. Osteopathy is based on the idea that the body heals itself; practitioners use palpations to the position, mobility, and quality of the affected tissue. The palpations are a diagnostic tool that help a practitioner gain a sense of the state of the affected tissue. The practitioner detects things like texture, moisture, temperature and subtle motions of the muscle. This ability to detect unnoticeable motions takes years of training, but through precise palpations, the expert is able to gauge if congestion, dehydration, stiffness, or scarring is present in the tissue. The practitioner can gain a complete understanding of any neuromuscular, skeletal, visceral or cranial dysfunction. Based on the assessment, the osteopath prescribes a highly individualized course of treatment to aid the body in its natural healing process, either as a preventative measure or in order to repair damages.

So, what are some of the benefits and applications of osteopathy, and why is it such an appealing alternative to traditional medicine? One of the primary reasons is the fact that it uses your bodies natural homeostatic processes to heal. In a world where doctors prescribe opioids for backaches and addiction rates are sky-high across North America, a solution to any injury -sports-related or otherwise- that avoids painkillers is a refreshingly safe alternative. Osteopathy can really be used by anyone. If you have Sciatica, lower-back pain, knee pain, or neck pain, a general osteopathy treatment would be ideal. There are other osteopathic services available, such as maternity osteopathy for pregnancy related ailments, acute pain care for those injured in sports or in accidents, as well as pediatric and geriatric osteopathy, and chronic pain care. If you’re still not sure if it’s right for you, osteopath practices, like Ostéopathie Montreal, can set you up with a general consultation to determine the proper course of action.

No matter what part of your body tissue hurts, osteopathy can provide a safe, effective, and natural approach to your recovery. There is a reason so many athletes use osteopathy as a way to promote recovery and to ensure performance, it quickly diagnosis the source of the problem and addresses it. If you are looking for a method to heal your pain, whether chronic or acute, without the use of harmful painkillers, look to this form of treatment as your top option.

Eddy Basch D.O.