Last year she started getting osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT), the hands-on method that Still originated. Now she can stand up straight first thing in the morning, and she's eliminated at least half the asthma medicine she was taking. "All I know is that it works,'' she says.

Although fewer osteopathic physicians are practicing such manipulation, there are more osteopathic physicians than ever. The number of graduates of osteopathic medical schools has almost doubled, from 1,059 in 1980 to 2,009 in 1997, and the number of osteopathic medical schools has increased as well. One possible explanation: It?s somewhat easier to be admitted to an osteopathic medical school than to a conventional one, so the demand for new osteopathic schools may be fueled partly by would-be M.D.s.

But a segment of osteopaths, like Dr. Viola Frymann in San Diego, CA, steadfastly hews to hands-on treatment. There's an eight-month waiting list for new patients, some from as far as Japan, at her Osteopathic Center for Children. There, she specializes in treating severely disabled and brain-damaged children who were not helped by conventional medicine, often by gently manipulating plates in the skull. She attributes her success as much to the philosophy of osteopathy as to its techniques.

"The osteopathic approach toward health problems is the fundamental approach to health care, because it's looking at the dynamic unity of the whole person," she says. "It's not disease oriented. It's people oriented."