What do we treat?

Osteopaths treat a wide variety of aches and pains.  We examine and treat the whole body, connecting the dots between pain in one area and problems in another.

Some of the most common complaints are listed below.  For simplicity I have divided them up into upper limb, trunk and lower limb (but as an osteopath I am interested in how all regions of the body work together).

This is just a brief selection, please call to ask about other issues if you are wondering how osteopathy could help you.

Upper Limb: shoulder, elbow, wrist & hand:

 

A few of the problems we treat in the upper limb include: frozen shoulder, tennis elbow, trapped nerve, joint pains, tendinitis and sports injuries.

Typical complaints would be:

“My shoulder hurts whenever I raise my arm”

“It’s sore to put my jacket on”

“My elbow hurts when I have to grip on to something”

“I’ve got pins and needles in my hand”

“The pain goes from my shoulder down my arm”

“My shoulder throbs at night”

“Whenever I move my arm quickly it catches”

Click here for a typical case: Shoulder pain at work

Linda was getting pain on top of her shoulder whenever she tried to lift things. This was making it difficult to stack the shelves at work so her boss suggested she come to see me. My assessment suggested she had a shoulder impingement syndrome and her tendons had become irritated.
After two treatments she was taking fewer pain-killers and finding it easier to lift things in the shop. We explored how she was moving and found that activating a certain muscle group dramatically reduced the pain, and she could suddenly reach higher. I gave her some simple exercises to activate these muscles and she found that doing them at home really helped speed up her recovery. Soon she was back at work without any problems.

“My experience of Daniel was for a badly trapped nerve and he sorted it out after four or five sessions.”

Back, neck, trunk and spine:

 

In the trunk we typically treat backache, sciatica, neck pain, headaches, trapped nerve, muscular spasm, and sports injuries among many others.

People often say:

“I just bent down to pick it up and my back went”

“I woke up and my neck hurt, I can’t turn my head.”

“I get pain between my shoulder blades”

“My back really hurts after I’ve been sitting for a while”

“It hurts when I cough”

“I’m OK sitting, but I really feel it when I go to stand up”

“I can feel the pain from my back going into my buttock and down my leg”

Click here for a typical case: Back pain at rest

Maggie’s back was aching in bed and she was very stiff in the mornings.  She was finding it harder to sit still for any length of time, and it hurt when she got out of a chair.  She had been diagnosed with scoliosis way back when she was a child but had stayed active all her life. She knew the scoliosis could not be “fixed” but was keen to see if I could help.

When I palpated her back I could feel the strain in the muscles as they fought to keep her upright against the curve in her spine. Working into the muscles helped a certain amount but I had to get the joints in her spine moving better before we made real progress. She was keen to try self-help strategies and we talked about the things she could do to stop her joints stiffening up again, and tried a range of different exercises until we found some that felt right for her. She knows I’m there when she needs me, and if discomfort builds up again she pops in for a treatment to stay flexible and active, she calls me “the muscle whisperer”!

“I had whiplash and the pain in my neck kept building up at work and I couldn’t find any position to sleep in at night. After three treatments with Daniel I am pain free at work and sleeping much better.”   Jennifer

Lower Limb: hip, knee, ankle & foot:

 

When it comes to the lower limb we will often treat trapped nerve, knee problems and hip osteoarthritis, sciatica, joint pains and sports injuries, plantar fasciitis among others.

Common descriptions include:

“I get a pain in my groin whenever I get in or out the car”

“My buttock is aching and it spreads down the side of my thigh”

“My knee is swollen, it clicks, it hurts to bend it”

“I have a pain in my calf muscle”

“My heel hurts as soon as I get up in the morning”

“I’m getting pins and needles in my foot”

“The pain shoots down the leg, all the way to my foot”

Click here for a typical case: Knee pain at play

James was getting back into golf after a few years off.  The practices were going well but he was getting an annoying pain across his knee at the end of his swing.  I found a number of issues to work on around his knee, but I was also struck by how little rotation there was in his back and hips.  We realised that whenever he went to hit the ball his knee had to do most of the work, so it was no wonder it was starting to hurt.

As well as helping the knee itself I spent some time loosening up his spine and hips, and encouraged him to stretch at home and warm-up properly before games.  This approach took the pressure off his knee and gave it enough capacity to cope with a full 18-hole game.

“I came to Daniel with a bulging disc and bad sciatic pain. He cured those problems in just a handful of sessions. He is a knowledgeable and patient practitioner, and his ability to understand and tackle the wider issues of posture and movement that contributed to my injury were genuinely inspiring.”   Sam

For further information please have a look at these pages:

To make an appointment please call (01534) 520714

(or mobile: 07829 799996)

If you have any questions please email: info@jerseyosteopath.com

For directions and parking information please see Contacts