This is the medical environment that pervaded throughout the 19th century, and the setting Still entered when he began developing his idea of osteopathy.ДЄfter experiencing the loss of his wife and three daughters to spinal meningitis and noting that the current orthodox medical system could not save them, Still may have been prompted to shape his reformist attitudes towards conventional medicine. Allopathic practitioners had a similar argument, labeling osteopathic medicine as unfounded, passive, and dangerous to a disease-afflicted patient. The osteopathic physicians-those who are now referred to as DO's-argued that the allopathic physicians had an overly mechanistic approach to treating patients, treated the symptoms of disease instead of the original causes, and were blind to the harm they were causing their patients. As each side sought to defend its practice, a schism began to present itself in the medical marketplace, with both practitioners attempting to discredit the other. Alternative medicine had its beginnings in the early 19th century, when gentler practices in comparison to heroic medicine began to emerge. Heroic medicine became the convention for treating patients, with aggressive practices like bloodletting and prescribing chemicals such as mercury, becoming the forefront in therapeutics. In the perspective of the DO physicians, the sympathy and holism that were integral to medicine in the past were left behind. A stronger movement towards experimental and scientific medicine was then developed. Doctors began shifting their focus from the patient to the internal state of the body, resulting in an issue labeled as the problem of the 'vanishing patient'. The foundations of this divergence may be traced back to the mid-18th century when advances in physiology began to localize the causes and nature of diseases to specific organs and tissues. Still established the basis for osteopathy, and the division between alternative medicine and traditional medicine had already been a major conflict for decades. This was opposed to orthodox practitioners, who held that intervention by a physician was necessary to restore health in the patient. These practices derive from the belief, common in the early 19th century among proponents of alternative medicine, that the body's natural state tends toward health and inherently contains the capacity to battle any illness. Still's patients were forbidden from treatment by conventional medicine, as well as from other practices such as drinking alcohol. Still claimed that human illness was rooted in problems with the musculoskeletal system, and that osteopathic manipulations could solve these problems by harnessing the body's own self-repairing potential. He lived near Baldwin City, Kansas, during the American Civil War and it was there that he founded the practice of osteopathy. Osteopathic medicine was founded by Andrew Taylor Still, a 19th-century American physician (MD), Civil War surgeon, and Kansas state and territorial legislator. The practice of osteopathy began in the United States in 1874. In the United States, graduates of osteopathic medical schools have the option to sit for both the osteopathic physician-specific COMLEX medical licensing exam and the allopathic USMLE licensing exam. Osteopathic manipulation is still included in the curricula of osteopathic physicians and is considered a unique aspect of Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) training. In the United States the training of osteopathic physicians is similar to that of Doctor of Medicine (MD) physicians. Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment (OMT) techniques are most commonly used to treat back pain and other musculoskeletal issues. Osteopaths attempt to diagnose and treat what was originally called 'the osteopathic lesion', but which is now named 'somatic dysfunction', by manipulating a person's bones and muscles. The techniques are based on an ideology created by Andrew Taylor Still (1828вЂ“1917) which posits the existence of a ' myofascial continuity'-a tissue layer that 'links every part of the body with every other part'. Parts of osteopathy, such as craniosacral therapy, have no therapeutic value and have been labeled as pseudoscience and quackery. Osteopathic manipulation is the core set of techniques in osteopathy. Its name derives from Ancient Greek 'bone' ( бЅЂПѓП„ООїОЅ) and 'pain, suffering' ( ПЂО¬ОёОїП‚). Practitioners of osteopathy are referred to as osteopaths.

Osteopathy is a type of alternative medicine that emphasizes physical manipulation of the body's muscle tissue and bones.

Alliance spine and pain