Osteopathy embraces the philosophy that the body has an innate or natural ability to self-regulate and to heal itself. The key factor that permits this process to proceed unimpeded is the ability of the body to circulate all of its fluids and liquids. These fluids include the blood, lymph, synovial fluid, digestive juices, cerebrospinal fluid, axoplasm, and all the other intra and extracellular fluids of the body.
These liquids carry many of the body's life-sustaining compounds, such as hormones, enzymes and their secretions, immune and anti-inflammatory factors, neural impulses, nutritional elements, and dissolved gases such as oxygen. These fluids are involved in all aspects of life, from the DNA that is suspended within the intracellular fluids, to the fetus which floats in the amniotic fluid. In addition these body fluids serve as mediums for excreting all the byproducts of digestion and cellular respiration.
Any obstruction that impedes the circulation of fluids within the body is the focus of osteopathic assessment and treatment. These impediments may take the form of structural or non-structural blockages. Structural or physical impediments include generalized twists, curves or pulled within the body as well as specific bones, organs or tissues that are misaligned. These faults may either affect the control of a system that controls fluid circulation, or affect the circulation of liquids along with the life sustaining and regulatory products that they carry.
Non-structural impediments may include emotional patterns that are responsible for maintaining the body in a certain adaptation of defense, such as predisposition to holding the breath. These adaptations are quite often responses to stressful incidents of the past, present, or are of a repetitive nature, such as raising the shoulders in times of stress or cold temperatures.
Over time, the body gradually loses its ability to efficiently self-regulate and to self-heal. Some of this loss may be due to the aging process, the prolonged influence of gravity on posture, trauma, accident, illness, surgical scarring, childbirth, repetitive activity, or the cumulative effects of mental, emotional, physical and spiritual stress.