Osteopathy articles

To sit or to stand? Well they both come with advantages and disadvantages. Although standing desks are widely promoted through new age offices, they have some significant downsides which can lead to injuries that are less common than sitting desks. Here’s what to look out for…

Recently, a poor girl ended up in hospital due to skinny jeans. In short, her skinny jeans weren’t the best apparel choice for her repetitive lifting activity – and she was taken to hospital with nerve damage and weakness in her legs.

It may sound extreme – but can skinny jeans really hurt our bodies? And why does this even happen?

Well, the short answer – it’s not recommended.

Let’s start by explaining back cracking. In osteopathy and chiropractic, cracking is the colloquial term for the manipulation of joints that, due to the body’s response, can sometimes create an audible ‘popping’ sound. It’s typically used to treat lower back pain, but is also commonly used to treat neck pain. The manipulation itself is used to release pressure and tension from the joint to restore movement.

What’s the minimum amount of recommended physical activity? It’s probably lower than you think. Here are the current Australian guidelines for physical activity…

Interestingly, over your break you may have found that that little niggle you usually have in your neck or back went away. But just as you were about to pop open another cork to celebrate, a return to work has some how coaxed the pain back. What’s that all about?

When you feel relaxed, it is easier for your body to initiate this masking compensation. Another part of the body will take on the extra work – and because your relaxed body is generally happy with the World, this adaptation passes relatively unnoticed.

Scoliosis is the term used to describe a lateral curvature of the spine. This means that your spine is at some point deviated to the left or right – rather than straight down. You can have a ‘C’ curved deviation or an ‘S’ curved deviation.

Scoliosis has no single cause. It can be caused by many things. There are two classifications of scoliosis – structural and functional.

So you’ve done your research, or your friend has recommended that you see an osteopath. But how do you find one?

Firstly, start with your family and friends. The best osteopathic practitioners are often the ones who your peers rave about. Chances are you hang out with people you trust. If they’ve had good experiences (or even poor experiences), your friends and family are your best port of call.

Ever wondered how many chiropractors, osteopaths and physiotherapists there are in Australia? It’s been about 2 years since I looked at the previous osteopathy growth rate. So I’ve taken stock and crunched the numbers and created helpful charts to compare total treatments and the growth rate for all practitioners. All while using official data sources.

This is probably the most common question asked. Osteopathy and Chiropractic are similar in that both disciplines use manual therapy. Both believe that the body is a self-regulating and self-healing mechanism. In manipulating aggravated sections of the body, they are able to assist in accelerating these mechanisms. Both disciplines started in America in late 1800s – Osteopathy in 1874, then Chiropractic followed in 1895.

The word osteopath derives from the latin osteo, meaning bone, and pathos, meaning disease. When osteopathy was first founded by Dr Andrew Taylor Still in 1874 in Kansas, USA, he was dubbed a “lightning bone-setter”. Dr Still was a conventional medical doctor who became frustrated with his profession after his 3 children fell perilously ill to spinal meningitis. He made it his life’s work to study the anatomy of the body and work out a better way to fight disease.

Pregnancy can be a wonderful time in a woman’s life. Not only does it herald change to your family life, but it can be a time of great reflection. The physical side of pregnancy can vary. You hear about those who go through pregnancy with no morning sickness and no pain, the whole thing is just a breeze. Lucky them. Most pregnancies will bring both positive and some negative physical symptoms.

Winter time in Melbourne – brrr! That cold weather really brings out those aches and pains. We’ve tried beating the Winter blues, but sometimes the aches and pains just keep on getting to us. So why does this happen? The answer is never simply black and white, but there can be some simple explanations for that niggling back pain that … Read More