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| Osteopathy
and Influenza
by Walter Llewellyn McKone D.O. |
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| How Osteopaths Treated Influenza Before we can understand how osteopaths treated influenza a few facts and misconceptions have to be cleared up. During the late 19th and early 20th century in the US osteopaths did not manipulate the same way they do today. They were true physicians, the word meaning to return to normal. As I have mentioned, medication and surgery were part of the osteopaths fight against disease in addition to nutrition and exercise. Over the years manipulation has changed from a surgical approach, where you treated what you found based on the anatomy in front of you, to the learning of procedures before you saw the patient and then applying the technique to the patient. What’s the difference? In the first case the osteopath would reason with the situation at hand never repeating the same approach twice. In the second case a technique is taught by mimicking the actions of another osteopath. You then apply the technique to the patient. This is not tailor-made for the patient and is ineffective for the patient’s personal problem. Modern manipulation is similar to going to football (soccer) training learning the drills and then trying to repeat the drills exactly as you learnt them during a game. The end result is no game and very dull. The object of manipulation is to improve circulation (blood and lymph) to and from organs, the movement of joints and muscle and in fact all tissue. A major misconception about influenza (or any infection) is that the virus causes the symptoms of sweating, headache, sore throat and an overwhelming desire to lie down. It doesn’t. People can be carriers of the virus without ill effects. Briefly this is what happens: |
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The osteopath helps to keep the circulation and white cells moving at their best to deal with the rapid accumulation of dead ECs. As long as the ECs are cleared at a rate that your body is comfortable with you will not exhibit the signs and symptoms of influenza. |
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| How is this achieved? The most important aspect is knowledge of anatomy. If a practitioner does not know their anatomy they cannot even begin to understand what to do. The main organiser of your circulation function is a division of the nervous system known as the autonomic nervous system. A subdivision of this is the sympathetic nervous system. It was called sympathetic because it is in sympathy with you in your environment. This part of the nervous system is what makes you blush and causes you to swell in summer and contract in winter. The osteopath knows how to feel the movement and obstructions to the function of the sympathetic nervous system. This is of paramount importance in the treatment of influenza or any infection. Additionally, because the body is going into a style of shock and stress there is an adrenaline overproduction. It is this overproduction of adrenaline that makes your muscles stiff and quickly results in fatigue and exhaustion. Adrenaline moves the circulation into the muscles and away from the vital organs, liver, kidneys etc. In extreme cases the organs collapse due to poor circulation and an excess of toxins from dead cells and the person dies. Young adults produce more immune cells and adrenaline than infants and the elderly; this was a characteristic of the 1917-18 pandemic. “…this epidemic was largely a young adult’s disease. The life insurance companies report their death claims from this cause average at thirty-three years of age as against fifty-five to sixty years of age of deaths from general causes.” H. L. Chiles, D.O., A New Survey of Public Health, (JAOA, Jan. 1919.) “The physiological picture of influenza centres around one of the smallest but most important and interesting organs of the body – the adrenal gland. …Its nerves come chiefly from the eleventh dorsal segment of the spine, just above the waist line. That is why the first symptom of this disease is usually backache in this region….In the female, it is the partner gland, the pituitary body, that is correspondingly more important. And you will notice there is a marked difference in the “flu” in males compared to females.” E. E. Tucker, D. O., New York, N. Y. Spanish Influenza – What and Why? (JAOA, Feb. 1919.) The osteopath has to literally “decompress the system.” Treatment is aimed at reducing obstructions to circulation caused by tight muscles, ribs that are not moving, organs (spleen) that are not pumping, nerve bundles (sympathetic nervous system) that need stretching, and immune (lymphatic) channels that need unblocking. All this happens at once during the treatment and treatment should be two to three times in two to three days. Is the virus removed? No. But the cause of the signs and symptoms is reduced and the reason for the virus to continue multiplying, resulting in immune suppression, is also drastically reduced. Osteopathic manipulation will get you back on your feet and there is no sign of that two week fatigue that most of us go through after the crisis is over. Think of the implications for the work place and the business world. As Ward (1937) wrote, “By retarding the virulence of the invading organisms, appropriate osteopathic treatment reduces the incidence of complications and forces down the mortality rate in these cases.” They used to call osteopaths “bloodless surgeons” and “fever fighters” in the nineteenth century and especially during the 1917-18 pandemic. Osteopaths have the history and the skill to make a major contribution to the reduction of deaths during an epidemic, pandemic or isolated cases of influenza. References Chiles, H. L. (1919) A New Survey of Public Health. Editorial in The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, January. p.227-230. D’Alonzo, G. E. (2004) Influenza Epidemic or Pandemic? Time to Roll Up Sleeves, Vaccinate Patients, and Hone Osteopathic Manipulative Skills. The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, September, Vol. 104, no.9, p. 370-371. www.jaoa.org Magoun, H. I. (2004) More About the Use of OMT During Influenza Epidemics. The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, October, Vol. 104, no. 10, p.406-407. www.jaoa.org Patterson, M. M. (2005) The Coming Influenza Pandemic: Lessons From the Past for the Future. The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, November, Vol. 105, no. 11. p.498-500. www.jaoa.org Tucker, E. E. (1919) Spanish Influenza – What and Why? The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, February, p.270-273. Ward, Edward A. (1937) Influenza and Its Osteopathic Management. The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, Vol. 37, no. 1, p.3-6. Thank you to: Andrew Oliver and Michelle Moynes, British School of Osteopathy, 4th year. |
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