Osteopathic Medicine - Yea or Nay?

[Jason]

In accord with my previous "yea or nay?" thread on colon cleansing I'm curious about osteopathic medicine (OM). Although it is unfair to sort of put it in the same vein as colon cleansing, my intent is not really to lump them together, these are just things I'm curious about at the moment.

Right now I sort of know a little bit about OM, the basic principles and all, but not much. It sounds like a good option to me. They do go through med school, so they know medical science, and they seem to be open to different approaches than the standard medical community (I don't think ALL alternative/homeopathic/etc treatments and lifestyles are bad).

Anyway, what say you, the SD.NET community, about OM?

[Alyrium Denryle]

yea. Modern osteopathic medicine, in the US at least, is simply a different approach to go about treating illnesses, focused on letting the body take care of itself before other more traditional techniques are tried, they probably would not recommend a diet change for treating cancer, but WOULD recommend one as part of an overall cancer treatment for example.

[The Spartan]

To add to what Alyrium said, it's generally a good supplement to modern medicine but not a replacement for it. Though one should obviously check with one's doctor before trying anything as certain osteopathic treatments can have adverse interactions and/or side effects, especially with more serious medical issues such as cancer.

[Broomstick]

Oddly enough, I once worked for the Osteopathic Medical Association...

Over the years osteopathic medicine has converged on the MD-style "allopathic" medicine. Osteopaths tend to emphasize general medicine and holistic medicine - for example, they would tend to emphasize proper and appropriate nutrition during cancer treatment or post-surgery; for diabetes, heart disease, and so forth they'd emphasize lifestyle and diet changes over drugs. The tend to be less interventionalist than MD's, although when appropriate they will go inside the body or use pharmaceuticals.

However, I have never met, nor do I know of, any DO (Doctor of Osteopathy) who would hesitate to refer someone with cancer to a cancer specialist for traditional chemo/radiation/surgery. They are not, by any stretch of the imagination, fringe types.

Some MD's still do not like them (for decades the AMA tried to put the OMA and DO's out of business, but there was a BIG lawsuit over that, the osteopaths won) but that is becoming much less common an attitude. There are osteopathic hosiptals of good reputation, there are osteopaths working as primarially MD hospitals, the Chief Medical Officer of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois and Texas is a DO (at least, he was when I was still employed by Blue Cross), and in general they're an accepted part of the medical establishment.

Wouldn't hesitate to have a DO as my primary doctor

[FireNexus]

My family doc is a DO, and I've certainly never had issue with him.

[Superman]

Most DO's these days do the same residency programs that MD's do. I know a neurologist who is a DO.