What do people come with?

People come to osteopaths for a wide range of advice, much more than many people think. Osteopaths are trained to be first contact practitioners. This means that they are able to undertake an initial consultation with any patient. Symptoms which patients describe can be anywhere or everywhere in the body, they could be recent acute symptoms or a chronic long-term problem, and can affect people of all ages from the newborn to the elderly. Currently the profession is limited by the Advertising Standards Authority from specifying the huge range of problems that people describe, which regrettably impairs the ability of public to be able to come to informed decisions about the choices available in their healthcare.  

The Advertising Standards Authority states that any claims we make about specific medical conditions should be substantiated by "robust scientific evidence, such as clinical trials conducted on people”. These trials require huge resources, taking many years to produce, involving hundreds of people and costing hundreds of thousands of pounds. This can be afforded only by the pharmaceutical industry.  The Osteopathic profession cannot fund such massive costs as they would ultimately be reflected in the fees patients have to pay. You are welcome to ask us for free advice on whether osteopathy might be able to help. Telephone or send us an e-mail here

Some people prefer to consult their osteopath before seeking a medical opinion because they prefer the osteopathic approach.  In our opinion, the public should have that choice. Osteopathy can offer patients choice in their health care that is not readily available within the conventional healthcare system.

For more information on the ASA Click here.