Unity Osteopathy

The normal flow of fluids is essential for the body's optimal function.
- A.T Still M.D.

Happy 150th anniversary to osteopathy! 🎉

150.
We're here! One hundred fifty years ago, a disillusioned doctor was struck by an idea that would change his life, the town he lived in, and the patients he treated.

This new system of medicine he developed would later be called osteopathy, and news of his treatment successes attracted patients who travelled from across the country and around the world to seek treatment.

They came in such numbers that a railway to Kirksville was constructed, a hospital was built, and the American School of Osteopathy was established to train a new generation of osteopathic physicians.

From rural Missouri, osteopathic training spread across the U.S., the U.K., Australia, New Zealand and beyond.

One hundred and fifty years later, osteopathic practice in New Zealand is undoubtedly different from its humble origins in the American Midwest, but its benefits are still profound.

I hope you enjoyed these posts as much as I did researching and reviewing the archives over the past five months.

🎉 Happy 150th anniversary to osteopathy! 🎉

And remember our special 150th birthday offer, available until 30 June - book online using the booking code for three treatments for $150.

Thanks to Anna Grahlherr and the Museum of Osteopathic Medicine for supplying the image.
With permission from the Museum of Osteopathic Medicine, Kirksville, MO.

“On June 22nd, 1874, I flung to the breeze the banner of Osteopathy. For twenty-three years it has withstood the storms, cyclones, and blizzards of opposition. Her thread are stronger to-day than when the banner was first woven. Her colors have grown so bright that millions now begin to see and admire and seek shelter under her protecting folds from disease and death. Mothers and Fathers come by legions, and ask why this flag was not thrown to the breeze before.
“It has taken many years to prepare the ground to sow the seeds of this as well as any other truth that has come to benefit mans so be patient, have faith in God and the final triumph of truth, and all will end well.”

– Andrew Taylor Still, M.D., D.O., Autobiography of Andrew Taylor Still, 1897

A tale of a man in two portraits.

The upper right is AT Still in 1856 at 28 years of age. He was a travelling doctor working with his circuit-riding doctor-pastor father in the 'heroic' style of conventional medicine at the time, with a young family and wife living in frontier America.
He had yet to see the horrors of a civil war, the death of three children, his first wife, and being outcast from his community for his unconventional beliefs concerning his new style of medicine called osteopathy.

The main picture is of the smiling Old Doctor later in life, despite all that life threw at him. By the time of this photograph, he'd established a new medical school at the age of 65. He rebuilt the attached hospital twice to accommodate the prodigious growth in patients seeking treatment and achieved official recognition from state authorities for this new system of medicine.

All this from a thought that struck him 150 years ago, on June 22nd.

🎉 Happy 150th anniversary to osteopathy! 🎉

Thanks to Anna Grahlherr and the Museum of Osteopathic Medicine for supplying the image.
With permission from the Museum of Osteopathic Medicine, Kirksville, MO.

From 1875, Dr. Still practised in Kirksville, often travelling to neighbouring towns and counties to treat those in need. By 1885, when he coined the term osteopathy for his new system, his reputation was spreading. By the early 1890s, the Old Doctor's success and advancing age prompted Kirksville citizens to encourage AT Still to teach his method. After an unsuccessful attempt to train a handful of friends and family members, a school was built, and the first class was enrolled in 1892.
The first class graduated on March 4, 1894, and included three female osteopaths at a time when few women received any formal education.
There are now over 200,000 osteopathic physicians and osteopaths.

🎉 Happy 150th anniversary to osteopathy! 🎉

Thanks to Anna Grahlherr and the Museum of Osteopathic Medicine for supplying the image.
With permission from the Museum of Osteopathic Medicine, Kirksville, MO.

It would be several years before Andrew Taylor Still changed from describing himself as a 'lightning bone setter' to naming his new form of medicine 'osteopathy'. He would endure personal attacks, ostracism, and denouncement from the pulpit. However, his belief and perhaps a good measure of stubbornness pushed him on, and he soon won over the people of Kirksville and the surrounding area with the proven results of his treatment.
The trickle turned to a flood, and hundreds flocked to the town to be treated by the 'Old Doctor'. From the small room above Charlie Chin's store in a small mid-Western town came a philosophy and a system of medicine that would change people's lives.

Thanks to Anna Grahlherr and the Museum of Osteopathic Medicine for supplying the image.
With permission from the Museum of Osteopathic Medicine, Kirksville, MO.

🎉 Happy 150th anniversary to osteopathy! 🎉

Find it, fix it, and leave it alone.
Nature will do the rest.
-A.T. Still M.D. D.O.

Thanks to Anna Grahlherr and the Museum of Osteopathic Medicine for supplying the image.
With permission from the Museum of Osteopathic Medicine, Kirksville, MO.

🎉 Happy 150th anniversary to osteopathy! 🎉

"When we take up the principles, we get down to Nature. It is ever willing, self-caring, self-feeding and self-protecting." - Dr A.T. Still, M.D. D.O.

🎉 Happy 150th anniversary to osteopathy! 🎉

As we round into the final week of 150 posts on osteopathy in its 150th year, here is Dr A.T. Still in his own words from his autobiography, republished in 1908, on the birth of his new system of medicine.

"My science or discovery was born in Kansas under many trying circumstances. On the frontier while fighting the pro-slavery sentiment and snakes and badgers, then later on through the Civil War, and after
the Civil War, until on June 22nd, 1874, like a burst of sunshine the whole truth dawned on my mind, that I was gradually approaching a science by study, research, and observation that would be a great benefit
to the world."

🎉 Happy 150th anniversary to osteopathy! 🎉

More sage sayings from the founder of osteopathy:
"The osteopath must remember that his first lesson is anatomy, his last lesson is anatomy, and all his lessons are anatomy."

And remember, our very special birthday offer is still open—book three treatments for $150 to celebrate osteopathy's 150th birthday.

Andrew Taylor Still, The Philosophy and Mechanical Principles of Osteopathy.

🎉 Happy 150th anniversary to osteopathy! 🎉

Man should never fail to listen to the music of nature; no notes ever jar the attentive listener’s ears, the more he hears, the better he likes it. -AT Still

🎉 Happy 150th anniversary to osteopathy! 🎉

"Osteopathy is to me a very sacred science. It is sacred because it is a healing power through all nature." – A.T. Still MD.

🎉 Happy 150th anniversary to osteopathy! 🎉

Ten days to go!
There are just ten days until osteopathy's 150th birthday on June 22nd. Remember, our exceptional limited offer to those who have never experienced its benefits is still available—a three-consult package to find the optimal you with osteopathy.

This offer is for new patients to Unity Osteopathy, for three visits scheduled and paid for before the end of June 2024.

Book now!

🎉 Happy 150th anniversary to Osteopathy! 🎉

Fascia
Dr Still was perhaps the first writer to consider the significance of the fascial system and its condition in the broader health of the human body.
His writings frequently referenced the fasciae, and many traditional and contemporary technique approaches have the fascial system as their therapeutic target. Freedom of fascial continuity is a goal of osteopathic treatment.

"This connecting substance must be free at all parts to receive and discharge all fluids, and use them in sustaining animal life, and eject all impurities, that health may not be impaired by dead and poisonous fluids."

"The soul of man, with all the streams of pure living water, seems to dwell in the fascia of his body."

"All… nerves go to and terminate in that great system, the fascia."

"By its action we live and by its failure we die."

🎉 Happy 150th anniversary to osteopathy! 🎉

Dr Still was perhaps the first writer to consider the significance of the fascial system and its condition in the broader health of the human body.

His writings frequently referenced the fasciae, and many traditional and contemporary technique approaches have the fascial system as their therapeutic target. Freedom of fascial continuity is a goal of osteopathic treatment.

"This connecting substance must be free at all parts to receive and discharge all fluids, and use them in sustaining animal life, and eject all impurities, that health may not be impaired by dead and poisonous fluids."

"The soul of man, with all the streams of pure living water, seems to dwell in the fascia of his body."

"All… nerves go to and terminate in that great system, the fascia."

"By its action we live and by its failure we die."

🎉 Happy 150th anniversary to osteopathy! 🎉

One of Doctor Still's most famous quotes, "To find health should be the object of the doctor. Anyone can find disease."

– A.T. Still MD, DO From Philosophy of Osteopathy

🎉 Happy 150th anniversary to osteopathy! 🎉

In Still's words, a definition of osteopathy from 1897.

Image: Museum of Osteopathic Medicine, [1982.705.01] Autobiography of Andrew Taylor Still 1897, Definition of Osteopathy

🎉 Happy 150th anniversary to osteopathy! 🎉

Just two weeks to go till the 150th birthday of osteopathy! Here's another quote from the founder, Dr Still.

Before you can go out in the world and fight the fight, you must master human anatomy and physical laws. – Dr A. T. Still MD

🎉 Happy 150th anniversary to osteopathy! 🎉

A quote from A.T. Still on the aim of the osteopath:
Any variation from health has a cause, and the cause has a location. It is the business of the osteopath to locate and remove it (the cause), doing away with disease and getting health instead.
- from Osteopathy Research and Practice

🎉 Happy 150th anniversary to osteopathy! 🎉

What is osteopathic philosophy?
Osteopathic philosophy is simple - the musculoskeletal system must be aligned for all body systems to function optimally.

🎉 Happy 150th anniversary to osteopathy! 🎉

Times have changed since the early days of osteopathy.
The primary mode of transport involved the horse. Most lived and worked in rural farm settings.
While that has certainly changed, we still have the same anatomy and healing mechanisms to augment with osteopathic treatment.
These days, however, osteopaths treat without ci**rs and waistcoats! 😉

Thanks to Anna Grahlherr and the Museum of Osteopathic Medicine for supplying the image.
With permission from the Museum of Osteopathic Medicine, Kirksville, MO.

🎉 Happy 150th anniversary to Osteopathy! 🎉

Before you can go out in the world and fight the fight, you must master human anatomy and physical laws. - A.T. Still

Dr Still's advice to osteopaths is to focus on human anatomy.

🎉 Happy 150th anniversary to Osteopathy! 🎉