Modern medicine has gone away from the importance of structure. It is very common for a person not to connect how a muscle pain can lead to organ issues. At the moment it seems to be the norm to go to the doctor for visceral issues, sickness, virus issues etc., and to go to a physical rehabilitator for all musculoskeletal issues. However, the medical doctor should be fully aware or how the structure can affect the physiology, and a physical practitioner such as an osteopath or a chiro should be totally aware of how a physiological issue can affect the structure of the body.
Even if you push a patient to give you a complete history, they will mainly only give you the history pertaining to issue they are seeing you for. For example, if a patient comes in with a pain in the low back, the history will only be thoroughly laid out for this injury. Even if you ask and sense that the patient is holding back on the physiological issues such as digestion or heart issues. The patient often will leave these issues out if they are seeing someone else such as a medical doctor or a naturopath for the issue.
Recently I was seeing a patient for low back pain. The pain is lessening, but still not where we want it to be. Although it is disappointing not to get rid the back pain completely, the progress is happening, and change in the structure of the body is noticeable which is always a good sign. This patient is also a good friend of a friend of mine, this is how I got the referral for her. While she was talking to my friend recently on the phone, she mentioned that her menstrual cycle was not heavy for the first time in years, for 2 straight cycles and how she was so relieved.
Every treatment I always ask if there has been any changes to digestion, urination and menstruation recently. Every time the patient has glossed over the issues and mentioned that there is no change. Most likely because she feels that Osteopathy is not aimed at affecting those areas of health. Even though I have learned information that the menstruation has completely changed during the 7 weeks I have been treating her. While observing her movements for any change from the week before, I reinforced to always mention if there is any change to the physiology questions, because it can give me a clue as to what is happening in the body. After that reinforcement, she mentioned that there was a major shift in her menstruation recently.
This is complete vindication of the third principal of osteopathy stating that structure and function are interrelated. You cannot affect the structure without changing the physiology, and you cannot change the physiology without changing the structure. ALWAYS EXPECT improvement in physiology and well being, with overall improvements to the structure.