# Do you consider osteopaths legit? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 13, 2009, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-consider-osteopaths-legit/509931 "2009-09-13T18:06:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-consider-osteopaths-legit/509931/21 "2009-09-14T04:55:14Z")
> [@DanBlather](#): > > My reading suggests that Osteopaths receive pretty much the same education as MDs these days, but choose to self-identify as Osteopaths. Seems to be kind of a woo woo thing because “traditonal western medicine” seems to not be in vouge among some groups. I don’t think I’d be comfortable seeing one, but a Birkenstock wearer might be. My grandmother used to say that osteopaths had more bedside manner than MDs. I think that MDs are either learning to listen to their patients more, or they’re listening to ME more now that I’m older. And as I said, I’ll see a DO as readily as an MD…but I do wear Birkenstocks. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-consider-osteopaths-legit/509931/22 "2009-09-14T05:30:20Z")
> [@Otara](#): > > [Osteopathic medicine in the United States - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osteopathic_medicine_in_the_United_States#Criticism_and_internal_debate) > > Probably worth a read. My take from that is a fair bit of osteopathy is looking a bit dubious as a concept these days and the main thing Osteopaths can offer in the US is a medical degree, but with potentially more concerns about thier quality of education. > > So Id stick with a doctor myself. > > Otara > [@DanBlather](#): > > My reading suggests that Osteopaths receive pretty much the same education as MDs these days, but choose to self-identify as Osteopaths. Seems to be kind of a woo woo thing because “traditonal western medicine” seems to not be in vouge among some groups. I don’t think I’d be comfortable seeing one, but a Birkenstock wearer might be. They ARE doctors. Their degree is Doctor of Osteopathy. Instead of going to a school of medicine they went to a school of osteopathy. In Colorado (and I assume most states) they are licensed by the Board of Medical Examiners with exactly the same qualifications as those whose degree is M.D. ---
**Author:** ![seosamh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@seosamh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seosamh)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-consider-osteopaths-legit/509931/23 "2009-09-14T11:33:30Z")
I spent most of my childhood believing that an osteopath was something rude. In 1963, in all the press stories about the Profumo Affair (which was the subject of the 1989 film “Scandal”), they always referred to one of the protagonists, Stephen Ward, as a “society osteopath”. Even at the age of 4 I was aware that there was a sexual element to the scandal and therefore I concluded that an “osteopath” - a word I had never heard in any other context - was something akin to a “pimp”. I later learnt that Stephen Ward was a pimp who just also happened to be an osteopath… ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-consider-osteopaths-legit/509931/24 "2009-09-14T12:37:58Z")
One of my partners is a D.O. and she is great.\* Very \*smart and a great bedside manner. Patients love her and I curbside her all the time. My take on it - If you want to be sure that you have a doc who aced organic chemistry and had great test taking skills go to an MD. But beyond that it matters little and I don’t know why you’d want that. Osteopathy schools tend to take the students who for some reason just missed the admissions cut for Medical schools and honestly there are some really smart people in that group, smart people who were determined enough to become doctors that they weren’t going to be put of the scent that easily. Yeah, some became D.O.s because they believe in the woo-woo, but I’ve met few who were anything other than good basic docs. It’s sort of like the maxim that the best docs don’t graduate at either the top or the bottom of their medical school class; the folks would generally be in the middle of the pack in a medical school if they had gotten in and they are good. Now do I believe the osteopathy “structural examination” adds anything to the process? No, but then I’ve never known an osteopath who utilized it. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-consider-osteopaths-legit/509931/25 "2009-09-14T12:42:28Z")
> [@Uncertain](#): > > I was surprised that you used that term. I’ve only seen/heard it used by advocates and practitioners of homeopathy and similar nonsense. The term itself is neutral (at least in my experience), and handy to use when discussing osteopathy vs homeopathy vs allopathy (aka conventional medicine in some circles). I first encountered the term when I was training at Johns Hopkins, when a professor was waxing eloquent on the differences between DOs and us MDs. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-consider-osteopaths-legit/509931/26 "2009-09-14T12:56:30Z")
I’d have little to no hesitation seeing an osteopathic physician (D.O.) if need be. The training is pretty much the same and there seems to be a low incidence of D.O.s attempting to use manipulative therapy for nonmusculoskeletal complaints - not the case with chiropractors, many of whom attempt to treat infant colic and various internal medical disorders with spinal manipulation, and have bizarre ideas about nutrition and vaccination as well. > [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > I live in the US, and have been to a few osteopaths. They’ve told me that they are trained to treat the whole patient more than MDs are. I don’t know if this claim is widespread among osteopaths, but it’s the same load of hooey that you hear from lots of other types of alt med practitioners, who try to co-opt the exercise, diet and lifestyle advice that physicians have long offered and pretend that they initiated it. If I heard a line like this from a D.O. I’d head for the exit. And a note in regards to the OP: there are many physicians who are not members of the A.M.A. and who may disagree with one or more of its policies even if they belong. If there’s anything meaningless in selecting a doctor, it’s whether or not they’re an A.M.A. member. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-consider-osteopaths-legit/509931/27 "2009-09-14T14:52:28Z")
An osteopath performed my hernia surgery 10 years ago. I hope he was legit. ---
**Author:** ![inquiringmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c68b51/32.png) [@inquiringmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/inquiringmind)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-consider-osteopaths-legit/509931/28 "2009-09-14T15:11:21Z")
My chiropractor is great. I injured my back last year, and was hesitant to go to a chiropractor because I was afraid of all the voo-doo-hooey that everyone is so familiar with. But I heard good things, so I decided to try him out. He is really more of a physical therapist (he has a degree in sports medicine), and everything he told me seemed totally scientific and legit. he did adjust me some, but mostly, he told me what exercises to do at home to help my back. Then again, he told me up front that he is not a member of the ‘Chiropractors can fix anything’ school, and if I needed surgery, he’d tell me so. My back’s great now, and he lets me work out on his equipment for free to keep me from injuring myself again. But if anything he said or did seemed fishy, I’d have gone elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-consider-osteopaths-legit/509931/29 "2009-09-14T15:24:03Z")
New England Journal of Medicine chimes in: [http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/341/19/1465](http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/341/19/1465) [Quackwatch.com](http://Quackwatch.com) has a take on it: > **[Dubious Aspects of Osteopathy | Quackwatch](https://quackwatch.org/consumer-education/QA/osteo/)** > > Osteopathic physicians (DOs) are the legal equivalents and, in most cases, are the professional equivalents of medical doctors (MDs). However, before deciding whether to use the services of a DO it is useful to understand osteopathy's history and the... Worth reading. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-consider-osteopaths-legit/509931/30 "2009-09-14T15:27:16Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Osteopaths often make fine physicians, in my book. In the past, I’ve chosen 2 different DOs to be my personal physicians at different times. > > Of course, some osteopaths are real nutjobs. > > But then so are some allopaths. > > QtM, MD I think you left yourself on the fence. Can you come down on one side or the other? ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-consider-osteopaths-legit/509931/31 "2009-09-14T15:28:16Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > In the USA & Canada Osteopaths are actually Oseteopathic physicians with equivalent ability to MDs. > > In the rest of the world Osteopaths are NOT the same as Osteopaths in the US and Canada. > > So part of the answer depends on the OP location. An Osteopath in NZ or the UK is not the same as an Osteopath in the USA. So it’s a bit confusing. > > Osteopathic physicians are basically the same as MDs. Outside of the USA and Canada, Osteopaths are looked on similarly to as Chiropractors as being an alternative medicine OP mentioned the AMA, so I think we are talking about the States. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-consider-osteopaths-legit/509931/32 "2009-09-14T15:34:29Z")
> [@seosamh](#): > > I later learnt that Stephen Ward was a pimp who just also happened to be an osteopath… “But then so are some allopaths.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-consider-osteopaths-legit/509931/33 "2009-09-14T15:40:48Z")
> [@Philster](#): > > I think you left yourself on the fence. Can you come down on one side or the other? People, on the whole, are good. But some aren’t. ---
**Author:** ![NajaNivea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/22d042/32.png) [@NajaNivea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NajaNivea)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-consider-osteopaths-legit/509931/34 "2009-09-14T16:48:57Z")
My local, small-town family doctor is a DO. She had treated us all since my family moved to town when we kids were wee tots so, say, about 20-25 years. She’s about the sum total picture I have in my brain of what a world-class doctor should be, practically the Mayberry version of the local doc. She came to our home one night on Christmas Eve to care for my dad at home when he had pneumonia, so he wouldn’t have to be at the hospital. She’s treated us through all manner of life threatening crises and your basic ills, and knows everything there is to know about our medical history. She’s brilliant, educated, kind, and caring, and one hell of a treasure to the community. In practice I can’t think that she did anything that I as a reasonably-medically-experienced layperson can point out as being “different in practice” than an MD (I didn’t actually know some osteopaths did “manipulation” until this thread and had been medically cared for by one for most of my life). I’ve seen only MDs since with a drastic reduction in both quality of medical care and bedside manner, but I suspect that’s largely because, well, Dr. Kerri is awesome, and nothing having to do with DOs vs MDs. A year or two back my family’s health insurance company decided they weren’t covering any doctors in any of the small, rural towns in that half of the county. If we want to see a doctor, we now have to drive an hour to a faceless medical megaplex and sit in a pigflu-drenched waiting room for another hour, then get cattle called through a closet where you sit for\* another \*hour, then some schmoe in a white coat you’ve never seen before spends thirty seconds glancing over your chart and less time than that that in the actual room with you. So… yes, our DO is legit. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-consider-osteopaths-legit/509931/35 "2009-09-14T16:52:19Z")
The biggest argument against Osteopathic Physicians is very few have experience at research or university hospitals, though this is changing. Over 50% of DO’s are family doctors. My first job was in reception/admitting in the ER overnight at an Osteopathic Hospital (now it was sold and is a “regular” hospital" and I found the DOs to very personable versus MDs. But then Midwestern University got out of the hospital business and sold or closed their two Chicago Hospitals. From the AOA Website: > [@](#): > > 1995 survey of 1055 osteopathic family physicians found that they used manual therapy only occasionally; only 6.2 percent used osteopathic manipulation for more than half of their patients, and almost a third used it for fewer than 5 percent. The more recent their graduation from medical school, the less likely practitioners were to use osteopathic manipulation, a finding consistent with the view that osteopathic practice is moving closer to allopathic practice. ---
**Author:** ![Hirundo82](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/919ad9/32.png) [@Hirundo82](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hirundo82)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-consider-osteopaths-legit/509931/36 "2009-09-14T17:06:37Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > The term itself is neutral (at least in my experience), and handy to use when discussing osteopathy vs homeopathy vs allopathy (aka conventional medicine in some circles). I first encountered the term when I was training at Johns Hopkins, when a professor was waxing eloquent on the differences between DOs and us MDs. Although the word has largely lost the negative connotations, “[allopathic medicine](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allopathic_medicine)” was a term invented by Samuel Hahnemann to contrast the medicine of his day (early 19th century) to his new philosophy of homeopathic medicine. ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-consider-osteopaths-legit/509931/37 "2009-09-15T19:18:57Z")
My father’s an M.D. He practices with a D.O. He chose this D.O. to be his business partner after his previous partner died from cancer. If Dad trusts 'em enough to practice side-by-side with Joe, I’ll trust Joe to be my doctor anytime. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2009, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-consider-osteopaths-legit/509931/38 "2009-09-16T23:12:18Z")
> [@Hirundo82](#): > > Although the word has largely lost the negative connotations, “[allopathic medicine](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allopathic_medicine)” was a term invented by Samuel Hahnemann to contrast the medicine of his day (early 19th century) to his new philosophy of homeopathic medicine. “Allopathic” is a term with limited use in medicine. As a non-pejorative descriptor, it seems mostly relegated to historical use and when differences between osteopathic and non-osteopathic mainstream medical education are being discussed. As a previous poster noted, promoters of alternative medicine use “allopathic” as a term of opprobrium/derision aimed at practitioners of mainstream, evidence-based medicine. Many alties apparently don’t understand what “allopathic” means, and attempt to differentiate themselves from allopathy, when they are actually using drugs and supplements which claim to counter unpleasant symptoms in an “allopathic” manner. ---
**Author:** ![mcampea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2bfe46/32.png) [@mcampea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mcampea)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-consider-osteopaths-legit/509931/39 "2009-09-23T15:41:05Z")
The American Osteopathic Association’s Web site–www.osteopathic.org–has a find-a-D.O. search engine if you’re looking for an osteopathic physician in your area. You can search by location and specialty. There are currently 67,000 D.O.s in the United States. The D.O. part stands for doctor of osteopathic medicine. D.O.s are fully-licensed to prescribe medicine and practice in all specialty areas including surgery. They are trained to consider the health of the whole person and use their hands to help diagnose and treat their patients. Like M.D.s, after completing osteopathic medical school, D.O.s go on to train in residency programs in either a primary care or a specialty area. Currently, more than half of D.O.s practice in primary care so they are more likely to be family physicians, internists and pediatricians then say a neurologist. However, there are plenty of D.O. neurologists and other specialists out there too working every where from the private practice setting to large academic medical centers or other research institutions, such as the National Institutes of Health. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-consider-osteopaths-legit/509931.md?page=1)