What is Osteopathic Medicine?

D.O.'s are Osteopathic Physicians who are fully educated and licensed to practice all aspects of medicine. They are Osteopthic Physicians who are certified as specialists in family medicine, obstetrics/gynecology, pediatrics, surgery, internal medicine and all of the other medical specialties and subspecialties.

They treat patients and prescribe medicine in offices and hospitals across the Country and the U.S. armed services. They use all of the resources of modern medicine to prevent, detect and treat disease; but they offer their patients something extra.

Osteopathic Physicians are specially trained to utilize Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment (OMT), a hands on approach when they diagnose and treat a patient, giving particular attention to joints, bones, muscles and nerves. OMT is employed to relieve pain and discomfort; and even more importantly it assists your body's ability to heal itself.

Osteopathic Family Physicians are D.O.'s ( Doctors of Osteopathy) who choose to specialize in Family Medicine and Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment (OMT).

Osteopathic Family Physicians provide disease prevention, diagnosis and treatment stategies to you and your famlly through all of life's stages, from infancy to end-of-life.

Osteopathic Family Physicians hold the following principles as central to their practice of medicine:

• Your are a person who is a unification of body, mind and spirit.
• Your body, when properly treated and maintained is capable of self-regulation, self-maintenance and self healing.
• If all of the parts of the body are functioning optimally you will maintain the highest possible level of health. That is, structure and function of the body are interrelated.

Because Osteopathic Family Physicians have an appreciation for the interrelationship between body, mind and spirit they can provide you with the most holistic and comprehensive medical care available.

Their appreciation of the relationship between structure and function and use of OMT allow them to diagnose and effectively treat conditions that elude non-osteopathic trained clinicians.

Your Osteopathic Family Physician treats you, the whole person; not just a disease or it's symptoms.

Visit www.acofp.org for more information. American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians.