WHY D.O. ?

Why D.O.? Well, let me give you a bit of a background 1st. D.O. stands for “Doctor in Osteopathic Medicine” a.k.a an osteopathic physician while M.D. stands for “Doctor in Medicine”, a.k.a an allopathic physician. The schooling process for both the allopathic route and osteopathic route are quite similar. However, if you go to an osteopathic school, you have an additional 200 hours of hands-on training in muscle manipulation techniques called “osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT)” throughout the 4 years of medical school. These techniques aid in diagnosing, treating, and preventing certain illnesses. For me, this was a plus. After treating others throughout medical school and being treated, I really feel like these techniques are beneficial for everyone to know, worldwide. This gives you the opportunity to treat and manage things like back pain, allergies, neck pain, muscle soreness, leg swelling, rib pain, stuffy nose, headaches, should I keep going? A lot of patients already take 3+ medications and they don’t want to add another medication to their list, so these techniques give them the opportunity to manage these dysfunctions by just manipulating different parts of their body to find relief. Isn’t that something?

I personally did not know much about osteopathic physicians when I was applying to medical school. I grew up hearing “M.D.” all over and I always thought that was the only type of doctor. So I applied to all the M.D schools of my choosing and kept it pushing. My pre-med advisor later asked me why I did not apply to any D.O schools and I was like “huh?”. Most Osteopathic physicians choose primary care, so I wasn’t really opposed to the idea anyway because I have always wanted to be a Pediatrician. After doing thorough research on being an osteopathic physician and what it means, I thought “Oh! I kind of like this”, so I began the application process. I kind of already lived my life through the osteopathic belief anyway. I realized how much my mental, emotional and spiritual state can affect my overall health. I am not a huge fan of medications unless it's really needed; it would always be my last resort. By making certain lifestyle and environmental modifications, you can make major changes to your overall health.

I got accepted into 1 allopathic school and 2 Osteopathic schools. There’s absolutely NO SHADE to M.D Physicians, but throughout my three years of schooling, I’ve learned that osteopathic physicians focus more on whole-body healing with and without traditional medication; a more holistic approach and they often focus on preventative care. On the other hand, allopathic physicians usually focus more on traditional, research-based medicines. They often use medication or surgery to treat and manage different conditions. They also focus more on treating the symptoms alone rather than finding the root of the illness. I really do feel like instead of just treating the symptoms to feel better, you also have to incorporate a persons’ mind, body and spirit to provide the best care for that individual. I’ve seen that you can give all the medications you want to a patient to treat them; however, if they are not in a good mental state, you are defeating the purpose. Additionally, the body is one unit, so a migraine can lead to neck pain which can later lead to back pain. Each part of your body depends on another and if one part of the body goes down, the rest will most likely follow. One part of the body may have to compensate to pick up the slack when another part decides to act up. When you get sick, it not only one part of your body that is affected, it’s the entire body that’s affected. Therefore, it makes sense to consider all aspects of the patient, not just one particular symptom.

Overall, I really started to cling to the osteopathic philosophy and these osteopathic techniques that I am learning to help the body use its own self-healing mechanisms to manage different illnesses. Any other way is a counterfeit.