Osteopathy and cancer

Osteopathy involves manipulating your bones and muscles to treat symptoms and illnesses.

Summary

• Osteopathy is a hands on treatment, it does not involve surgery or drugs. 

• Osteopaths focus on the bones and muscles to help diagnose and treat you.

• It aims to reduce swelling, improve movement and ease pain.

What is osteopathy?

Osteopathy comes from two Greek words meaning bone and disease. Specialists trained in osteopathy are called osteopaths.  

Osteopaths think that our bones and muscles are key to diagnosing and treating many disorders. Osteopathy tries to detect, treat and prevent health problems by stretching, massaging and gently manipulating your muscles and joints.

Some osteopaths also use very gentle movements of your skull and sometimes the bone at the bottom of the spine (sacrum). This is a form of treatment called cranial osteopathy.

Osteopathy is becoming more widely recognised by the medical profession. Many GP surgeries throughout the country provide access to osteopathy.

Most osteopaths don’t call themselves complementary therapists. They might refer to themselves as primary healthcare practitioners.

A word of caution

Osteopathy is not a cure or treatment for cancer. It may help with symptoms you are having such as pain or restricted movement. Always let the osteopath know that you have cancer before you start any treatment. 

It is very important that your osteopath is properly trained and qualified. Practitioners are required by law to register with the General Osteopathic Council (GOsC) if they want to call themselves osteopaths. This means they have to meet the set of standards and code of conduct as well as have insurance.

Useful organisations

This page is due for review. We will update this as soon as possible.