By Leann Mai, Osteopathic Manual Therapist (M. OMSC)

Here are 5 key ways Osteopathic Manual Therapy (also called OMT) can help address fatigue and low energy:

1.) Improves Circulation and Lymphatic Drainage:

OMT can enhance blood flow, reduce fluid stagnation, and support detoxification by promoting lymphatic return. This helps decrease systemic inflammation and toxin buildup, which often contribute to feelings of tiredness and low energy. Better oxygenation and nutrient delivery to tissues can lead to more sustained vitality.

2.) Reduces Musculoskeletal Tension and Pain:

Chronic muscle tightness, restricted joints, or postural imbalances create ongoing strain that drains energy reserves. Gentle manipulations, stretching, and soft tissue work release these restrictions, lowering the body’s “energy tax” from pain and guarding.

3.) Enhances Autonomic Nervous System Balance:

OMT often targets the spine, ribs, and cranial areas to modulate sympathetic/parasympathetic activity, shifting the body from a “fight-or-flight” (energy-depleting) state toward “rest-and digest” (restorative). This can lower stress-related exhaustion, improve sleep quality, and boost overall energy regulation.

4.) Promotes Better Sleep and Recovery:

By alleviating physical discomfort and calming the nervous system, OMT frequently leads to improved sleep patterns. Better restorative sleep directly combats daytime low energy and fatigue.

5.) Supports Holistic Self-Healing and Energy Management:

Osteopathic philosophy views the body as a unit; OMT aims to restore structural balance so the body functions more efficiently. This can minimize post-exertional malaise (common in fatigue syndromes), and enhance resilience to daily demands.

OMT is generally safe, non-invasive, and complementary to other approaches (e.g., exercise, nutrition, or medical care). Effects vary by individual—some notice quick improvements after a few sessions, while others benefit from ongoing treatment.

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By Leann Mai, M. OMSC (Osteopathic Manual Therapist)

Struggling with Back Pain?
Here are 5 Ways Osteopathic Manual Therapy (OMT) Helps with Back Pain:

• Restores joint mobility and corrects somatic dysfunction through gentle articulation and mobilization. Techniques like articulation (slow, rhythmic joint movements) and gentle mobilization gradually improve restricted motion in spinal segments, pelvis, or sacroiliac joints without any thrusting. This addresses biomechanical imbalances and reduces mechanical stress on tissues, leading to decreased pain and better range of motion.

• Reduces muscle tension and improves flexibility via gentle techniques to soft tissues that can apply sustained gentle pressure or rhythmic stretching to paraspinal muscles, fascia, and ligaments. This releases tightness, spasms, and trigger points, lowers guarding, and enhances muscle length/tone. Improving local circulation and decreasing the chronic strain that perpetuates back pain.

• Modulates pain pathways and promotes pain relief through gentle methods (e.g., myofascialrelease, counterstrain) influencing neurophysiological mechanisms and release of anti-inflammatory mediators.They calm sensitized nerves and provide relief without forceful input.

• Improves circulation, reduces inflammation, and supports tissue recovery enhancing blood/lymphatic flow and tissue oxygenation through gentle rhythmic pressures and releases, while modulating autonomic balance (favouring parasympathetic activity). This aids in clearing inflammatory byproducts from strained areas and promotes healing.

• Enhances overall body unity, postural balance, and autonomic regulation. Following osteopathic principles, gentle OMT addresses interconnected restrictions (e.g., thoracic, pelvic, or lower extremity influences on the low back) holistically. Restore balance, reduce stress-amplified pain, and improve global function/resilience.

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By Leann Mai, (M. OMSc) Manual Osteopath Practitioner

1.        Moves the fascia that surrounds our muscles and bones which helps fluid move between the joints, making motion easier.

2.        Resets the tone of the nervous system between the sympathetic response and parasympathetic response, giving you a better quality sleep.

3.        Aligns the diaphragms, improving each breath and therefore improving the quality of blood being supplied to the liver amongst all our other tissues.

4.        Improves barriers to the limbs, increasing coordination and nervous impulse, making our muscles stronger.

5.        Improves body mind connection through all of the above, which means hormone improvement with better energy and mood. 

By Leann Mai (M. OMSc)

Our bodies are amazing machines, they have built in mechanisms to heal and protect that we aren’t even aware of – it’s like a software program always running in the background so that we can work, enjoy, and play our days away! 

We change the way we play as we get older, running around playing tag or playing sports may be something we enjoy in the first few decades of life – we may thrive on the competition or the achievement of success as part of a team. Often in the third, fourth and fifth decades we redefine fun according to our limitations as we start to notice our body doesn’t respond the way it used to. We try training, like we did in the second decade and still, not the same response. We often notice our health isn’t what it used to be either. 

Perhaps defining our health to meet the same criteria it was in previous decades is the problem. Maybe we should still focus in on the joy of what we can do and continue making goals based on where we are rather than beating ourselves up for not being able to do more.

We need to be open to variety- we have joints that move in multiple planes and a nervous system that loves rhythm! We can learn from young children, they love to walk, dance, swim, and swing, to name a few things they enjoy. They just enjoy discovering how their body can move!

So perhaps re defining health means being young at heart, go for a bike ride by the river, dance while making dinner, swing with your kids, it doesn’t matter- just move! 

Let osteopathy show you how tomorrow can be a better day.

Cheers to you and your newly defined health!!   

by Leann Mai, M. OMSc

1       RE-ALIGN the gravitational loading through the feet, and reducing stress points through the leg and feet. When your body leans forward (in flexion) your feet spread to keep you upright from falling forward, when your body tends to lean backward (in extension) your arches elevate to help anchor your feet through your toes to the ground to keep you upright from falling backward.

2       REDUCES TENSION through the muscles holding the leg and feet. This allows easier coordinated movement of the ankle joints often relieving low back strain too.

3       IMPROVES COORDINATION through all the joints in the feet/toes to the brain through the nervous system. It improves coordination through the receptor feedback and reflex responses (like stepping on a sharp rock- Ouch!)

4       IMPROVES DRAINAGE and supply to the foot as the fascial tissues through the ankle and arch support a mechanical pumping motion, pushing the blood and lymphatic supply back up through the leg.

5       PAIN REDUCTION, a byproduct of all the systems working together to coordinate motion through fascia, muscle, ligaments, nerves and fluid flow into the body through the gait cycle.

by Leann Mai, M. OMSc

“I am a mess!!” Well at least that is what people often feel like! Our bodies have multiple systems that rely on each other, therefore if one system is not functioning- it has a knock off effect on others. For example; holding our breath (respiratory system) affects our cardiovascular system, which affects everything!! I can’t think of one system that doesn’t need fresh nutritious arterial blood. How about our digestive system? Acid problems can impact the mechanism of breaking food down into absorbable units which will affect the nervous system and often the integumentary system (skin/hair/nails). Anybody getting heartburn from those wings?! 

Osteopathy works with all systems of the body and improves how they interact. This means overall an improvement to your health.

Osteopathy can help with multiple day to day symptoms such as:

• Low back pain
• Fluid build-up / Edema
• Heartburn / Constipation, IBS
• Headaches Migraines
• Plantar fasciitis / Arch pain in the feet
• Sciatica
• Muscle strains
• Frozen shoulder/ Tennis elbow /Carpal tunnel syndrome
• Low energy
• Arthritis

Osteopathy can help relieve these symptoms and improve your day to day functioning.   

Osteopathy can also help with some lesser known symptoms associated with:

• Scoliosis
• PMS
• Pelvic floor dysfunction
• Incontinence
• Herniations
• Osgood Schlatter disease
• Bloating
• Teeth grinding
• Tinnitus
• Vertigo
• Male and female reproductive system dysfunction
• Asthma
• Varicose veins. 

You may have an even more difficult diagnosis that you are coping with, Osteopathy can help support you and all your systems to give you the best advantage of improving your quality of life. Alignment of the skeletal system through the muscular system and fascia of the integumentary system can also set you up for a faster recovery if you have injured yourself or are set to have surgery.

So if you feel like your “body is a mess”, I hope you feel a little more hopeful in that with the way the body compounds dysfunction it can also compound improved function, making for better days ahead! 

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