18/06/2025
Osteopathy can be difficult to define scientifically, but not because it lacks scientific merit.
Why is this so?
🕰 Because it predates much of modern medical science
🧠 It’s rooted in a systems-based, biopsychosocial model. Modern science tends to isolate variables for testing
✋ Manual therapy is difficult to measure. Touch-based treatments involve:
-Individualised techniques
-Practitioner skill and experience
-The patient’s unique response
All of which are challenging to quantify, replicate, or “double-blind” in trials — a core standard of scientific validation.
Its complexity, hands-on nature, and whole-person focus make it scientifically challenging, not scientifically invalid.
Founded by A.T. Still who was a trained, licensed Medical Doctor and practising Surgeon in 1874 (Physiotherapy was established in 1894, Chiropractic in 1895)—Before X-rays, blood tests, sterile surgery, or antibiotic. Still imagined a system of care where the body’s structure, function, and healing potential were central.
Osteopathy was a truly revolutionary approach to health in its patient centered care model.
Its principles were recorded in the language of the time, making them feel outdated today. These principles are often misunderstood or dismissed in today’s fast-paced, symptom-driven system.
So, we asked ChatGPT to translate the four principles of Osteopathy written by A.T. Still into modern healthcare language.
The answer was one of the many things that cements our deep passion for our profession.
👐 Rooted in history. Relevant today.
