Pregnancy

Osteopathy can really help with the aches and pains that arise during pregnancy, especially during the final trimester as your body prepares itself for birth.

Back pain, pelvic girdle pain, and breathing difficulties are just some of the conditions we can help you with.

Babies and children 

No two babies are the same, but they will usually let you know if something isn’t right by crying. They can have colicky pain, reflux or disturbed bowel movements, and sometimes they will have tightness in the neck and spine related to their birth.

Often these problems will settle down on their own, but by using gentle techniques such as massage or cranial techniques, we can help relieve tensions and help baby’s digestion, feeding and comfort.

We will treat children of all ages, though a parent must be present until the age of 16. Childhood can be filled with lots of aches and pains – from falls to headaches and growing pains. Osteopathy can help!

We treat all ages, from new born to the very elderly. Just as every person is different, the treatment options will vary a great deal with different age groups.

For the very young, we would normally use very gentle techniques such as cranial techniques or gentle massage. For the very elderly, some of the stronger techniques may not be suitable, so again we tailor our treatments to the individual.

Our osteopaths are trained in medical acupuncture, also called dry needling. This is similar to, but not the same as, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) acupuncture.

In dry needling, fine surgical steel needles are inserted in order to relieve tension in the myofascial system, the muscular and connective tissues that make up the body. By releasing trigger points in one area, it helps relieve tension in related areas.

Dry needling also stimulates local blood flow and helps relieve pain. The needles are usually left in for a few seconds to a few minutes and are not normally painful.

In TCM, the philosophy is that the body contains lines (or meridians) of flowing energy, known as chi. Chi is thought to be a kind of life force and it is believed that blockages in these energy lines can affect the health. By removing these blockages using the strategic positioning of acupuncture needles, these blockages can be removed and health then follows.

Where medical acupuncture is usually used to relieve pain and muscle tension, Chinese acupuncture is used for a variety of other health concerns. We do have a network of other therapists, including a TCM practitioner, so if you would like to see one, just ask.

Chiropractors and osteopaths have a degree of overlap, especially in terms of spinal manipulation techniques (the ‘clicking’). However, they are very different; chiropractors see dysfunction in terms of spinal misalignment, whereas an osteopath may see spinal adjustment helping, but this is not always the case.

In an example of knee pain, a chiropractor would say that the knee pain is caused by nerves becoming impinged where they exit the spine, so causing knee pain. If that is the case, spinal adjustment is the solution. An osteopath may think knee pain is caused by such nerve root impingement, but this is not always the case – perhaps there is damage to the knee, or perhaps the ankle needs releasing to help the knee work better.

There’s a joke amongst osteopaths that whatever question we are asked, an osteopath begins by answering ‘it depends’ because for us, we focus very much on individual care, working out what is causing your problem and tailoring treatment individual to you.

Physiotherapists tend to focus just on the musculoskeletal system, whereas an osteopath is more holistic, taking into consideration lifestyle factors such as work/life balance, diet, exercise and mental health.

Physiotherapists tend to use more exercise-based therapy and be less hands on than an osteopath, whose work is more direct, using combinations of massage, joint articulation and manipulation as well as medical acupuncture.

Finally, physios tend to focus just on the affected body part (say a knee) whereas an osteo will look at the rest of the body, say the ankle or hip as well, and look at how they may affect the knee mechanics.

One of the more common questions we get asked is about joint manipulation – the clicking we do to release joints. These can often be in the spine and can seem a little startling.

In joint manipulation, the aim is to first tension a joint and then put a quick, small movement through it to release the tension, with the result often being a small ‘popping’ noise, the same as when someone clicks their knuckles. We mainly use this technique because the evidence shows that it can free a joint up and help it move better. In the case of the spine, for instance, if one of the five lumbar vertebrae isn’t moving as well as the others, this technique can help free it up, so the other joints don’t have to do so much. The technique can also release endorphins which can help with pain and trigger the body’s immune system.

That said, some people don’t feel comfortable or are not suitable for spinal manipulation. This is why we ask lots of screening questions as we go and also why we have lots of other techniques and skills we can use to get you back into health.