DOs and MDs are effectively equivalent these days. In fact, a relatively big "shake-up" in the medical community is that the two organizations in charge of administrating the residency programs for the pathways will be merging in the coming years. This means that MD graduates will be able to enter DO residencies and vice versa, assuming certain additional requirements are met (the details of which I'm happy to share but which are boring and somewhat esoteric). DOs really should be seen as normal physicians, though - there is no appreciable difference between the two pathways anymore. The historical distinction between the two is that the DO programs include training in "osteopathic manipulative medicine" (OMM), which is essentially additional training in using musculoskeletal manipulation to treat disease. Sounds like voodoo, but it really isn't. There's also the now-historical distinction that DOs traditionally used a more "holistic" approach when treating patients. In the past this absolutely was a difference, but these days MD training has become much more "sensitive" and PC (for lack of a better description), so this is less of a concern than it was in the past. The reason I say the distinction between DOs and MDs is largely titular is that many DOs don't even use OMM in their daily practice; for many, it's simply something seen during school and quickly forgotten. Others see it as very valuable and continue to use it. But they learn the exact same medical science and have the same general training setup as MDs.

Hah, well as a medical trainee, it's just stress-inducing. Minor headache? PROBABLY BRAIN CANCER. Knowledge is not power in this case. Knowledge is just anxiety.