"There is still a need and desire for people to become physicians in society, and to some extent, the D.O. schools are meeting the needs of the community," said Dr. Steve Shannon, a Maryland native who heads the American Society of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine.
The discipline has come a long way since the 1870s, when a former Civil War doctor who lost three family members to meningitis rebelled against a medical establishment that he felt had failed them.
Laying on hands
Andrew Taylor Still believed that illnesses could be treated by laying hands and applying force to a patient's bones and muscles. "Osteopathic manipulation" was designed to relieve back pain and other orthopedic problems, and infections and emotional ailments as well.
In the early 1900s, progressive reformers drove many osteopaths and their schools out of business in their zeal to eliminate quackery. But as the century progressed, osteopaths began to embrace conventional medicine, blending it with the traditional practices that had made them outsiders.
AMA acceptance
In 1969, the American Medical Association - which once branded osteopaths as "cultists" and forbade members from associating with them - allowed D.O.s to join its ranks. State boards licensed osteopaths to practice the full spectrum of medicine - a privilege granted to no other group except M.D.s.
Like M.D.s, osteopaths prescribe drugs and recommend tests and surgery. They learn the same principles of scientific medicine as M.D.s, but also learn to consider diet, exercise and family dynamics when evaluating ailments.
To Sinai's Cymet, this means encouraging lifestyle changes and helping patients understand the disease behind their symptoms. It can mean less emphasis on the prescription pad and a greater willingness to consider acupuncture and other alternative treatments. The bottom line: promoting the body's innate, if imperfect, ability to heal itself.
`No, I'm a doctor'
Still, like many colleagues, Cymet rejects the "alternative medicine " label. "No, I'm a doctor," he said. "I take care of people. I use science as a guiding principle, but it doesn't answer all my questions."
Raised in Florida and Israel, Cymet came from a family that debated issues and challenged conventions. Among his cousins were three chiropractors who brought their alternative view of the medical universe to the table.
