That your body can heal itself given the right amount of time and attention is well-known. On the other hand, the idea of incorporating natural pain relief management with standard medical procedures is seen as a new idea, which is on the rise as succeeding studies keep on proving that there is merit to the techniques involved.
Osteopathic Manipulative Therapy (OMT) is a form of manual therapy.
One of these special practices is called osteopathic manipulative therapy (OMT). This kind of therapy is considered manual therapy that focuses on healing your body by correcting concerns with your musculoskeletal system.
OMT can provide the proper use of pressure and therapeutic movements and exercises that can correct issues with your skeleton and muscles, such as chronic back pain.
Do note that OMT is practically always used in conjunction with traditional medicine, although in some cases, it may be simply used on its own. This is particularly true if you have something like stress-induced back pain.
Who can practice OMT?
Two kinds of people can practice this kind of therapy. The first are the ones known as DOs, or Doctors of osteopathic medicine. On the other hand, some MDs have also taken it upon themselves to study and practice OMT.
What happens during an OMT treatment?
OMT helps restore balance across the whole human body. Given that it is a type of “holistic” traditional medicine, the practices may seem strange at first, but becomes more logical if you think about it.
Passive therapy – In passive therapy, the patient does not have to assist the DO or MD. All the patient has to do is lie down while all the needed techniques are used by the attending DO or qualified MD.
Active therapy – Depending on the extent of the injury, the physician will ask the patient to do certain movements, like contracting or slowly stretching muscles, or by teaching the patient to breathe correctly.
The therapy will be determined by your DO or MD reading your case history. As OMT should always be used in conjunction with modern medicine, OMT is useful in one of two ways – in the first way, it will allow primary medical care to be even more effective, particularly if the OMT can directly ease some of the back pain, for example, with a well-taught posture.
The other way to use OMT is as a way to not only heal injuries, but also prevent them with regular visits to your DO/MD.
Preventive care and Osteopathic Manipulation Therapy
In the case of back pain, OMT can be used to manage pain through the introduction of proper posture. Moreover, once the pain subsides, you can also start using DO-suggested exercises coupled with regular visits to the DO or attending physician who uses OMT for the patients under his or her care. Osteopathic manipulation can then be used to “read” what was wrong in the situation to begin with, so that OMT becomes a preventive treatment that will minimize the chances of a medical condition happening because of musculoskeletal issues that were inherent in the first place.