Reasons for Having Osteopathy

Osteopaths are often thought of as “back specialists” and this may be due to the fact that a large proportion of their patients often initially visited due to back pain. Chronic back pain is often untreatable by GPs due to the character of the condition and its occasionally non-specific origin. However the holistic nature of osteopathy can act to alleviate a number of the symptoms of back pain and help you to manage your life to reduce your risk of recurrence. So, if you have back pain that has been troubling you for a long period of time that you may have simply “learnt how to live with” then you might want to consider going to an osteopath to see if their treatment could alleviate some or all of your pain.

Equally, if you have just recently started having back pain either that was caused by an associated illness or a recent injury or that has no explained cause (as yet) you may want to seek osteopathic treatment. An osteopath may be able to diagnose the source of your pain (such as bad posture) and would be able to start treatment to try to alleviate some of your pain (taking any associated injuries or illnesses into account).


Due to the holistic nature of osteopathic treatment, osteopathy can provide health benefits to most people. So, you may want to consider visiting an osteopath if you suffer from asthma, headaches or migraines, digestive problems or any for any other reason that you think you are “slightly below fighting fit”!

Osteopaths to Treat Bad Posture

Bad posture is a common reason that people visit an osteopath. Bad posture can affect the whole body in lots of different ways and give you symptoms that you might not realise is caused by your posture. This is where going to an osteopath, who looks at your body as a whole system and could diagnose your symptoms in one part of your body as being due to a misalignment in another part of your body. A common combination is someone presenting with shoulder pain due to bad posture in the lower back.

Your osteopath would be able to advice you on how to correct your bad posture to allow you to reduce your pain in the long term whilst also treating your current pain using a mixture of touch, massage, stretches etc.

Pregnancy and Taking Your Baby to an Osteopath

If you are pregnant and suffering from aches and pains then osteopathy could help reduce your discomfort. Your osteopath will be able to discuss your particular problems and osteopathy can be used to ensure that the uterus and pelvis are lined up ready for birth.

A growing number of mothers will take their babies to an osteopath in order to monitor their baby’s growth and development in a holistic manner. This is not an alternative to taking your baby to your GPs for regular checkups, but acts as an additional way to keep your baby healthy. Osteopathy acts to help your baby (and you) to recover from the birth

Osteopathy as a Preventative Treatment

A number of patients go to an osteopath because a friend told them about their experience. This may give you an opportunity to use osteopathy in a preventative manner. The osteopath may be able to suggest ways for you to change your posture and/or habits so that you can reduce your risk of developing problems (such as back or hip pain) in the future. 

You may also wish to use osteopathy as a preventative measure if you have a job that involves sitting down for long periods of time or if you drive for a large proportion of the day. If you are a sports man or sports woman you may also want to consider preventative osteopathy to reduce your chances of developing repetitive strain injury or pain associated with injuries from carrying out your sport with bad posture.

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