It is difficult to find anyone who has never had an injury of some sort. Heavy lifting strains, falls, car or bike accidents, surgery (including teeth extractions!), birth trauma for both the mother and baby, even emotional traumas... The list goes on. 

Osteopathic treatment can help with most injuries but there is more to it than meets the eye. Osteopaths are mediators in enabling your body to heal better, faster and more completely. And to do so, it is important to make sure the pre-injury balance has been restored. 

The body is a system of wondrous complexity and the trillions of cells that make it up are working relentlessly to maintain a constant state of dynamic equilibrium. The key word here is dynamic meaning fluctuations in both directions may and do happen all the time, but in health the balance is restored quickly and easily. How far you can deviate before reaching “a point of no return” depends on many factors, notably how big a force or stressor was applied to or sustained by the body and also how large the body’s functional reserve is. A perfectly healthy body can deal with most stressors effectively. A system weakened by chronic stress, poor nutrition, lack of physical activity, suboptimal posture, prolonged illness, as well as the burden of previous unresolved injuries and dysfunctions, may not be as efficient at restoring balance on its own. And if the trauma was great enough, even a healthy body has to incorporate the forces of the trauma into its pattern of functioning, and this is how the baseline efficiency of the body physiology becomes compromised. As a consequence, both the injured area and the whole body become more vulnerable to future strains.

Most people will agree that injuring their back, knee or ankle has forced them to move differently in an attempt to lessen the pain. In severe trauma, it may go even deeper than that and affect the internal workings of the body, as the cells have to include the added force into their function. Here is where an osteopath can help your body release the forces imposed on it, using very gentle techniques applied with great precision. Removing the added strain on your system means that you do not have to find ways of working around it by developing compensations both in the area and the rest of your body, and it also ensures that a quicker and more complete healing can now take place. Naturally, the sooner you seek treatment after an injury the better, but it is always gratifying to observe a good response even in case of an old injury with layers of ensuing compensations. 

The body physiology is seeking balance at all times and by synchronising with that process and encouraging it, an osteopath can bring you closer to the perfect balance that is Health. ​