Maine Integrative Wellness | Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine

Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine approaches the patient from an understanding of the complex balance between the musculoskeletal, circulatory, lymphatic, and nervous systems. Practitioners use "hands-on" treatments to diagnose and treat their patients. These treatments are gentle and safe and restore their natural balance inherent in our bodies. Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine works well to improve circulation, improve pain, restore mobility and range of motion, relieve spasm, and assist the body's natural ability to heal itself.

How Is Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine Different from Chiropractic Medicine?

Chiropractic doctors do not go to medical school, nor do they complete residency training. There is a basic difference between the philosophies of Chiropractors and Osteopathic practitioners. Chiropractic medicine views health as based on the nervous system, whereas the Osteopathic approach seeks to restore balance to the arterial, venous, and lymphatic circulation, improve sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system tone, restore healthy breathing, and restore or improve range of motion and flexibility.

Osteopathic practitioners do not simply massage the skin, but work with deeper fascia, muscles, tendons, ligaments, and bony joints. Also, massage therapists have not attended medical school or residency training.

Everybody! Many hospitals employ Osteopaths to treat newborn infants just after birth as well as their mothers. Similarly, many nursing homes use Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine to alleviate pain and spasm in their residents. Many people have minor imbalances in the musculoskeletal system that they ignore until their symptoms get out of hand. If you suffer from headaches, neck pain, back pain, or any other joint or muscle pain, then Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine should help you.