What Is Osteopathy

Dr. Andrew Taylor (A.T.) Still founded Osteopathy in 1874 at a time when physicians were using various toxic substances like mercury and arsenic to treat patients.  He was precepted and trained by his father, as most physicians of the time were trained, with only about 10% attending a formal medical school.  A.T. Still was a medic in the Civil War, and was an Abolitiionist and a practitioner of Spiritualism, a popular minority religion in his era.  Spiritualists believed in a direct relationship with the Divine, who they felt spoke to them through visions.  He watched his wife and 2 of his children die from meningitis despite using all standard medical tools at his disposal.  A.T. Still had a vision while sitting at a corner in Baldwin, Kansas after the catastrophic loss of his family members.  A man who was wearing a turban appeared and gave AT Still the secrets to what he would ultimately call Osteopathy in 1874.  The ideas were so different from what Still had been practicing that he spent many years studying the remains of Indigenous graves that he was allowed to do autopsies on by local tribes that he had befriended over the years.

A.T. Still realized that structure and function were interdependent and that proper fluid exchange at the tissue level was a central issue in health and disease.  Arterial blood flow to an area was critical for the delivery of oxygen and nutrients and venous and lymphatic flow were critical for the removal of waste.  Interfere with this ebb and flow of fluids at the tissue level, and disease can manifest.  Still realized the importance of the Nervous System, especially the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS), and that the unimpeded function of the nervous system in health is necessary and essential.  He felt that any physician can find disease, but that a good physician can find Health, and help it manifest in areas where disease occurs.  Still believed in the use of natural substances whenever possible and valued nutrition and exercise.  Because of his belief that structure and function were interdependent, he developed various manipulative techniques to help encourage the natural inherent healing properties that Still felt the body possesses.   His manipulative techniques were all based on Osteopathic Principles that he developed, and in fact he believed that his students should develop their own techniques based on these principles, and he never taught specific techniques at the AT Still University College of Osteopathy that Still started in Kirksville, Missouri in 1874.  Before starting Osteopathy, Still had been trained in Bone Setting, a layperson form of manual therapy common in England, and generally performed by barbers.  He taught several seminars on Bone Setting throughout the Midwest, and on several of the course sign in sheets was the signature of D.D. Palmer who would ultimately start the Chiropractic profession a few years after Still founded Osteopathy in 1874.

Unfortunately, the Osteopathic profession has changed dramatically over the years, and likely would be unrecognizable to Still today.  There are now about 42 Osteopathic medical schools around the United States and several throughout the world.  After Still died in 1917 the profession started to teach pharmacology in the 1920’s, even though Still felt that the body had its own drug store that could be activated to restore health.  When Still founded Osteopathy his goal was to improve the practice of medicine, surgery, and midwifery.  Osteopathic physicians practice in all the various medical and surgical specialties, but sadly there is little to differentiate their approach from Allopathic (MDs) physicians.  The key ingredient that differentiates Osteopathy from Allopathy is the use of OMM.  In earlier days D.O. surgeons and specialists performed OMM, and at the Osteopathic schools yearly minimum supervised treatments were required to graduate.  It is no longer necessary to become proficient in OMM to graduate, and most students who attend D.O. schools only matriculate because they were unable to get into an Allopathic school.  For this reason, Dr. Kavieff mentors interested Osteopathic students and physicians, and he has been involved in teaching as an adjunct faculty member at MSUCOM and previously at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, and he has helped direct local Osteopathic study groups.  Dr. Kavieff feels very blessed to have found Osteopathy and believes strongly in Still’s words, “DO stands for Dig On”, and regularly goes to various courses taught by Osteopaths worldwide.