Treatable Conditions

The wide range of conditions that can be treated by Osteopathy can be surprising. Below are a list of conditions and their possible causes. Please see the How Treatment Works page for details of how they can be cured.

  • Back and Neck Pain
  • Muscular Problems
  • Sports Injuries
  • Repetitive Strain Injuries
  • Frozen Shoulder
  • Hip, Thigh and Leg Pain
  • Stiffness and Posture Issues
  • Arthritis
  • Ankle pain
  • Constipation
  • Irritable Bowel Syndrome
  • Foot pain
  • Groin pain
  • Hamstring
  • Joint pain
  • Knee pain
  • Panic attacks
  • Period pain
  • Rheumatism

Symptoms

Sharp pain behind the eye with a sense of tensile pulling over the top of the head either side of the centre line terminating in a point of stiffness or aching in the neck.

Judgement

It is not caused by stress or anxiety, you just feel it when you become anxious as you hold your shoulder muscles tightly and these insert into the neck at the same point as the membrane that covers the brain. The pulling sensation is the membrane inside your head (the meninges) which attach inside your skull behind the eye. They are suspended from two internal crests of bone running through the roof of the skull and anchoring inside the top of the neck to the inside of the bony arch of the upper neck.

Cause

The tiny muscles of the joints between the bones of the neck are tightened on a reflex basis and pull the membrane from its attachment points within the skull.

Symptoms

A headache that comes on following warning symptoms (a prodrome) that may be flashing lights, broken vision, hallucinations of smell or taste, an inability to remember words or difficulty speaking. This is then followed by an intense pulsing headache covering the whole head, which may last 24 hours.

Judgement

It is caused by reduced blood supply to the brain because of irritation of the artery running through neck into the base of the brain. The initial lack of blood and therefore oxygen gives the prodromal symptoms. The brain cannot survive without oxygen and these are the warning symptoms. The brain overrides the restriction by dilating the artery and demanding the blood. The blood then pulses at great pressure through the membrane inside the head (the meninges) giving extreme pain.

Cause

The tiny muscles of the joints between the bones of the neck are tightened on a reflex basis and restrict the blood supply to the base of the brain.

Symptoms

Extreme pain, burning or soreness running either the whole length of the leg, or just parts of the buttock, hamstring or calf.

Judgement

Physical pressure on the root of the sciatic nerve as it exits the between base of spine and through holes in the bone that joins the two halves of the pelvis (the sacrum).

Cause

The tiny muscles of the joints between the bones of the lower back are tightened on a reflex basis and pull through the muscles either side of the spine misaligning the pelvis.

Symptoms

Local pain in the back which may be sharp or very restricted and stiff. The back pain can be associated with arm or leg pain.

Judgement

from one vertebra to another. They can bulge to one side if they are very compressed on the other side, as would any soft tissue. The bulge (which is called a herniation) does produce local pain and sometimes causes pressure on the nerve root which gives pain through the limb.

The disc is not the problem, it bulges to one side because the spine has tightened. The bulging disc occupies a space it should not and presses on local nerves and tissues. There is a condition where the jelly ball in the centre of the disc bursts and produces a bulge. This is called a prolapsed disc. It is extremely rare and will require surgery. If a disc is truly prolapsed then all the pain will go following the surgery.

Cause

The tiny muscles of the joints between the bones of the spine are tightened on a reflex basis and compress one side of the disc, causing a bulge on the other side.

Symptoms

Burning pain in the chest where the food pipe (oesophagus) meets the stomach, usually after eating or drinking, a build up of gas or wind, a feeling of indigestion or difficulty swallowing food.

Judgement

The stomach is underneath the large flat muscle which enables breathing (the diaphragm). The pipe that runs through it taking food from the mouth to the stomach (the oesophagus) runs through a gap where the diaphragm muscles divide (called the hiatus). It is possible to draw the top the stomach through this gap and pinch it off from the rest of the stomach. When one structure bulges through another, it is called a hernia.

When the food comes down the oesophagus into the small bubble of stomach above the diaphragm, it will not be able to pass through the narrow gap into the stomach below. Therefore the food overflows back up into the oesophagus (refluxes). However, there is now stomach acid mixed with the food. The stomach is lined to protect itself from the acid, but the oesophagus is not. The acid begins to burn the oesophagus which causes the pain of heartburn.

The feeling of indigestion is the food being unable to pass out of the oesophagus into the stomach. Similarly, the gases have to flow back up the oesophagus and out of the mouth.

Cause

The stomach has been pulled through the diaphragm either by retching or vomiting or over straining abdominal pressure when the diaphragm is too tight. The diaphragm is tightened by the splenic nerves which keep it contracting and expanding to enable breathing. These nerves come from the middle of the neck and will be irritated by the tightening of the tiny muscles of the joints between the bones of the spine.