What Osteopaths Treat

Osteopathy is a type of manual therapy.  Manual therapists are practitioners that use their hands (primarily) in order to help people.  This may be in the form of soft tissue or massage techniques, joint manipulation (clicking), joint stretching, neuromuscular techniques, lymphatic techniques and joint mobilisation techniques.  These techniques may be used to:

  • free a restricted joint,

  • relax a muscle,

  • reduce swelling,

  • correct the position of a bone that is out alignment (or “out”),

  • improve blood flow,

  • reduce pressure on a nerve or to help an injury heel faster.

 

Other manual therapies include Physiotherapists, Chiropractors and occasionally some doctors use manual therapy techniques.

In New Zealand, Osteopaths are statutorily registered practitioners. Five years, full-time training is required in order to become an Osteopath. This training covers anatomy, physiology, pathology and general medical diagnosis in addition to Osteopathic technique. Osteopaths are primary care practitioners, and are trained to be able to recognise conditions which require medical referral. They are also trained to carry out standard medical examinations of the cardiovascular, respiratory and nervous system.

Back and neck pain

Low back and neck pain are the two most common regional presentations to our clinic. Two reasons for this is the high prevalence of pain in these regions and the association of Osteopathy with spinal care. The lifetime prevalence for low back pain and cervical spine (neck) pain are 80% and 70% respectively. Low back issues are the number one reason that individuals seek assistance from their general practitioner.

How to fix Back and Neck Pain

We see a lot of low backs and necks, and we are good at treating them. At OsteoMe we have developed a strong diagnostic, treatment and management model. When you see us about a lower back or neck issue, we will take time to establish a diagnosis and treatment plan, both of which we will communicate to you. Within treatment we have many options including the use of Osteopathic Manual Therapy, The McKenzie Method (MDT), Physiotherapy techniques, Acupuncture and Pilates exercises. This helps us to have very good outcomes with our patients. In the case of a patient who is not responsive to treatment or where it is not appropriate or safe to have treatment at our clinic, we have a good referral network of other practitioners including Orthopaedic and Musculoskeletal specialists.
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Acupuncture

Acupuncture improves the body’s natural healing processes by stimulating and correcting energy flow and meridians in the body which are linked to specific internal organs and systems. By inserting very fine needles into meridian points around your body, acupuncture can help you to bring the body’s energy back into balance and speed the recovery. Conditions Acupuncture can treat:

  • Musculoskeletal pain, including pain of the neck, back, shoulder, knee and ankle

  • Headaches and migraines

  • Sleeping disorders

  • Gastrointestinal issues

  • Women’s health

  • Osteoarthritis

  • Emotional states

Here at OsteoMe, a high standard of traditional Acupuncture treatment can be performed by our qualified Acupuncturist to decrease your pains and promote the natural self-healing process. Our goal is not only in offering a long-term solution to your injury, but also keeping you on track towards a healthy lifestyle. We are able to deliver you the best outcome because we provide personalised acupuncture services designed to meet your needs. “I have had a number of Acupuncturists over the years, I have found Xuan to be the most gentlest with needle handling and communicative practitioner yet”. Hamish Syrett

Sciatica and femoratica

Sciatica and Femoratica are terms relating to the inflammation and irritation of nerves that exit the spine in the lumbar region. Typically, sciatica affects the back (posterior) of the leg, and femoratica affects the front (anterior). Symptoms of sciatica and femoratica include sharp shooting pain, pins and needles, numbness and muscle weakness. These conditions are most commonly caused by a disc prolapse (bulge) which compresses and irritates an adjacent nerve root.

How we fix Sciatica and Femoratica

It is in our scope of practice to treat and manage sciatica and femoratica and just like low back pain we have good procedures for doing so. Sciatic and femoratica involve quite significant tissue disruption and do take time to heal. Appropriate management during this process is therefore very important. Pharmaceutical intervention is important here so often we advise a consultation with your GP to work out the best medicines for you. In some circumstances referral to an Orthopaedic or Musculoskeletal Specialist is required in the treatment of sciatic and femoral nerve issues however 80% can be managed with conservative therapy.

Headaches

There are many different types of headaches and many different causes for them. Two common types of headaches come from the neck – tension headaches and cervicogenic headaches.

As the name suggests, a tension headache relates excessive tension in the muscles in the upper back, cervical spine and upper shoulders. This tension can result in irritation of the muscles at the top of the neck and where these muscles attach to the skull. Tension headaches typically present across the back of the base of the skull, across the forehead or both. They are often related to poor postural habits and sometime stress can be a factor.

Cervicogenic headaches come from joint issues in the top of the neck. Because of the way we are wired (in terms of nerves) pain from a joint in the neck can often be referred onto the head. Cervicogenic headaches will typically present on one side of the head (unilateral) and generally radiate from the back of the head forwards.

How we fix Headaches

Although these headaches can be quite debilitating they respond very well to treatment and often only require 2-3 consultations to sort them out. With both of these types of headaches posture is important and good posture needs to be adopted in order to prevent the headaches coming back.

Muscle Injuries

Muscle injuries are very common in members of the sporting population.  These can range from a simple strain to tears and rupturing of the muscle tissue.  It is important in these situations to establish the level of injury to the tissue, i.e. a simple strain that will recover in a week, to a tear that may require some weeks/months to heal and also require a more concerted treatment and rehabilitation plan.

How we fix Muscle Injuries

As Osteopaths we look at the broader biomechanical picture in these situations.  We do this to assess if the symptomatic tissue is having undue stress placed upon it due to surrounding imbalances or aberrant biomechanical patterns.  This can be important to reduce the probability of repeated episodes of tissue failure in these areas.

Joint Pain

Pains in peripheral joints such as shoulders, knees, ankles, wrists cab often cause you joint pain. Call us today for consultation on how to fix joint pain.

It is a common misconception that Osteopaths only treat spinal related pathology.  During our five years of training we are equipped to deal with musculoskeletal pathology over the whole body.

How we fix Joint Pain

We commonly see shoulder, knee and hip problems in the clinic and have good success treating these.  In the case where our approach is no sorting the issue or the diagnosed pathology is out of our scope of practice we have a network of Orthopaedic and Musculoskeletal specialists available for referral.

Overuse Syndromes

Overuse syndromes (repetitive strain): RSI, OOS, carpal tunnel syndrome, iliotibial band inflammation, trochanteric bursitis.

Sometimes we injure ourselves due to a cumulative strain rather than a specific incident.  In the situation where this happens at work we call it Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) or Occupational Overuse Syndrome (OOS).  These types of injuries can also happen outside of work due to a repetitive movement or action, running for example, and this can result in any number of pathologies.

Runners knee is a group of problems that occur around the knee. As the name suggests ‘Runners knee’ commonly occurs in the running population and describes a number of different pathologies including patellofemoral syndrome, ITB friction syndrome, chondromalacia patellae and anterior knee pain syndrome.  There is no specific incident here, it is simply an accumulation of mechanical stress eventually causing a breakdown in the tissue.

How we fix Overuse Syndromes

Management of any repetitive strain type problem needs to address underlying causation, i.e. poor work ergonomics in the case of RSI, biomechanical issues in the case of runners.  In addition to reviewing these underlying causes, manual therapy treatment (i.e. what we do in clinic) can help to reduce the severity and longevity of the associated symptoms.  It can be necessary in these cases to refer to your GP for a review on potential pharmaceutical intervention (most commonly anti-inflammatory medication), particularly if the symptomatic tissue is very inflamed.  In some cases, we may refer you for a cortisone injection to reduce inflammation in the symptomatic tissue.

Tendonitis

If you have ever had an issue with a tendon, you’ll know what a painful and difficult problem they are to deal with.  Tendonitis can effect your achillies, patella, gluteal, rotator cuff and elbow tendons, particularly in sports people.  Tendons may suffer due to prolonged over use or may have adaptive failure to a new or unfamiliar activity.  This is why it often pays (particularly as we get a bit older) to move carefully into new and unfamiliar exercise routines and sports.  Often with tendon issues there is no easy fix and good quality treatment strategies are important, these often include regular prescribed exercises to stimulate repair in the tendon.

How we fix Tendonitis

The main pathologies affecting tendons are: acute strains (tendonitis), tendinosis and tearing.  An acute tendonitis can clear relatively quickly however tendinosis and tendon tears are not easily fixed and require concerted rehabilitation programmes.  As part of management we have the option of referring you for Ultrasound scans to view the status of the tendon.  In the case of more severe tearing of the tendon we may refer you to a sports doctor for further review.

Sports Injuries

Although often not well utilised in this area, Osteopaths are well equipped to treat and manage sports injuries.  Hamish and Shanon have strong sporting backgrounds and are familiar with many of the issues and injuries sports people can face.

We are interested in your Sports Injuries

Sports related issues is a particular area of interest to Hamish, who is currently studying a Post Graduate Certificate in Sports Medicine at Auckland University.

OsteoMe is a sponsor and treatment provider to the Hibiscus Coast Cricket Club, Whangaparaoa Tennis Club and Orewa Badminton Club.

Postural Issues

Postural Issues, or Postural Syndrome, most commonly affects the neck, upper back and top of the shoulders however it can affect anywhere in the body where a sustained non-neutral posture is used on a regular basis.

These sustained non-neutral postures put a low grade stress on tissues such as muscles, ligaments and joint capsules. If these tissues are exposed to this loading for a short period of time it is of little consequence however if repeated, prolonged exposure occurs these tissues can become inflamed, irritated and painful.

People prone to postural strains and postural syndrome are those in sedentary jobs (i.e. desk based), especially with poor ergonomics (poor workstation set up).  It is common for people with postural syndrome to have a daily pain pattern of waking feeling ok but having progressively worsening pain throughout their working day.  Often weekends are better provided they are not using sustained postures in their free time as well.

How we treat Postural Issues

Treatment effect is often strong for these patients however the benefits of treatment can be short lived if ergonomic and postural issues are not addressed.

Babies and Infants

Osteopaths have an excellent range of approaches for babies and infants.  We most commonly see babies that are: having trouble sleeping; are unsettled and crying; having difficulty moving their head to one side; and in pain.  Our techniques are very gentle involving gentle movements, soft tissue work and cranial technique.

There are number of different reasons for babies presenting with the above issues, some of these include: colic, reflux and silent reflux, upper cervical (neck) dysfunctions, joint dysfunctions and tissue imbalances.  We generally prefer that you’ve seen your GP with your little one before coming to see us so that they are also monitoring the situation.  We know within a relatively short period of treating babies whether our approach will work (generally within 3 treatments) and if it hasn’t we will advise your GP.