Do Traditional Chinese Medicine, Acupuncture, and Osteopathy seem like jagged puzzle pieces that don’t seem to fit together?

If so, you’re certainly not alone.

I used to practice purely Chinese medicine and acupuncture, and was frustrated to see that my patient’s problem just kept coming back. To bridge the gap in care, I enrolled in a Toronto Osteopathy college and started my journey to become an osteopath.

Why osteopathy?

Well, I always like to use the analogy of a fine-tuned sports car…

Integrated Health Care and a Corvette

…Imagine a beautiful 2005 Red Corvette that has endured wear and tear through its 10 years of use.

First, to keep the car running smoothly and its doors and gas pedals working optimally, you need lubricants. Lubricants are the engine oil, grease in the axil, oil for door hinges, etc.

I like to think of Acupuncture like the lubricants. Lubricants help make system integration run smoothly.

But when it comes to maintaining your vehicle, lubricants don’t solve all of your problems, do they?

For example, what do you do if there is a mechanical issue blocking these lubricants or liquids?

Enter osteopathy.

If your car engine suddenly broke down, oil and lubricants wouldn’t help fix the problem. So that’s where Osteopathy comes in. You can think of Osteopathy as the mechanical systems specialist of the car.

Osteopathy “tunes up” your engine to its optimal specifications so that the engine and the pipes are in the right places. Meaning, osteopathy helps your body function optimally and ensures your internal organs are in the right place. If things are in the right place, only then can it function at optimal specifications.

Now, here’s the secret sauce…

…Things need to be put back in place before acupuncture can work.

So, by following this order of technique: Chinese medicine, Osteopathy, then Acupuncture, you’ll find the effects of the treatments last much longer.

The technical jargon for this phenomenon is, “non phys without respect to an axis / compaction takes priority than anything that is already in place.”

Acupuncture works only if the connection still exists, but if there is some sort of disruption within the communication channels (through trauma), then the results will be harder to come by.

During my years of service as a Registered Acupuncturist Toronto, I have never seen a needle put a joint back in place.

Let’s take infertility as an example: When acupuncture treatments alone have not worked, I need to ask myself, is there a mechanical or structural problem that is compromising the blood flow, or the neurological system? These are the things that acupuncture is not able to address on its own.

As an osteopathic manual practitioner, I am able to adapt and sort through the systems that are holding natural bodily processes back.

I’ll leave it to Bruce Lee who eloquently explains the art of adaptation in this statement:

Bruce Lee

“You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water my friend.”

Do you have a better understanding of how Chinese Medicine, Osteopathy, and Acupuncture work together to help your body function like a well-oiled machine?

So just like the ’95 corvette needs maintenance, you also need regular “tune-ups.”

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