Chronic Pain
Arthritis
Osteopathic neuromusculoskeletal medicine (ONMM) physicians can support patients with arthritis by addressing how joint inflammation affects the surrounding muscles, ligaments, and overall movement patterns. Arthritis often leads to stiffness, altered biomechanics, and protective muscle tension that worsen pain and limit mobility. Through osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT), ONMM doctors use gentle techniques to improve joint motion, reduce muscle guarding, enhance circulation, and ease strain on irritated tissues. These treatments can help patients move more comfortably, reduce compensatory stress on other joints, and support better overall function alongside standard arthritis care.
Beyond hands-on treatment, ONMM physicians take a whole-person approach that looks at posture, gait, activity levels, and lifestyle factors that may be contributing to flare-ups or chronic discomfort. They can provide targeted exercises to strengthen supportive muscles, improve flexibility, and stabilize vulnerable joints. They may also offer guidance on ergonomics, pacing activities, and reducing mechanical stress on affected areas. By combining biomechanical expertise with individualized treatment plans, ONMM doctors help patients with arthritis maintain mobility, improve daily comfort, and enhance long-term joint health.
Back Pain
Osteopathic neuromusculoskeletal medicine (ONMM) physicians take an in-depth, biomechanical approach to understanding back pain, which allows them to target both the source of the pain and the factors that keep it recurring. They assess how the spine, pelvis, hips, and surrounding muscles work together, identifying restrictions, imbalances, or areas of excessive strain that may be overloading certain joints or irritating nerves. Using osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT)—including gentle soft-tissue techniques, muscle energy, myofascial release, and specific spinal or rib mobilizations—they work to improve motion, reduce inflammation, and ease protective muscle spasms. By restoring normal movement in the spine and related structures, OMT can reduce pressure on discs and nerves and promote better alignment and stability.
Beyond hands-on treatment, ONMM physicians also address contributing factors such as posture, ergonomics, repetitive strain, old injuries, and stress-related muscle tension. They may provide individualized exercises to strengthen supportive core and hip muscles, improve flexibility, and retrain movement patterns. Because they approach back pain as a whole-body issue rather than an isolated symptom, ONMM doctors can help patients achieve longer-lasting improvement, better function, and reduced reliance on medications or repeated acute care.
Chronic Pain
Osteopathic neuromusculoskeletal medicine (ONMM) physicians specialize in understanding how the body’s structure and function work together, making them uniquely equipped to help people with chronic pain. They use a whole-person approach, looking not only at symptoms but at how posture, movement patterns, past injuries, stress, and overall health contribute to ongoing discomfort. Through hands-on osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT), they aim to restore mobility, reduce muscle tension, improve circulation, and calm irritated nerves—all of which can help decrease pain and improve quality of life. ONMM doctors also integrate exercise guidance, lifestyle strategies, and coordination with other healthcare providers to create a tailored plan that supports long-term healing rather than just temporary relief.
Migraines
Making an appointment to see your neuromusculoskeletal medicine (NMM) physician for migraines can be a valuable option; osteopathic medicine uses a whole-person approach to diagnosing and treating pain. Instead of focusing just on the headache, a NMM physician can see how muscular tension, posture, joint mechanics, stress, sleep, and lifestyle factors may contribute to migraine frequency or severity. Since many migraines are linked to cervical spine dysfunction, muscle tightness, or nerve irritation, this broader perspective can find triggers that might be overlooked by an approach focused on medication.
An important tool used by NMM physicians is osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT). These careful, hands-on techniques can help improve mobility in the neck and upper back, release muscle tension, and reduce pressure on the nerve pathways involved in headaches. Some patients will find relief when the musculoskeletal contributors to their migraines, like tight suboccipital muscles or dysfunctional cervical joints, are addressed directly. OMT is non-invasive, and can be safely combined with other migraine treatments.
Another benefit to seeing an NMM physician is our focus on prevention. Osteopathic doctors are trained to work with the patient to find the patterns in lifestyle, posture, and daily habits that might provoke migraines. We can create individualized plans that include at-home exercises, ergonomic changes, strategies to help reduce stress, and dietary guidelines — these can all help in reducing the frequency of attacks rather than just treating symptoms after they appear.
Finally, NMM physicians are fully licensed doctors who can prescribe medications, order imaging, and collaborate with other experts like neurologists if needed. This means you get holistic, hands-on medical care without compromises. For many people with migraines (especially those seeking comprehensive care or non-pharmacologic approach) this combination can offer meaningful, lasting improvement.
Muscle Strain
Muscle strains often develop from sudden injury, overuse, or underlying biomechanical imbalances that overload certain muscle groups. ONMM physicians evaluate not just the injured area but the entire movement system to identify factors such as poor posture, joint restriction, or gait abnormalities that contributed to the strain. With OMT, they use gentle soft-tissue techniques, myofascial release, and joint mobilization to reduce swelling, decrease protective muscle spasm, and promote healing by improving circulation to the injured tissues.
They also guide patients on safe stretching, strengthening, and movement retraining to restore function and prevent re-injury. By treating both the acute strain and its underlying causes, ONMM doctors help patients recover more effectively and return to daily activities with greater comfort and stability.
Neck Pain
Osteopathic neuromusculoskeletal medicine (ONMM) physicians can be especially helpful for people dealing with neck pain because they look at how the entire upper body—spine, ribs, shoulders, jaw, and even breathing mechanics—contributes to strain in the cervical region. Neck pain often develops from a combination of muscle tension, restricted joint motion, poor posture, stress, or old injuries, and ONMM doctors are trained to identify these subtle patterns. Through osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT), they use gentle, precise techniques to relax tight muscles, improve mobility of the cervical and upper thoracic spine, release tension in the fascia, and calm irritated nerves. These treatments can reduce stiffness, improve range of motion, and ease tension headaches or radiating pain into the shoulders and arms.
In addition to hands-on care, ONMM physicians provide guidance on ergonomics, sleep position, workplace setups, and movement habits that commonly aggravate neck pain. They may also teach individualized exercises to strengthen postural muscles, improve shoulder stability, and retrain movement patterns that protect the neck from ongoing strain. By addressing both the immediate pain and the underlying factors that perpetuate it, ONMM doctors help patients achieve more lasting relief and improved day-to-day comfort.