The Calling and Vocation of

Michael D. Lockwood, DO, FCA Professor of Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine, College of Osteopathic Medicine

THE CALLING AND VOCATION OF OSTEOPATHIC MEDICINE: WHO AM I THAT THE LORD, GOD OF THE UNIVERSE, WOULD CARE?

Osteopathic medicine is a uniquely American reformation in medical care that teaches the body, mind, and spirit as one. Osteopathic care is driven by a patientcentered model where personalization, precision, and individualization of medical care is core. As the medical saying goes, “anyone can find disease.” What is left unsaid is that cultivating health is much more difficult. This pursuit to embrace health is what motivated Andrew Taylor Still, the founder of osteopathic medicine.

Still was born in Lee County, Virginia, the son of a Methodist Episcopal minister and physician. AT, as he was known, suffered significant life tragedies which included the loss of six of his children to illnesses of the time. Because of his personal struggle and despair with the medical care of his day, he sought an alternate philosophy to the practice of medicine that focused on healing rather than simply diagnosis and symptom management. Then and today the temptation with every health malady is to enthusiastically embrace the “magic bullet” solutions available. A common and unrealistic expectation is that every medical problem has a solution in either pharmaceuticals or surgery. Additionally, such solutions are often provided even when the underlying problem may not be medicinal or one necessitating a scalpel.

Health struggles are external and internal, muscularskeletal-fascial, structural, metabolic, neurologic, vascular, lymphatic, mental, spiritual, and sometimes seem irrational. Recognizing the comprehensive nature of healing human beings clarifies the philosophical convictions of osteopathic tasks. Osteopathic Physicians are convictionally called to healing. They

are philosophically aware that healing is multi-modal and not strictly tied to pharmaceuticals or surgery.

Four Tenets of Osteopathic Medicine

Congruent parallel precepts and tenets have emerged between God’s Word and osteopathic medicine. Both deceptively simple and also complex beyond our understanding. In terms of the tenets of osteopathic medicine, four are important to understand.

First, we can neither separate form from function nor function from form. For example, the heart, in its unique form, has a specific function that could not be accomplished without its one-way flow valves or the motions that allow it to contract and twist. The function of the heart, which is to move blood and oxygen through the body, could not be accomplished without its created form. In other words, the heart is superbly designed (form) to allow for the demands of blood circulation, and blood is the perfect substance for sustaining life (function).

Second, as scripture says, “a cord of three strands is not easily broken” (Eccl 4:12). Osteopathic medicine sees people as an inseparable trifecta — the emotions, the soma, and the psyche that comprise body unity, which together are part of the puzzle of health and dysfunction.

A third tenet relates to God’s designed mechanisms that preserve, protect, and cover the body. These systems heal, redeem and regenerate. How could a person be treated with penicillin for pneumonia without an intact immune system? How could an osteopath’s hands possibly aid in that person’s recovery without the intrinsic ability to re-regulate pulmonic function, adjust rib cage motion, repair adverse muscle restraints to breathing, modify diaphragm function, and enhance vascular and lymphatic functions? We trust God’s design that allows wounds to heal, maladies to mend, and professionally trained hands to enhance lives.

Finally, rational osteopathic medicine is based upon application of these basic truths. Osteopathic patient centered care is based on best-practices of application of medical knowledge and being “in touch” with patients through all phases of diagnosis, treatment, and management outcomes.

The Osteopathic Calling in a Secular World

The philosophical conviction of osteopathic medicine that supposes patients are not just a sum of their problems, but individuals with body, soul, and spirit, finds great congruence with a Christian worldview. The osteopathic mission concerning the sanctity of life is extremely consistent with a biblical worldview, even in a world which often appears hostile to the Christian medical professional. Our right of conscience which is affirmed in the Bible, our uniquely American Constitution, and our Osteopathic Oath.

As a profession, we face good and evil from within and from without. Our Osteopathic and Hippocratic Oaths are being challenged. As with any professional congregation, we have believers, non-believers, and agnostics. The world has professional societies which promote healthy behaviors and ways to enhance body functionality while also holding values consistent with God’s ways, and other medical societies which equivocate and acquiesce on these topics. As we have seen, secular preferences commonly translate into legislation and the public expectations of medical societies and practice. For example, some professional societies have misguidedly announced stances of ‘engaged neutrality’ (an interesting terminological inexactitude with profound consequences to say the least) on matters regarding the sanctity of life. In fact, there are seven states and the District of Columbia that affirm the right of physicians to administer poison and we all know the cultural fight over abortion. Both of these examples directly contradict the Osteopathic Oath where we pledge, “I will give no drugs for deadly purposes to any person, though it be asked of me.”1 And the time-revered Hippocratic Oath is an oath sworn to affirm the moral and ethical diction of the medical profession. It states, “I will give no deadly medicine to any one if asked, nor suggest any such counsel; and in like manner I will not give to a woman a pessary to procure an abortion.”2

Trends in society, however, will not dissuade the Christian osteopath in their pursuit of integrating their faith with their vocation. However, from the Christian perspective, the greatest gift one can give is to give one’s life for another, to love unconditionally because God loved us first — not to take a life because of acceptable societal trend.

The Christian osteopath looks to Jesus as our guide, healer and the author of science. We look to teaching of unbiased science to dissect fact from folly. In

Genesis 1, God said, “Let there be light” or “fiat lux” and there was light. Those who are Christians look to His creation, and astute observers stand amazed.

Why Osteopathic Medicine?

Doctors of osteopathic medicine practice and heal compelled by compassion and love for our fellow man. The act of professional caring is not bereft of pain and personal suffering. We suffer with those who arrive at our door. When illness impacts lives, the osteopathic physician focuses on reception of tangible clues to dysfunction. Training and attention result in proficient discernment of past trauma, internal medicine, and somatic dysfunction. We are trained to palpate the body professionally, and we palpate with care. We discover causes because we believe that treating causes of human maladies is a better way than treating only symptoms. Our ability to influence the patient’s health and reduce illness is weakened unless we understand the cause. By the work of our hands, as finely trained instruments, identifying disturbances in tissues of the body allows us to address illnesses and to provide treatment through manipulation of body structures. Our limits are realized as we begrudgingly learn that patience is the reward for waiting on the Lord for healing. We ask for patience that comes through persistence. We are refined through the crucible of suffering in anticipation of the fulfillment of His promises. So, why osteopathic medicine? Our conclusion is the relief of suffering. It is through greater discovery of our Maker that gives our vocation meaning and through that meaning we are brought closer to our Maker, as stewards of a unique call. The call to doctor is a call to serve, and osteopathic physicians take an oath that reminds us to “be always mindful of [the] great responsibility to preserve the health and life of my patients... guard their secrets with scrupulous honor and fidelity, to perform faithfully [our] professional duties...”3 Those in this profession must reveal both altruistic traits as well as the propensity to run toward, not away from, problems, uncomfortable situations, and potential and real danger to ourselves. Only God allows us to unravel medical mysteries, ponder diagnostic dilemmas, and wonder at treatment results that relieve suffering and allow for joy. The Great Physician commands us to love our brothers and sisters and empowers us with a supernatural love to do His works as extensions of His hands which heal.

1 American Osteopathic Association, “Osteopathic Association,” November 11, 2019, https://osteopathic.org/about/leadership/aoagovernance-documents/osteopathic-oath/

2 Translation from the Greek by Ludwig Edelstein, “Hippocratic Oath: Classical Version,” November 11, 2019, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/ nova/article/hippocratic-oath-today/

3 American Osteopathic Association, “Osteopathic Association.”