Structured Healing by Dr. Harold Magoun of Structured Healing

Forward

Michael L. Kuchera, D.O., F.A.A.O.
Professor of Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine
Vice President for International Osteopathic Education and Research
Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine

A visionary physician once said, "to find health is the object of the doctor, anyone can find disease." This frontier physician, Andrew Taylor Still, M.D., D.O., founded the osteopathic profession over 100 years ago in Kirksville, Missouri. It is an idea whose time has come again. Still's distinctive philosophy of health care has inspired a number of timely books including Spontaneous Healing by Andrew Weil, M.D., and Touch of Life by Robert Fulford, D.O.

Now in this book, Structured Healing, Harold Magoun Jr.D.O., F.A.A.O. has created a tribute to the founder of the osteopathic profession, and his revolutionary beliefs about health. It is obvious that Dr. Magoun has diligently practiced the art of Dr. Still's patient-centered philosophy for the past 50 years. Through his experience and insight, Dr. Magoun shows us the value of seeking health, while providing a framework for us to do so.

In 1892, Dr. A. T. Still established a profession whose mission it was to change the paradigm of health care delivery. He wanted his school to provide a totally new educational model that valued the patient more than the disease - a model that taught it's students to know and respect the mind, body, and spirit of each individual so that treatment could be custom-tailored to each. Still recognized that disease in an abnormally functioning body was just as predictable as health was in a normally functioning body. Thus, for him and his students, a primary treatment goal was to maximize the function of the body within it's existing structure. Today, in Structured Healing, Dr. Magoun strives to teach us about Still's paradigm shift - not by lecturing in historic terms, but rather by encouraging each of us to experience the shift in practical everyday
living.

In reading Structured Healing, recognize that the word "doctor" means
"teacher." Like all good teachers, "Doctor Magoun" hopes to pass on
underlying principles for lifelong learners to use in shaping their decisions in the future. To this end, "Doctor Magoun" shares the value of understanding four basic osteopathic principles - the same principles that started the "health" revolution in the United States and that personally guided him in fifty years of successful patient care. Each reader recognize and seize responsibility for his or her own health, while choosing appropriate "teachers" along the way to help.

The four osteopathic tenets applied by osteopathic doctors /teachers are listed below. I urge you to seek to better understand their application as you read Structured Healing and to apply them as you seek optimum or high-quality health. The four tenets are:

Each of us is a unit composed of mind, body and spirit
each part of which is inter-dependent in maximizing
true health.
Within our bodies, each of us has self-healing and
self-regulating mechanisms that direct our bodies
toward health when given essential materials and
support.
Our body's structure determines how our body
functions. Likewise, functional demands on our body
can modify it's structure.
Rational approaches to maximize health involve
considering and applying the three other osteopathic
tenets listed above.

It started with the vision of one man. It continues in practitioners such as Harold Magoun, D.O., who seek to be teachers of health rather than care-takers of disease; who remind us to recognize that health comes from within; who challenge us and share principles to structure health and healing in our own lives. Thank you Dr. Still and thank you Dr. Magoun.

Enjoy this book as much as I have and seek health.

Now 73 years old, Dr. Magoun practices what he preaches. Let us all
hope this will be our individual legacy.

Michael L. Kuchera, D.O., F.A.A.O.
December 2000

Englewood, CO - Structured Healing, by Harold I Magoun, D.O., F.A.A.O., is a book devoted to the public's health. It shows ways to improve and maintain health, a person's most precious possession. It also provides motivation to help achieve these goals for those who lack sufficient will power to take charge of their lives.

The best prevention of all is keeping your body healthy through nutrition, exercise, sleep, etc., and keeping it normal structurally, which will allow it to function normally. Exercise will help improve the structure-function relationship of the body, but the best thing is regular Osteopathic treatment.

Dr. Magoun counsels his patients and the public regarding healthcare:
"Be the Master of your fate and the Captain of your soul."

The Forward was written by Michael L. Kuchera, D.O., F.A.A.O., Professor of Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine and Vice President for International Osteopathic Education and Research, Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine, Missouri. In the Forward he says:

Dr. Harold Magoun Jr., comes from an Osteopathic family. His parents, Harold Magoun Sr. D.O., F.A.A.O., and Helen C. Magoun, D.O. met at the American School of Osteopathy in Kirksville, Missouri, now the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine (K.C.O.M.), and graduated in 1924. After receiving his pre-medical training in the Navy V-12 program during World War II at

Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, Dr. Magoun Jr. graduated from K.C.O.M. in 1950, interned at Rocky Mountain Osteopathic Hospital in Denver, and has practiced in Denver since.

He is a member of the American Osteopathic Association, the American Academy of Osteopathy, the Cranial Academy, the Colorado Society of Osteopathic Medicine, and the Rocky Mountain Academy of Osteopathy which he founded in 1992. Dr. Magoun has served on several committees of the Cranial Academy, has been on the Board of Directors, is a Fellow of the Cranial Academy, and has a certificate of competency in the Cranial Academy. He has been very active in the American Academy of Osteopathy having served on numerous committees, the Board of Governors, the Board of Trustees, and was President in 1981-82. He is Board Certified in Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine, and has an earned Fellowship in the American Academy of Osteopathy (F.A.A.O.). He is on the Academy's Bureau of Experts.

Dr. Magoun has done extensive teaching for students, interns, residents, Osteopathic Colleges, and Osteopathic programs of many kinds in the United States, Canada, and Germany. He has received numerous honors in his profession: giving the Scott Memorial Lecture at K.C.O.M. Founder's Day honoring Dr. Still in 1978, the Thomas L. Northup Lecture honoring the founder of the American Academy of Osteopathy at the Convention of the American Osteopathic Association in 1979, the William Garner Sutherland Memorial Lecture honoring the discoverer of the cranial concept at the Cranial Academy meeting in 1996, and in 1999 received the Andrew Taylor Still Medallion of Honor, the highest award given by the American Academy of Osteopathy. On several occasions Dr. Magoun has portrayed Dr. Andrew Taylor Still, the founder of Osteopathy. On June 3, 2000 Dr. Magoun was given an honorary degree Doctor of Osteopathic Education at the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine.