Introduction Efforts to define osteopathy have been made for a long time but failed. Researchers concluded that osteopathy can’t be defined. On the other hand, they showed that it can only be described. Osteopathy can be described as a measure taken to facilitate or assist the body’s ability of self-healing; in so doing the practice promotes/enhances a person’s medical wellbeing. Osteopathic medicine which has become part and parcel of the United State’s medical practice has had spillover effects in over 47 other countries around the world. Osteopathic medicine is the brainchild of Andrew Taylor Still. Andrew Still’s modus operandi relied heavily on the manipulation of joints and bones to detect and treat illnesses (Galewitz, 34). Andrew Still called this practice ‘osteopathy’. Since its inception, Galewitz says that there has been enmity between the Doctors of Medicine (MDs) and the Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine (DOs). However, this hostility has become abated with the later practice adopting contemporary medical practices. As shown by Galewitz, osteopathic practitioners were turned into osteopathic physicians, slowly getting all needed rights as medical doctors, this included serving in the army as physicians (Galewitz, 34). Galewitz further states that “In addition to the Hippocratic oath, Osteopathic medical students take an oath to maintain and uphold the “core principles” of osteopathic medical philosophy”. These core principles are of great importance since they define the way an osteopath physician approaches a particular sickness (Kamau, 12). The approach visualizes a patient’s body as a composition of body, mind, and spirit. This has made people view osteopathic medicine in a perspective analogous to holistic medicine. Therefore, this paper is going to focus on the history of osteopathic medicine, the core principles of osteopathic medicine, the importance, and the extent of practice together with critics of this practice. The paper will finally conclude by giving an insight into current practices in osteopathy. The history of osteopathic medicine The history of osteopathic medicine dates back to the late 18th century in the United States of America. A scientist by the name of Andrew Taylor Still who is a pioneer and the founder of this practice opted to go against contemporary medical practices to come up with this. Galewitz (34) states that Taylor Still founded a School of Osteopathy in America in the early 90s as a drastic protest against the other medical systems. Still had a strong belief that the other medical system was deficient incredible efficacy (Gelewitz, 34). He believed that it was ethical and had remedy on effects rather than causes of ailments. That’s when he founded this medicinal practice. This was in an era where medications, surgical operations, and other traditional treatments often brought more harm than good. “Some of the medicines commonly given to patients during this time were arsenic, castor oil, whiskey, and opium. In addition unsanitary surgical practices resulted in more deaths than cures” (Gelewitz, 34). According to Brooke, Taylor envisioned his way of thinking as a renaissance in the medicine world. He emphasized the minimal use of drugs with much emphasis skewed towards surger