History of Osteopathy

Osteopathy was founded in America in 1874 by Dr Andrew Taylor Still (1828 – 1917). 

Disillusioned by the medical practices at the time he spent many years studying the human body to try and discover better ways to treat disease. Dr Still’s research and observations led him to believe that the musculoskeletal system played a vital role in health and disease and that the body contained all the elements needed to maintain health if properly stimulated.

Dr Still believed that by correcting problems in the body’s structure, through use of manual techniques, the body’s ability to function and heal itself could be greatly improved. He also promoted the idea of preventative medicine and believed that doctors should focus on treating the whole patient rather than just the disease. Dr Still developed several osteopathic principles which include:

• The body is a unit
• Structure and function are reciprocally inter – related
• The body possesses self regulatory mechanisms
• The body has the inherent capacity to defend and repair itself
• When the normal adaptability is disrupted or when the environmental changes overcome the body’s capacity for self maintenance, disease may ensue.