Osteopathic Medicine and Rolfing® SI

Doctors of Osteopathy (D.O.'s) in the U.S. are medical doctors with additional expertise in Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine (OMM). You may be wondering what a D.O. can do, so I'll highlight a few key points:

•  D.O.'s focus on treating the whole body and on preventive care. This means a D.O. looks beyond symptoms and seeks the root causes of illness or disease. In addition to the regular treatment you may find with a typical M.D., a D.O. seeks to enhance overall health to support healing.

•  D.O.'s use OMM--a hands-on treatment--to support the goals of better health and faster healing. It feels very gentle and is done while the patient is fully clothed. OMM is mainly concerned with improving fluid flow: blood, lymph, and cerebrospinal fluid. These fluids must be able to flow freely through your body or disease, injury, and illness result.

 



*Note: traditional medicine may not detect problems with your body's circulation of fluids until an obvious symptom arises (like a sickness). The most efficient way to detect those issues is with touch. Just good old-fashioned hands-on palpation. D.O.'s are trained in this touch.

•  Rolfing® SI dovetails wonderfully with OMM in that structural alignment--the main goal of Rolfing SI--helps to support and maintain good fluid flow. The human body, among other things, is a series of fluid pumps separated by pressure membranes. In an organized body, walking and breathing generate the mechanical pressure needed to pumps fluids efficiently into and out of all of its tissues. 

If your ankles have ever swollen during a long plane ride, you have experienced the consequence of a fluid imbalance. The remedy? Walking. The muscle contractions in your legs pump the lymph fluid out.

 Side-effects of an organized body are ease of movement, a feeling of lightness, and a sense of groundedness at the same time. Since our minds and bodies are inextricably linked, feeling good in your body has profound effects emotionally and psychologically. Dr. Ida Rolf, the progenitor of Rolfing Structural Integration, stated as her goal for the work the full realization of human potential.