Osteopathic doctors have D.O. after their name.
“Really what should separate us, what we’re taught in medical school, is a philosophy of practice” around how patients should be approached, Cain said.
Osteopathic medicine originated with a patient-centered approach and believes the body knows how to heal itself.
“If we go beyond that, what they try to teach us in our schools is that if we can provide the right conditions, the body can heal,” he said.
The conditions can come from surgery or medicine.
A second key principle behind osteopathic medicine “is that mind, body and spirit have to work together and that we can’t separate out those pieces,” Cain said.
“And so a person with a chronic disease that we’re trying to manage, if they’re also depressed or anxious, we won’t get the same kind of an outcome for them if we don’t address the big picture.”
A key third principle is that structure and function go together, he said.
Similar to what chiropractors learn, “Osteopathic physicians are taught to understand the body’s musculoskeletal system. So we look at the alignment and the function of the ribs and the spine and the other joints and try to make sure that those are functioning optimally and believe that if those aren’t, those impact health as well,” he said.
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