No summary on this subject can be complete without a mention of Dr Andrew Taylor Still ‘discoverer’ of osteopathy, as he put it. From Virginia, he served as an army doctor on both sides of the American Civil War. Following the tragic loss of his wife and three children from meningitis he became disillusioned with the orthodox medicine of the day, known as ‘heroic medicine’ with good reason. Inspired by the philosophies of the native Americans and principles of Ayurveda (that he learned from two Swamis he met), he founded osteopathy in 1872. Western influences are thought to have been from the medieval art of bone setting still practiced in some remote areas of the UK.

Ayurveda (science of life), originally from the ancient Indian Veda (some of the earliest known Sanskrit texts approx. 5000 BC), is the oldest known health system. It is an holistic approach and is currently being popularised in the West by Dr Deepak Chopra.

Amongst those who studied under A.T.Still were D.D.Palmer, William Garner Sutherland DO and Dr John Martin Littlejohn. Palmer went on to develop Chiropractics. Sutherland, after many years of study and experimentation developed Cranio-Sacral osteopathy. Like Still he did not accept any credit and insisted that the answers lay in nature and in the writings of A.T.Still. Littlejohn, a British physiologist with many other accreditations, brought home osteopathy to the UK, to found the first college in Britain - The British School of Osteopathy in London, 1917.

The first class in Osteopathy 1892-93

In America osteopathy was recognised and incorporated into mainstream medicine in the 1960s. As a result they have specialised medical colleges that osteopathy is taught alongside orthodox medicine. However, often by their own admission, this has meant that the osteopathy has been somewhat diluted to a degree.

Parsons, Lavender & Associates

88 Rodney Street

Liverpool

Merseyside L1 9AR

Tel - 0151 709 6639

Liverpool-Osteopaths.com

Blackwell Building
Brook Street Neston
South Wirral Cheshire CH64 9XJ

Tel: 0151-336-6222

Holistic-Centre.org

Neston is on the Cheshire side or the Cheshire / Merseyside border of the Wirral, mid way (10 miles) between Liverpool Merseyside & Chester Cheshire.

Vital-Osteopathy.com

Osteopathy is what an osteopath does!

The home site of Wirral Osteopath - Andrew Woodhouse

Practices in Neston, Wirral Cheshire, Thingwall Wirral Merseyside & Liverpool, Merseyside UK.

Centre for Complementary Therapies & Alternative Medicine on the Wirral.(Andrew's main practice.)

A Short History

Parsons, Lavender & Associates

88 Rodney Street

Liverpool

Merseyside L1 9AR

Tel - 0151 709 6639

Wirral Osteopaths

Penrhyn House

1A Penrhyn Avenue

Thingwall

Wirral

Merseyside

CH61 7UP

Tel - 0151 648 6870

Caution!

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