Osteopathy () is a type of alternative medicine that emphasizes physical manipulation of the body's muscle tissue and bones. Practitioners of osteopathy are referred to as osteopaths. Osteopathic manipulation is the core set of techniques in osteopathy. Parts of osteopathy, such as craniosacral therapy, have no therapeutic value and have been labeled as pseudoscience and quackery. The techniques are based on an ideology created by Andrew Taylor Still (1828–1917) which posits the existence of a "myofascial continuity"—a tissue layer that "links every part of the body with every other part". Osteopaths attempt to diagnose and treat what was originally called "the osteopathic lesion", but which is now named "somatic dysfunction", by manipulating a person's bones and muscles. Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment (OMT) techniques are most commonly used to treat back pain and other musculoskeletal issues. Osteopathic manipulation is still included in the curricula of osteopathic physicians, not to be confused with non-physician osteopaths, and is considered a unique aspect of Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) training. The "Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine" degree, however, became a medical degree and is no longer a degree of non-medical osteopathy. Because DOs in the United States attend accredited medical schools, graduates of osteopathic medical schools may take the standard Doctor of Medicine licensing exam, USMLE. They must additionally take the osteopathic physician-specific COMLEX medical licensing exam for the DO. DOs must attend residencies accredited by the ACGME, the American Osteopathic Association, and the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine like their MD peers to practice medicine and surgery in any specialty of medicine. History The practice of osteopathy began in the United States in 1874. Osteopathy was founded by Andrew Taylor Still, a 19th-century American physician (MD), Civil War surgeon, and Kansas state and territorial legislator. He lived near Baldwin City, Kansas, during the American Civil War and it was there that he founded the practice of osteopathy. Still claimed that human illness was rooted in problems with the musculoskeletal system, and that osteopathic manipulations could solve these problems by harnessing the body's own self-repairing potential. Still's patients were forbidden from treatment by conventional medicine, as well as from other practices such as drinking alcohol. These practices derive from the belief, common in the early 19th century among proponents of alternative medicine, that the body's natural state tends toward health and inherently contains the capacity to battle any illness. This was opposed to orthodox