We concentrate on you, the patient. We talk to you and establish what might be causing your problem.
We give you a diagnosis based on a thorough examination. We treat the cause of your problem not your symptoms.
We help your body to help itself. We give you time, and someone to talk to about your problem.
We provide treatments that are unique to you.
The healing power of osteopathy
.Räuberpost- Article published in autumn 2016.
.My first contact with osteopathy was after the birth of a friend's first child. The short version: the little girl cried a lot and drank badly at the breast - a KISS syndrome was diagnosed and after a visit to the osteopath the child was like changed and the problems gone. Such reports are not isolated cases and also in our family osteopathy could already help in various ways. If I then read press articles such as "Invented disease: Biedermann's crooked babies" (Spiegel 12/2009) or "Osteopathy for children: Hands without healing power" (SVZ of 26.9.2015) I am angry that the many good experiences are disparaged as coincidences and our decision for this treatment method as naivety. In the field of tension between double-blind studies and so-called "fashionable diagnoses", many parents simply see the benefit for their child. What may be the basis for this and their view of osteopathy (and especially the KISS syndrome), we asked Christiane D. Strauss, osteopath in Wismar and specialized in infant and child treatments.
.Räuberpost: Ms. Strauss, why does osteopathy have such a bad reputation with many lay people, but also medical professionals?
Christiane D. Strauss: There are functional disorders of the body, which can not be detected with devices of our medical technology, but perhaps only as an experienced practitioner with his hands to feel. If already functional disorders or the causes of the complaints are poorly measurable, I can even worse prove the treatment results according to the methods of traditional medicine.
However, this is regularly countered by the greatest recognition of the therapies by midwives and parents of treated infants and children.
People who exclusively recognize so-called "evidence-based medicine" will find few large-scale studies of osteopathy s effectiveness.
What diagnostic and treatment methods do osteopaths use?
Osteopathy is not magic, but is based on anatomy and physiology and their functional relationships.
We work with the hands, sensing disturbances of bones, joints and soft tissues and try to gently solve them.
Parents often know osteopathy in relation to a suspected "KISS syndrome". What is that exactly?
"KISS syndrome" is the abbreviation for "upper cervical induced symmetry disorders" in infants. Due to the birthing process and especially after obstetric interventions, such as suction-cup birth or cesarean section, the cervical spine may be severely stressed. Compressed upper cervicals can irritate nerves that pass through small foramen (openings) in close proximity and exit the skull. As a result, we can observe a wide variety of typical symptoms, such as a tilted head, breastfeeding problems or a favorite side when breastfeeding, the supposed "three-month colic" with restlessness, crying, cramped posture and poor sleeping.
.So KISS syndrome is more than just torticollis?
The German Society for Osteopathic Medicine e.V., sees the KISS syndrome holistically in the context of other disorders in infancy.
The nervous system, the intestinal mucosa, the mucosa of the upper respiratory tract and the body skin have the same developmental biological origin and are interdependent.
Compression of the cranial bones and upper cervical joints before or during birth can ir- rit the nervous system. Not only the well-known "three-month colic" could have its cause here.
Because of these functional relationships, pediatric osteopaths treat not only and not ostensibly the cervical vertebrae or the intestines, but also the nervous system by balancing tension between the bones of the skull, the upper cervical joints, the spine and in the sacrum.
But where does the pejorative stamp "fad diagnosis" come from?
In my conversations, for example with pediatricians, I often hear: "In the "old days" the babies also screamed, there was no osteopathy and the children also grew up!" KISS sympomatics also existed back then, it just didn't have a comprehensive description, i.e. diagnosis. But why shouldn't we make it easier for our children to start life? Or older children with frequent middle ear infections,asthma, bite disorders or concentration difficulties not try to help in this way?
Children's osteopathy understands itself holistically and in the context of all medicine, especially also to exclude serious diseases and structural disorders. "Fashionable diagnosis" is not a criterion for me here, medicine is always in flux.
Thank you for the interesting conversation!
Our interview partner Christiane D. Strauss is a physiotherapist and alternative practitioner with many years of professional experience. In 2009, after 5 years of training, she graduated in osteopathy according to the guidelines of the Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft Osteopathie e. V. and the Verband der Osteopathen Deutschland e.V. and completed various further training courses, including osteopathic infant and child treatment.
read more:
www.dgom.info (Dt. Gesellschaft für osteopathische Medizin e.V.; Infos zu osteopathisch behandelbaren Krankheitsbilder)www.stauss-osteopathie.de (Information of the author among other things to anatomical and functional background of osteopathy) "Wissenschaftliche Bewertung osteopathischer Verfahren" Article from the German Medical Journal 2009; 106(46)