Osteopathic Medicine in Encinitas

Osteopathic Medicine in Encinitas

Osteopathic Medicine is a Distinct Form of Medicine

Osteopathic medicine is a distinct path to medical practice in the United States. Osteopathic medicine provides all of the benefits of modern medicine including prescription medications, surgery, as well as the use of technology to diagnose illness and assess injury. It also provides the added benefit of hands-on diagnosis and treatment with a system of treatment referred to as osteopathic manipulative medicine. Osteopathic medicine focuses on helping each individual achieve a high level of wellness by concentrating on health promotion and disease prevention.

Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine, or DOs, are completely licensed physicians that work in all areas of medicine. Emphasizing a whole-person approach to treatment and care, DOs are trained to listen and partner with their patients to help them get healthy and stay well.

What does it mean to be an osteopathic physician?

When you believe in caring for individuals-- not patients-- decisions are easier. When you aim to take everything into account-- mind, body, and spirit-- you know you're doing it right. When you believe that wellness calls for a whole-body approach and prevention makes all the difference, you're ready for the future of healthcare. When you Choose DO, you know you've found the right path.

What does a DO do?

• Throughout the nation, DOs practice the full scope of medicine in all specialties of the medical field, from pediatrics and geriatrics to sports medicine and trauma surgery
• DOs have the same medical training as other physicians, as well as 200 more hours of OMM training. OMM is a hands-on treatment used to diagnose and treat illness and injury.
• OMM has been proven to be effective in treating a variety of injuries and illnesses. For example, the use of OMM in treating patients with pneumonia has been found to shorten the length of hospital stays and complications related to pneumonia.
• DOs are taught to focus on the whole individual, working with patients to attain high levels of wellness and disease prevention.

DOs operate in partnership with their patients and are taught to consider the whole person.

They consider the effect that lifestyle and community have on the health of each individual, and they work to eliminate obstacles to good health. DOs are licensed to practice the full scope of medicine in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and other territories of the United States, as well as in more than 65 countries abroad.1 They practice in all types of environments, including the military, and in all specialties, from family medicine and obstetrics to surgery and cardiology.

DOs are taught to consider the whole person from their first days of medical school, which means they see each person as more than just a collection of organ systems and body parts that might become injured or diseased. This holistic strategy to patient care means that osteopathic medical students learn how to incorporate the individual into the healthcare process as a partner. They are taught to interact with people from diverse backgrounds, and they are provided the chance to exercise these skills in the classroom and a variety of other settings.

Tenets of Osteopathic Medicine

The American Osteopathic Association's House of Delegates approved the "Tenets of Osteopathic Medicine" as policy which complies with the underlying philosophy of osteopathic medicine. The tenets are:

• The body is a unit; the individual is a unit of body, mind, and spirit.
• The body is capable of self-regulation, self-healing, and health maintenance.
• Structure and function are reciprocally interrelated.
• Rational treatment is based upon an understanding of the basic principles of body unity, self-regulation, and the interrelationship of structure and function.

Osteopathic Medicine in Encinitas

The osteopathic medical profession has a proud heritage of generating primary care practitioners. As a matter of fact, the mission statements of the majority of osteopathic medical schools state plainly that their function is the creation of primary care doctors. Osteopathic medical tradition teaches that a solid foundation in primary care makes one a better physician, regardless of what specialty they might ultimately practice.

Because of their whole-person approach to medicine, 57 percent of all DOs choose to practice in the primary care disciplines of family practice, general internal medicine, and pediatrics. The remaining 43 percent go on to specialize in any number of practice areas. DOs boast a strong history of serving rural and underserved areas, commonly providing their distinctive brand of compassionate, patient-centered care to some of the most economically disadvantaged members of our society.

Curriculum

In addition to studying all of the normal subjects you would expect student doctors to master, osteopathic medical students take about 200 additional hours of training in the art of osteopathic manipulative medicine. This system of hands-on techniques help ease pain, restore motion, sustain the body's natural functions and influence the body's structure to help it operate more efficiently.

One essential concept osteopathic medical students learn is that structure affects function. Therefore, if there is a problem in one part of the body's structure, function in that area, and possibly in other areas, may be affected.

Another integral tenet of osteopathic medicine is the body's innate ability to heal itself. Many of osteopathic medicine's manipulative techniques are focused on reducing or eliminating the obstacles to proper structure and function so the self-healing mechanism can presume its function in restoring a person to health.

Clinical Research

Along with a strong history of providing high-quality patient care, DOs conduct clinical and fundamental science research to help progress the frontiers of medicine and to show the effectiveness of the osteopathic approach to patient care. Currently, a number of organizations are involved in osteopathic clinical research in coordination with the Osteopathic Research Center. Established in 2002, the Osteopathic Research Center (ORC) in Fort Worth, TX conducts and promotes research on the pathophysiological mechanism and clinical outcomes of OMM. The center works as a catalyst for developing and performing multi-center, collaborative clinical research studies. Initial studies have concentrated on demonstrating the effectiveness of OMM as it applies to many aspects of patient care.

Dr. LaBeau has a nutritionally based Family Practice enjoying working with families and patients of all ages.  As an Osteopathic Physician he finds that many of his patient’s health concerns are also affected by compromised circulation due to musculoskeletal malalignments.  This total health approach of considering both body and chemistry allows him to treat the cause of a patient’s problem which renders more effective overall healing.

For further information about Dr. LaBeau’s practice and Osteopathic Medicine in Encinitas see drlabeau.com