At its July 2008 annual meeting, the American Osteopathic Association’s House of Delegates approved as AOA policy the following consensus statement on the tenets of osteopathic medicine:

1. The body is a unit; the person is a unit of body, mind, and spirit.

2. The body is capable of self-regulation, self-healing, and health maintenance.

3. Structure and function are reciprocally interrelated.

4. Rational treatment is based upon an understanding of the basic principles of body unity, self-regulation, and the interrelationship of structure and function.