Over the past 15 years, the strong growth in natural therapies and complementary medicine methods has led to an increase in specialized osteopathic consultations.

In Barcelona, ​​one of the pioneer cities of this discipline in Spain, 15 years ago, the Clinic of Dr. David Ponce appeared, which has just opened new premises on Calle Muntaner with a large number of integrative procedures and specialists.

Madrid adds numerous centers exclusively specialized in physiotherapy and osteopathy. The team of physiotherapists and osteopaths at the Ofistema clinic is a reference in the city, and Dr. Luis Palomek leads the team that works and promotes this discipline. Every year, hundreds of people from Madrid visit his clinic, especially patients with chronic pathologies and problems caused by back pain, the main cause of sick leave in Spain.

According to the International Osteopathic Alliance (OIA), the discipline has grown by 80% in the last 7 years. And while France still has the largest number of registered osteopaths, Spain is beginning to consolidate thanks to the inclusion of osteopathy in a list of alternative therapies that the Ministry of Health assessed in 2019.

The David Ponce Clinic in Barcelona, ​​for its part, was born as the first center fully specialized in osteopathy in Catalonia, using sports medicine, regenerative medicine, osteopathy, physiotherapy, psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) and sports rehabilitation. It brings together 18 specialists from these fields, who are visited by countless patients every year.

This center is just one example of the strength this type of treatment is gaining in Spain. In fact, Barcelona has become a great pole of osteopathy in our country, focusing on medical care that complements traditional medicine. This new formula for collaboration between physicians and osteopaths, as well as allied health professionals such as physiotherapists, represents the spearhead of a new social trend that has already taken hold in other Western markets such as France, the UK or the US.

“The coexistence of traditional medicine and natural medicine represents a basic collaboration to ensure a holistic and integrated approach to pathology. It is not as important to find diseases as it is for doctors and medical professionals to find the health of their patients. And this requires active listening to pain. Medicine has become keyboard and screen due to lack of time. Osteopathy justifies the need to touch and look at patients in order to make a correct diagnosis,” says David Ponce, founder of the osteopathic clinic in Barcelona.

Three in ten Americans regularly turn to alternative medicine to relieve pain, especially those caused by musculoskeletal dysfunction. And more and more Spaniards are choosing this type of specialist as a guide in their lives.