There are many conditions of advanced years are simply put down to “old age”. At this potentially vulnerable time of your life, you may be left believing there is little that can be done for your worn out hip, or the wear and tear on your joints etc. Not so.

Giving Some Relief
Here is a classic example to illustrate this point.
1 A patient may have been told they have arthritis of the neck - described to them as….
a) wear and tear or
b) degeneration or
c) old age neck or
d) osteo-arthritis of the neck or
e) trapped nerve or
f) worn discs, etc.
2 The same person may visit their qualified osteopath and would usually leave feeling better then when they came in.
3 The point is they are still "old" when they leave, but the pain had been made better. So suffering has little to do with being old!

Here’s what’s going on: The reason the person felt the pain in the first place is not from the wear and tear per se (as most people are led to believe), but because of the body’s response to the wear and tear – notably muscle spasm, inflammation, joint restriction, muscle pain, nerve pain of mechanical origin and so. All these effects are perfectly treatable with Osteopathy. And effectively too, especially when combined with normal medicines from the doctor and very simple lifestyle changes. We will make these suggestions to you.

Expectations
As there is no cure for pain, let alone ‘old age’, and given we cannot cure the arthritis, the best we can do is to at least keep it at bay: give some relief. In this way you can carry on doing what you want to do. It may be gardening, playing tennis, doing the shopping, ballroom dancing or just playing with the grand-children! If you want to stop doing any activity - you should stop because you choose to, not because you were told to. With this philosophy we try to work with the patient, towards their own needs and in the way they want it. We aim to help you achieve as much as you can from life from the years remaining.

The Longer Term
Although many people are simply after a bit of relief, they notice that as time passes they start to reap the longer term benefits from their treatments. Thus with regular 'booster' treatments (anything from 4 treatments upwards a year), you are better placed to create a better quality of life for yourself and probably for your extended family too.

Treatment
As you might expect, treatments for the elderly are usually very gentle and made to be relaxing. Mr Jamooji uses an advanced treatment couch. The couch creates a unique soothing and rocking motion, similar to that found in nature. As with most aches and pains, patients often say they suffer from morning stiffness or after-sitting stiffness and they feel the need for a good stretch. The rocking table helps this to happen, gently and in harmony with your body’s tissues. What may not be so well known, is that during such rocking, the spinal segments ‘refresh’ as fluids get sucked into your intervertebral spinal discs. This helps the discs to rehydrate and so rejuvenate. That is also why when people go for a good walk (or perform mild exercise) they often say their symptoms feel more relaxed. The ‘spinal pump mechanism’ helps refresh more than just the spine.

The osteopathic approach to care of the elderly is concerned with preserving the patient’s mobility and activities. We work to-
(1) gently restore what natural movements still exist
(2) reduce further wear on damaged tissue (where possible)
(3) relax painful or pain causing areas.
We understand that tissues can be quite delicate with advancing years and there may be other medical situations to take account of. For this reason we employ a very strict and careful regime of only selecting patients who would respond to osteopathic care. You would be told on your first visit of your suitability to treatment. If we are unable to help for any reason we would not treat you.