Osteopathy Concepts.

Dr. Still often said that his major contribution to osteopathy was in the realm of ideas, principally in the elaboration of osteopathic philosophy, which he believed was an accurate reflection of the essential laws of nature applied to the human being.

The first principle of osteopathy is that the body is a unit and functions as such. Reductionistic attempts to view the body as a collection of disparate parts ignore the reality that this is not how the system actually functions. The next principle is that structure and function are reciprocally interrelated. This is a central underlying theme of all osteopathic work, which, in diagnosis and practice, distinguishes it from other health care systems. The form or structure (from the macroscopic to the microscopic level) of each living creature is a perfect reflection of its function. Osteopathic physicians believe that nature is deliberate in its evolutionary development. Dr. Still would often study human structures and ask, “Why, in order to best accomplish its function, must this bone take the form that it does?” In this manner, the osteopathic physician can intimately understand the human biosystem. And, just as structure absolutely governs function, abnormal structure governs dysfunction.
Other basic principles of osteopathy are:

• The body possesses self-regulatory mechanisms.
• The body has the inherent capacity to defend and repair itself.
• When normal adaptability is disrupted or when environmental changes overcome the body's capacity for self-maintenance, disease may ensue.
• Movement of body fluids is essential to health.
• The nervous system plays a crucial role in controlling the fluids of the body.

There are somatic components to disease that are not only manifestations of disease, but also are factors that contribute to maintenance of the diseased state.
These basic principles are, as applicable, elaborated on many levels because humans are viewed as simultaneously experiencing physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual realities. Dr. Still alluded to this in part when he presented his discovery of what he called the Law of Mind, Motion, and Matter. In this sense, motion in the patient is seen as a material manifestation of the effects of the underlying forces in the universe.

A consistent theme in osteopathy is to constantly support the system in its quest for homeostasis and normalized function. Osteopathy concentrates on health and not on the eradication of disease; it is a system that views the body as an ally and teacher, not as the enemy or simply a mass of tissues; and it is a system that embraces life and all of its manifestations as part of a greater, intelligent, self-generating, self-healing Unity.