Okay, maybe that’s a slight exaggeration, but Osteopathy can often be about ‘Waking the Dead . . zone’.

Most of you reading this will have a what I would refer to as a dead zone or two . . maybe even more.  Mulberry Osteopaths is based in the West End of Edinburgh and many of the folk that come along for treatment work in offices and spend most of their working days sitting at desks in front of computers.  Without some effort away from the work environment it’s very easy for parts of the body to effectively stiffen and cease up. This is where dead zones develop.

Now a dead zone isn’t necessarily painful.  It may not even as much as ache.  It just sits there not really doing anything.  The classic areas in the office bound worker for these dead zones to develop are the very base of the back where the spine attaches to the sacrum and pelvis, the base of the rib cage and the area across the top of the back where the neck attaches to the upper back. Often, because these areas are a bit lifeless, inactive and stiff it’s not these bits that bring the patient along to us in the first instance.  However, as a result of the dead zones other areas will have to work harder and potentially end up getting strained, damaged or injured.

So shoulder pain or hip pain maybe what prompts a visit to Mulberry Osteopaths.  Obviously we’ll take a look at the painful bits when you come along but as osteopaths we’re also interested to figure out why the problem has occurred . . . . Is there a dead zone that has contributed to the injury?

As a patient you’re probably looking for pain relief and better mobility and we can help with that but there’s also the little matter of addressing the causes and hopefully preventing a recurrence. If we can wake up the dead zone in the upper back this should mean that the shoulders have a better chance of sitting in the right position and will be less likely to be overworked and injured.

Of course the down side of waking up a dead zone is that your body suddenly becomes aware of something that’s been effectively sitting there doing nothing for years. With that reawakening will probably come aching and discomfort as the body adjusts to the new found movement. Once the body has got used to moving more efficiently the aches will fade away.

It follows that the older the dead zone is the stiffer it will be and the more stubborn it will be to get moving so a few more treatments maybe needed to get things going. It also helps a lot if the patient continues the waking up process in between treatments by doing the right exercises to target and move the dead zone.

So now you can see that an Osteopaths job is sometimes about Waking the Dead(zone).