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Medicine

What Else Cesar Millan Taught Me About Medicine

By Health, Medicine, Osteopathy, Physical HealthNo Comments

It would always catch my attention when I would watch The Dog Whisperer television show and Cesar Millan would help dogs with self esteem problems by having the dog owners walk their dogs like if they were in a dog show. This would keep the dog to walk in a posture of confidence and from going into a posture of fear and self doubt. Walking the dog on a regular basis with its head held high like a confident dog would change the dog’s attitude and help give it confidence over time. One episode I saw, he not only adapted…

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3 Assumptions Doctors Make About Health

By Health, Osteopathy, Physical HealthNo Comments

According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the word health is defined as, “the condition of being sound in body, mind, or spirit; especially :  freedom from physical disease or pain.” In short, this is saying that health is simply the “absence of disease or pain.” Sounds good right? This definition of “health” is what drives the medical field today. Think about it. The traditional medical approach takes whatever symptoms people have and the medicine given is generally aimed at suppressing the symptoms or simply remove them. Because as long as those symptoms are not present, then one is “healthy.” If you have inflammation, you…

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What Doctors Can Learn From Cesar Millan

By Emotional/Mind Health, Medicine, Osteopathy, Physical HealthNo Comments

  Cesar Millan (a.k.a. The Dog Whisperer) is a person that I greatly admire and utterly respect for what he has accomplished and the value he has added not just to my life, but the life of many. The principles he teaches have helped me deal with not only my dog, but have taught me a lot about life in general. I recently watched a video where Cesar Millan spoke candidly about attempting suicide following the death of his beloved dog, Daddy, and learning his wife, Ilusion, was divorcing him. He reported that upon waking up in a psychiatric ward…

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Are You Considering The Iliacus In Low Back Pain?

By Osteopathic Techniques, Osteopathy4 Comments

Most manual practitioners view the iliacus muscle and the psoas major muscle as one muscle. These two muscles do share something in common and that is they both insert into the same tendon. In many books you’ll see them referred to as the ‘iliopsoas’ and are described as hip flexors. The ‘iliopsoas’ or even more often the psoas is blamed for a lot of back pain problems, especially when one has a difficult time straightening out.  The psoas is implicated for a lot of back pain issues. The iliacus, on the other hand, is difficult to reach as it is located…

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Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine Vs Prescription Medications: What Your Doctor May Not Tell You

By Health, Medicine, OsteopathyOne Comment

I recently requested to volunteer as a physician at a race. I was told that I could volunteer as a physician but that I could not provide osteopathic manipulative medicine (OMM) because the tents were not equipped for ‘major manipulations’ and that doing so is contraindicated on the athletes because they mostly have musculoskeletal issues and exhaustion. There are so many parts of this statement that shows ignorance about OMM, what it is, and how to use it. Somehow I do not believe that the same physician above would tell a specialist surgeon, whose specialty of which they have little…

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The Five Components of the Primary Respiratory Mechanism (Cranial Concept)

By Osteopathic Techniques, Osteopathy, Physical HealthNo Comments

In 1929, William Garner Sutherland, D.O. presented the idea of Osteopathy in the Cranial Field (OCF) also referred to as cranial osteopathy. ‘Craniosacral therapy’ is not the same as OCF and that will be discussed in other articles. OCF has been controversial since its origins for many reasons. OCF was not presented as a separate treatment modality but simply as an extension of the principles of osteopathy as described and taught by Andrew Taylor Still, MD, DO, the founder of osteopathic medicine. The new concept that Dr. Sutherland described was called the ‘Primary Respiratory Mechanism’ (PRM) with five components that…

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Why You Should Be Treating The Mandible During Your Cranial Treatments

By Osteopathic Techniques, Osteopathy, Physical Health4 Comments

Chances are that if you do cranial osteopathic treatment, you probably do not pay much attention to the mandible. Most of the treatments for the mandible have simply focused on treating the temporomandibular joints (TMJ). In this blog, I want to explain why as a practitioner of osteopathic manipulative medicine (OMM), you should pay more attention to the mandible even beyond the TMJ, such as intraosseous strains during your osteopathic manipulative treatments (OMT) . Releasing tension at the mandible can give profound pain relief throughout the body. This is done because of the mandible’s influence on the dura. The mandible…

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Why Popping Necks, Backs And Joints Is Not Effective In Permanently Resolving Pain Or Stiffness

By Osteopathy, Physical HealthOne Comment

Do you ever “pop” or “crack” your back by twisting? Does this ever truly resolve or keep you from needing to do this again? If the answer is “no,” then why would it be any different to have someone else do that to your spine? This article discusses what is missing when only this thrusting type of treatment is given and why I do not feel it is effective in giving permanent relief of pain and stiffness most of the time. People often describe osteopathic physicians as “chiropractors who can prescribe medications.” Although not accurate, part of this perception is…

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What My Mentor Taught Me About Osteopathy

By Osteopathy, Physical Health2 Comments

Always question, always challenge “Do you see how this patient’s tibias are bowed out?” asked the doctor.“Yes,” I replied as I ran my fingers along the patient’s shin bones. I was not really sure of what it was I should be appreciating that was significant. Next, the doctor moved one of his hands along the patient’s leg with a light touch as if he was looking for something. Suddenly his hand stopped along the outer thigh. I was not really sure what exactly we were doing. We waited a moment, and then he said, “Ok, now re-check the tibias.”  Just…

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Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine And Women’s Health

By Medicine, Osteopathy, Physical Health2 Comments

One of my favorite stories about what Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment (OMT) can do is the story of a mother of three who had been dealing with urinary frequency problems. This had been an issue for about 10 years and her life revolved around this problem. Headed on a downward spiral, she was unable to get a good night’s rest and was afraid to drive long distances or even go to the movies. Her life revolved around this problem and her frustration mounted as she had been to every specialist and tried every medication her doctor could think of without any…

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