Health promotion from an osteopathic perspective: Osteopathy in health promotion using the example of influencing lung function

‘To find health should be the object of the practitioner; anyone can find disease.’ A.T. Still, founder of osteopathy (Stone, 2002). Osteopathy is understood as a science, art and philosophy (Gibbons, 2004) that is applied to people of all ages for health promotion, prevention and rehabilitation. Osteopathy is considered an alternative healing method and is now taught as a patient-centred approach (WHO, 2014). Osteopathy can achieve its greatest effect in strengthening health, particularly in prevention, which aims to eliminate risk factors (Steinbach, 2007).