​Venla Kärki Reg Osteopath, MONZ
​www.cityosteopaths.co.nz

The wellbeing of newborn babies is important not only to caring parents, but to the whole of New Zealand, as healthy babies become healthy children and have the best start in life.

At City Osteopaths, our practitioners are skilled in supporting families during the initial phases of the baby’s life, enhancing this magical and peaceful pathway.

Through an osteopathic consultation focusing on the pregnancy and labour history and a gentle physical examination of the baby, we can help provide an optimal experience for parents and babies. 

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• What is Osteopathic Manual Treatment (OMT) for newborns?
  

OMT for newborns involves direct and indirect very gentle hands-on techniques to relieve the strains from in the womb or the birth process, assisting normal tissue function. OMT works on the strains that can affect the bones, fascia and body fluids. 

OMT is able to increase blood flow, improving nutrient supply and removing waste products and dead cells. 

In particular, osteopathy in the cranial field focuses on feeling the collective rhythms of the cyclic movements of the body functions. Cranial practitioners are able to treat and influence this rhythm to improve head posture and also help restore the important movements of the soft cranial bones.

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The potential applications of OMT to paediatrics are many and extend to areas other than musculoskeletal problems:

• Assist in the management of sucking dysfunctions, breastfeeding difficulties and tongue tie;
  
• Provide effective treatment for recurrent otitis media;
  
• Reduce gastrointestinal problems, such as colic and reflux;
  
• Improve skull symmetry, when affected by plagiocephaly;
  
• Reduction of neck strain or torticollis;
  
• Works as a complementary therapy for cerebral palsy and attention deficit disorder;
  
• Supportive treatment for clubfoot management
  

Osteopathic manual treatment and sucking dysfunctions

Breastfeeding is one of the most unique experiences for a new mum. However, recent studies (Herzhaft-Le Roy, Xhignesse and Gaboury, 2016) have shown that half the new mothers stop breastfeeding due to biomechanical issues with the baby.

Our osteopaths carefully identify the restrictions in the baby’s skull sutures and their potential effect on the hypoglossal nerve which is essential for tongue movements and the sucking process. We can treat the tongue itself to help with improving function. 
At City Osteopaths we also promote structural techniques for the neck and jaw muscles that can be tight after a difficult and long labour,  which can result in a lack of jaw and neck mobility during the feeding. We work alongside lactation consultants to achieve the optimal results for you and your baby.

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Osteopathic manual treatment and otitis media

Otitis media or middle ear infection is a common paediatric issue. This is because the child’s Eustachian tube, which connects the middle ear to the throat, is more horizontal than the one in adults and this reduces drainage and increases the possibility of having congestion in the middle ear which can lead to an environment where bacteria thrive and can cause a painful infection.

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Since the 2000s, due to concern over antibiotic resistance, complementary medicine and in particular, osteopathic treatment, have also been shown to be effective in preventing speech, language and learning problems (Steele et al., 2014).

At City Osteopaths, our practitioners are able to apply multiple gentle techniques to improve the drainage from the Eustachian tube and from the venous sinuses, in order to more quickly resolve the otitis media and decrease the incidence of further episodes.

Osteopathic manual treatment and gastrointestinal symptoms

Infantile colic is a leading cause of prolonged baby crying. It occurs in 4 out of 10 young infants.

To reduce gastrointestinal symptoms such as reflux and colic, our paediatric osteopaths are trained to work to assist the vagus nerve, which helps manage the functions of the digestive tract. Due to the position of the baby in the womb and during the birth process, the vagus nerve may be compromised, resulting in an increase in digestive contractions and irritability. At City Osteopaths we utilise cranial osteopathy to treat the specific cranial dysfunctions and suture tensions, which can compress the vagus nerve, helping to restore healthy functioning, to your young child's digestive tract (Castejón-Castejón et al., 2019).

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In addition, we are able to support parents’ concerns by giving appropriate advice and helping the baby’s immune system with specific supplements. 




Osteopathic manual treatment and positional plagiocephaly

Around 50% of babies present with head shape deformities. It is a common concern for new parents.

Positional plagiocephaly is a clinical condition that refers to a newborn with a flattening of a portion of the head (usually the occipital skull bone) and consequent swelling of another portion of the head, resulting in a parallelogram-shaped head. 
The cause can be found in mechanical strains such as traction or compression acquired during the intrauterine life, during childbirth or suboptimal positioning of the head after birth. 

Early treatment in this stage is highly recommended in order to decrease the possibility of developing postural and musculoskeletal compensations (possible scoliosis, or leg length discrepancy), visual and ophthalmic alterations and jaw disorders (Filisetti, Cattarelli and Bonomi, 2020).

According to evidence-based articles (Lessard, Gagnon and Trottier, 2011), cranial osteopathic practitioners utilise a variety of osteopathic cranial techniques to decompress the skull sutures and myofascial soft tissue massage in order to normalise the forces and the tension of the membranes in the head and improve the soft tissue remodelling.  
In addition, our pediatric practitioners are experienced in providing parental education and guidance to assist recovery.

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As a cyclist, you may have experienced one or more of the most common injuries of this sport. Some of these are:

1. Falls: Falls are probably the most common cause of injuries for cyclists. Falls can cause different types of injuries, from skin bruises, clavicle and wrist fractures, muscle strains and problems that can bring more serious disorders, such as concussion.

2. Knee Injuries: Different types of injuries can affect the cyclist's knee, causing pain in different regions of the joint. They are: patellar tendinopathies, pes anserinus tendinopathies, patellofemoral pain syndrome, caused by excessive use, shortening and/or imbalance of the different quadriceps muscle portions, which can lead to patellar chondropathies and in particular, Iliotibial Tract Syndrome, which often requires extra treatment, especially if the athlete continues to compete.

3. Hip and Groin pain: Pain in the hip and groin region can cause marked discomfort and significantly decrease an athletes' performance.

4. Low back pain: As already mentioned, the cyclist's posture in extreme lumbar and hip flexion will commonly generate pain in the lumbar region, either by a flexion strain on the intervertebral discs, or by an overload of the extensor musculature of the lumbar region, which can reduce the stability in the region, leading to possible muscle injuries and overload in other regions, such as the hips and pelvis. A sign of concern is when pain spreads through the lower limbs, such as radiation, numbness and muscle weakness. This can occur due to problems arising from the lumbar region itself or due to excessive tension in some muscles, which can compress peripheral nerves of the lower limbs.

5. Perineal pain: The perineal region, or pelvic floor, is a set of muscles located in the lowest portion of the pelvis, between the anus and the genital region, which has several important functions and carries several vital structures, such as nerves, arteries and veins. Prolonged posture in the sitting position on the saddle can favour the compression of these structures, leading to changes in sensitivity, such as numbness and tingling, in addition to pain itself. Paresthesia can extend to the scrotum and penis, in men, and labia majora in women. The type of saddle and bike adjustment have a considerable influence on the emergence of these symptoms.
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6. Neck pain: As already mentioned, the cervical spine is always positioned in hyperextension during pedalling, especially the upper cervical spine. This positioning excessively strains the neck and shoulder muscles. The most affected muscles are the suboccipital muscles, which have a very important proprioceptive function, as they always act by making micro-adjustments in the positioning of the head so that we can keep our gaze horizontal. These muscles are among the most innervated in the body and they developed exponentially at the end of man's evolutionary process, when we adopted the bipedal posture and needed to keep our gaze horizontal to master the environment around us. For this reason, the cyclist's cervical posture can cause not only neck pain, but also headaches at the base of the skull and in the back of the eyes and forehead region.

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But what about the role of Osteopathy in all this?
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If you are a bike lover and want to keep riding with the best possible quality of life and performance, then what is important - if not even more important, than taking care of your bike, is taking care of your instrument to ride - your body! Think of it like this, before you make the investment in a Bike Fitting, where the bike will be all adjusted to your body with the help of technology, you ideally will have already had checked the muscle imbalances, the alignment of your joints and your body's ability to adapt to the effort required to cycle first. That is exactly how Osteopathy can help you.

Osteopathy is a science that aims to evaluate changes in mobility and in the quality of the tissues of your body, to help you find your balance and your best state of health, guaranteeing greater comfort, performance and quality of life, preventing injuries and facilitating the recovery from these, keeping you active and healthy to perform your pedalling. Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment (OMT) achieves this by improving the mobility of joints and other body tissues, balancing muscle and ligament tensions, improving vascularization and oxygenation of your muscles and different tissues, increasing your body balance and coordination, ensuring a better relationship between your Central Nervous System (CNS) and your locomotor apparatus, among other multiple benefits that will keep your body in the best possible state of health and preparedness to reap the best results of a Bike Fitting for you and your bike.
I strongly recommend that anyone who regularly likes to have a Bike Fitting done with their bike, should come for one or two treatment sessions first, at around ten and then three days before doing their Bike Fitting. That will really take your Bike Fitting to another level. If you are not worried about performance and just want to stay active and healthy, come to see your osteopath regularly, once every two to three weeks or even once a month. This will be incredibly beneficial for your health. Remember that prevention is the best treatment. 
See you at City Osteopaths, let’s work together!

References
Di Alencar, Thiago Ayala M.; Matias, Karinna F. S.; Bini, Rodrigo R.; Carpes, Felipe Pivetta (2011). Revisão etiológica da lombalgia em ciclistas. Revista Brasileira de Ciências do Esporte (Impresso), 33(2), 507–528.
Salai, M.; Brosh, T.; Blankstein, A.; Oran, A.; Chechik, A. (1999). Effect of changing the saddle angle on the incidence of low back pain in recreational bicyclists. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 33(6), 398–400. 
K. de Vey Mestdagh (1998). Personal perspective: in search of an optimum cycling posture. , 29(5), 325–334.
Dannenberg, A. L.; Needle, S.; Mullady, D.; Kolodner, K. B. (1996). Predictors of Injury Among 1638 Riders in a Recreational Long-Distance Bicycle Tour: Cycle Across Maryland. The American Journal of Sports Medicine, 24(6), 747–753.
Weiss, B. D. (1985). Nontraumatic injuries in amateur long distance bicyclists. The American Journal of Sports Medicine, 13(3), 187–192.
C. A. Wilber, C. 1. Holland, R. E. Madison and 5. F. Loy, An Epidemiological Analysis of Overuse Injuries Among Recreational Cyclists. Int. J. Sports Med., Vol. 16, No. 3, pp. 201 -206, 1995
Asplund, Chad; Webb, Charles; Barkdull, Thad  (2005). Neck and Back Pain in Bicycling. Current Sports Medicine Reports, 4(5), 271–274.        
Alencar, T., & Matias, K. (2018). BIKE FIT E SUA IMPORTÂNCIA NO CICLISMO. Movimenta (ISSN 1984-4298), 2(2), 59-64. 
Educational Council on Osteopathic Principles. Glossary of Osteopathic Terminology. Washington, DC: American Association of Osteopathy Colleges: 2001.
Denslow JS. Pathologic evidence for the osteopathic lesion: The Known, unknown and controversial. En: Beal MC, ed. Selected Papers of John Stedman Denslow, DO. Indianápolis, IN: American Academy of Osteopathy; 1993: 154-160.
Korr I. The neural basis of the osteopathic lesion. En: Peterson B, ed. The Collected Papers of Irvin M. Korr. Colorado Springs, CO: American Academy of Osteopathy, 1979: 120-127.

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Diego Polo DO, Reg.Osteopath, MONZ

Click here for Diego's Bio

Phone 044991439 to talk to our front desk team
​Book online www.cityosteopaths.co.nz

A well-balanced and injury-free body is the dream of every athlete. Unfortunately, this is not always the reality. Osteopathy in sport has been used in different countries to prevent and treat injuries, giving the athletes a better quality of life, and helping them to achieve better results, no matter which kind of sport we are talking about.
There are a great number of top athletes that benefit from osteopathic treatment. In 1998, just after winning the World Cup, the former football player Zinedine Zidane said: “I owe a large part of my presence in the final match to my osteopath.” Fourteen years after that, he talked about Osteopathy again: “treating yourself naturally, with less medication and anti-inflammatories, allows you to preserve yourself after your sports career and age better". Currently, many other athletes utilise Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment (OMT), for example the Polish tennis player Jerzy Janowicz, the British olympic champion Mo Farah, and the French Real Madrid’s football player Karim Benzema.

Therefore, it is no surprise that a team of osteopaths have been present in all Olympic Games since ‘London 2012’. That was the first time that 25 osteopathic health professionals joined the health team of the biggest sporting event in the world. There were more than 900 treatment sessions there. In ‘Rio 2016’, the number of osteopaths that joined the health team increased to 30. Consequently, the osteopathic approach has become a reality for prevention and treatment of injuries for high performance athletes.
However, amateur athletes can also benefit from osteopathic treatment to increase their health status, quality of life and improve their performance. Presenting a truly holistic approach, Osteopathy considers the body as a single unit, where all the systems are interrelated and interdependent, also considering all the other aspects that are common to every human being, like the psychological, mental, social, environmental and spiritual fields.

​Dr Melanie Young
B.A., BSc.(Clin Sc.) B.Osteo Sc. MONZ
Reg Osteopath
​Director City Osteopaths
Wellington
​New Zealand

​Phone 04 4991439

http://www.cityosteopaths.co.nz