An Osteopathic Approach to Optimizing Health this Cold and Flu Season
Osteopathy is a set of practices and principles designed to bring us back into coherence with nature's inherent rhythms.
When we get sick, it is nature's way of telling us that we have fallen out of alignment (resonance, coherence, harmony) with our natural rhythm.
Understanding the core tenants of Osteopathy can help in creating a roadmap to getting back on track towards your optimal health as quickly and naturally as possible. Let's examine how getting/being sick is viewed from an Osteopathic perspective.
Osteopathic Tenant: The body has self-healing and self-regulating mechanisms.
In Osteopathy, it is believed that nature, and thus the body, is smarter than the brain. Osteopaths believe that humans need to trust their bodies and that if one falls ill, it is for a reason.
The two primary reasons people get sick:
The body is trying to process something and uses the illness to accomplish this task.
It needs something that it is not getting.
For example, I will relate the human body to a house plant, because both are dictated by the same laws of nature. For a house plant to thrive, it needs 3 things: water, sunshine and nutrient-dense soil. If it is denied any of these three basics things, it will wilt (get sick) and eventually die. It is important to remember that it needs all three of these things, not just two. Humans also should not skip sunlight or nutrient dense food when healing.
Below are three essential building blocks the human body needs to thrive.
Rest: The immune system is most active when at rest, specifically when asleep. Therefore, it is essential to prioritize rest. A reason someone fell ill in the first place may be because their body was run down and needed more rest. Whether that is the case or not, everyone needs rest to help aid in getting well sooner. Get to resting, so your immune system can get to work.
Hydration: Depending on age, the body is comprised of approximately 70% water. To get well, it is essential to optimize hydration. We need the ample water in our bodies to enhance the flow of nutrients and oxygen. In addition, to flush out toxins through the blood and lymphatics requires good hydration.
Note: If you have a fever:
Drink fluids! It is common for people to underestimate how dehydrated they become when they have a fever and thus get behind of optimal hydration to help your body heal.
Have electrolytes. This could be in the form of adding Celtic or Himalayan sea salt to the water, coconut water, an electrolyte pack, etc.
Sunshine: Utilizing the sun is just as important for us as it is a house plant. We used to think that only plants could generate energy from sun via photosynthesis. However, we now know that the water in our body is also able to take the energy from the sun and convert it to potential energy in the form of structured water. The body is so wise and amazing! The large percentage of water in our body can hold the charge from the sun (like a battery) and use the energy generated to help it accomplish our metabolic tasks (homeostasis). Utilizing the sun, by sitting in front of a window when sick instead of just in a dark room watching TV, will help the body boost the energy it needs to clear out the waste and return to a state of health.
Osteopathic Tenant: The body is a unit of mind, body and spirit.
I know we all like to blame the person next to us in the grocery store that was coughing, but the truth is, the body would not have necessarily gotten sick from an exposure if something else wasn’t also going on in your life that was incongruent with your highest and best self. We need to consider each of these facets as a possible area that needs attention to get us back to feeling well. Here are a couple of questions to consider when trying to figure out why you got sick.
Is your mind so preoccupied and stressed about something that you are ignoring the needs of your physical body?
Are you living out of alignment with what your spirit truly wants, which drains your energy a little bit every day?
Osteopathic Tenant: Structure and function are reciprocally interrelated.
If one of the tires on my car is flat, I do not drive it until I put air in the tire. However, humans do not practice this adage as religiously when it comes to their own bodies. From an Osteopathic perspective, ensuring that the structure is optimized is an essential component to getting better and staying better. When you get a bacterial infection, there is a good chance there is stagnation somewhere in the body leading to diminished flow of your lymphatics and thus giving bacteria time to accumulate to clinically significant levels ultimately leading to illness.
Here is an example of the first time my son got sick:
He was about 9 months old and had never been sick before. He was crawling backwards down the stairs (as babies do), then fell down and hit his head (also as babies do). He cried hard and had a red bump on his forehead but all in all he was okay. Two days later, he was sick with a fever, congestion and fussiness. It was not severe, and most moms would have considered him getting sick just another thing that babies do. However, as an Osteopath and a mom, I could not help analyzing everything about this life that preceded him getting sick. What had changed? Sure, he had been around some sick kids, but he was around sick kids all the time. I remembered his fall on the stairs and instantly knew that this was a key component to him getting sick.
The bones of the skull are not fused together. They slide back and forth on one another like the subtle oscillation of the gills on a fish. When my son hit his head, he jammed a couple of bones onto each other, and they got stuck. (Fun side note: crying can be a helpful mechanism after a fall. It was the body’s attempt to get the bones unstuck.) Since the bones were not moving optimally, the lymphatics also were not able to drain as effectively. Therefore, inflammation could not move from the skull to the chest where lymph is processed. Instead, it stayed in his head and the congestion became an ideal environment for microbes to flourish. The fever was a way to burn out the toxins because they could not drain.
Getting sick is often a result of many different insults – stress, exposure, poor diet, restriction in the body, etc. and in order to get better as quickly as possible, it is important to think holistically. Consider ALL of the reasons that contribute to getting sick.
Should you get a treatment when sick?
If you get sick, it is safe to say that you would benefit from a treatment to optimize lymphatic flow.
The high yield areas that commonly experience restrictions are:
the diaphragm
the thoracic inlet (top of the shoulders)
the base of the skull
If it is logistically difficult to receive a treatment while actively sick because your practitioner wants to minimize exposure for themselves, then you can work on these areas yourself. You can focus on deep breathing into those areas, massage, stretches, or utilizing the jets on a hot tub. While obviously not ideal compared to someone’s knowledgeable hands, decreasing the restriction any degree is helpful.
Also, if you have access to Epsom salt baths, this is a great detox tool. Utilizing a sauna is another great activity for helping to get better faster because it helps to detox your body from inflammation, which helps clear your lymphatics as well.
Want to learn more ways to feel better? Read this: Hormones: 3 Easy Lifestyle Adjustments to Improve Your Mood and Libido
The opinions shared in this blog post are for informational and educational purposes and do not replace advice from your personal medical and healthcare professionals. Please see our Medical Disclaimer at the bottom of our website and always seek medical advice from your personal and established healthcare providers.
