Midlands Cares: The Osteopathic Option

COLUMBIA, SC (WOLO) – Osteopathic Manipulative Therapy is not a new area of medicine, however, it has become a specialty that one in four medical students are moving toward.

MUSC Health’s Dr. Teresa Kilgore, who has been a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO), has been practicing since 1990, but explains that the specialty dates back to the 1870’s.  She says that at the time, many things that doctors would do were “pretty tough on the body,” as she points to an actual prescription from an ancestor calling for “liquid arsenic to be three drops to be mixed with water for digestive problems.”  She says that Dr. Andrew Still’s philosophy took off differently, leading him to develop his own School of Medicine focusing on fact that the body has innate abilities to heal, “and now, you know, hundreds of years later, we’re figuring out how much more that is true.”

Dr. Kilgore says that the practice involves “using our hands…to touch and diagnose areas where there’s perhaps spasm, or things aren’t balanced or aligned. So we’re looking for like asymmetry in muscles.”  She points out that one of the key things to understand is the “connection between not only our muscles and our nervous system, but our blood flow, arterial blood flow to organs and muscles and everything, and venous return back to the heart, as well as lymphatics which are real important to bring tissue fluids back and keep everything moving.”

She says that many DO’s are internists or general practice doctors, who have gone through “hundreds of hours of extra training and lectures” to develop this specialty.

Dr. Kilgore says that there is a different level of intimacy that is developed between a doctor and patient.  “In medical school, all physicians have to learn to examine patients, but things can be very distant, you know, what’s your complaint, I’ll get this exam, I’ll get this X ray…”  She goes on to say that “that the idea of human touch when I listen to your heart and lungs, you know, if I have my hand on your shoulder, and I’m listening, or we talk and take that time I think that that helps make a big difference with comfort level, and I think that makes the patient also comfortable in the sense that you just an extra way of showing caring and compassion.

You can learn more about Dr. Kilgore at MUSC Health by checking out this link: https://providers.muschealth.org/sc/columbia/teresa-mary-jolley-kilgore-do

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Tyler Ryan is an award winning television and radio personality, writer, investigative journalist, and professional emcee.  He appears daily on ABC Columbia’s Good Morning Columbia, as well as hosting the syndicated radio program Carolina Cares on the South Carolina Radio Network, and the iHeart Radio Network.  Tyler also regularly appears as a criminal expert and journalist on regional and national crime based programs like Snapped and Killer Couples.  You can contact him directly via EMAIL Or on the socials: Tyler’s Instagram  // Tyler’s Facebook