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Abundant living comes from owning good health. At the Defrese Osteopathic Clinic, we strive to create a nurturing environment that promotes the optimum evolution of your health and well-being. Our goal is to assist you in living the life you are meant to have.
What is Osteopathy? Webster's dictionary defines osteopathy as a school of medicine and surgery employing various methods of diagnosis and treatment, placing special emphasis on the interrelationship of the musculoskeletal system to all other body systems. This definition is incomplete. The science of osteopathy actually emphasizes that structure and anatomy are interdependent. The anatomical balance an osteopathic manipulative medicine (OMM) specialist seeks to recover includes the micro and macroanatomy of all systems in the body.
Osteopathic Principles The body is a unit. The body possesses self-regulatory mechanisms. Structure and function are reciprocally interrelated. Rational therapy is based upon an understanding of body unity, self-regulatory mechanisms and the interrelatedness of structure and function. The capacity to maintain health and overcome disease implies structural and functional integrity of the body. Osteopathic medical approaches deal with the interrelationship between individual biological components and human totality. We strive to maximize health rather than only remediate disease by following these principles.
What is an Osteopathic Physician? In the United States, Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine are fully trained and licensed physicians who practice the entire range and scope of modern medicine. Osteopaths attend their own medical schools, receive the same post graduate training as their M.D. colleagues, and receive hundreds of hours of additional education in the principles of osteopathy, applied in practice as osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT).
The Osteopathic Oath I do hereby affirm my loyalty to the profession I am about to enter. I will be mindful always of my great responsibility to preserve the health and the life of my patients, to retain their confidence and respect both as a physician and a friend who will guard their secrets with scrupulous honor and fidelity, to perform faithfully my professional duties, to employ only those recognized methods of treatment consistent with good judgement and with my skill and ability, keeping in mind always nature's laws and the body's inherent capacity for recovery. I will be ever vigilant in aiding in the general welfare of the community, sustaining its laws and institutions, not engaging in those practices which will in any way bring shame or discredit upon myself or my profession. I will give no drugs for deadly purposes to any person, though it be asked of me. I will endeavor to work in accord with my colleagues in a spirit of progressive co-operation, and never by word or act cast imputations upon them or their rightful practices. I will look with respect and esteem upon all those who have taught me my art. To my college, I will be loyal and strive always for its best interests and for the interests of the students who will come after me. I will be ever alert to further the application of basic biologic truths to the healing arts and to develop the principles of osteopathy which were first enunciated by Andrew Taylor Still.
Who Can Benefit From Osteopathic Treatment? Osteopathy is effective for all people, from infants to the elderly. OMT is a gentle technique that enables the physician to detect problems, often without a specific complaint. This can be especially helpful when working with small children and babies. It is equally beneficial to athletes and the very active, to people who are sedentary , to those exposed to job-related hazards, and to people suffering from many traumas. Osteopathy teaches patients to “manage” their own health so that “good health” is no longer opposed to illness, but as a quality of life and the opportunity to live it to the fullest.
The general osteopathic practice was created to provide:
an holistic approach to evaluating
problems(including looking into their environment,
their spiritual practices, their diseases over time,
their emotional fears and stability, their financial
fears and stability); research and education to assist
the patients in understanding their conditions, using
the appropriate medicines and supplements to treat
themselves, avoiding the use of those that cause them
problems; referrals for the patients to other
practitioners most suited for helping them; teaching
the patients in such a way that they can share their
knowledge with their families and friends and can feel
more empowered to care for themselves and direct their
medical care;and osteopathic manipulation to help align
all tissues of the body to their optimal positions by
palpating the body and facilitating it into positions
which encourage release and tuning to the body's self-
regulatory mechanisms.
Osteopathic Manipulation in the Cranial Field –
Explanation
Osteopathic manipulation is performed to align the
body's structures (bones, muscles, ligaments, tendons,
visceral organs, thoracic cavity, diaphragms (7+ in
our field), and supportive fascia. Osteopathy in
the Cranial Field takes into consideration the
rhythmic motion of the cranium due to its boney
sutures, its dural attachments, the brain, spinal
cord, the cerebrospinal fluid, and the vascular and
lympathic fluids - as they are affected by the
former. When using techniques, we align the body's
tissues in accordance with the rhythmic motions I have
listed, in order to assist it in its self-healing
mechanisms. Thus, we constantly study embryology to
help us align the body such that it can re-establish
the relationships of the structures relative to their
embryologic formations. When a patient encounters
problems resistant to healing, I teach them to perform
certain adjustments and exercises at home.
I most often use the following techniques: myofascial
release, facilitated positional release, soft tissue,
lymphatic drainage, various specialized cranial
techniques.
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