Fascia is a web of fibrous tissue that permeates the body, but is it really the "Cinderella Tissue" that new age therapists, Rolfers, and yoga instructors suggest? The fascial system is still a medical mystery. But that could soon change, thanks to an unlikely alliance between researchers and alternative therapists.
Image of myofacial release therapy via Colorado Body and Soul
In October, 2007, more than 100 scientists from around the world convened in Boston, Massachusetts to discuss the latest research on fascia, an enigmatic, gauze-like matrix of connective tissue that envelopes the muscles, surrounds the nerves and swathes the organs in a body-wide-web of fibrous collagen. But the researchers had some unlikely company. Also in attendance, and outnumbering researchers 5:1, was a throng of complementary- and alternative-medicine practitioners with a mutual interest in fascia. United by their fascination with this medically neglected tissue, the two camps comprised the attendees of the first-ever International Fascia Research Congress.
Science's coverage of that first congress indicates that practitioners of complementary and alternative medicine (aka "CAM") signed up for the meeting in droves. The researchers, however, had required some convincing. Therapies defined by the National Institutes of Health as "complementary," "alternative," or "integrative," are characterized, in large part, by a lack of scientific evidence in support of their effectiveness. More distasteful, still, to many scientists, is how readily such therapies expose themselves to untestable spiritual and metaphysical interpretations. For many researchers, to associate with alternative practitioners is to not only grant outlandish theories credibility by association, but to risk sullying one's own scientific reputation.
The scientists who did attend the meeting had been assembled through the efforts of conference-founder and Executive Director Thomas Findley. An MD with a PhD in physical medicine and rehabilitation, Findley has studied the science of rehabilitation for close to forty years. But he is also a longtime practitioner of "Rolfing." Also known as "Structural Integration," Rolfing is an alternative form of movement and energy therapy. To quote Ida P. Rolf, the founder of the practice:
Rolfers make a life study of relating bodies and their fields to the earth and its gravity field, and we so organize the body that the gravity field can reinforce the body's energy field. This is our primary concept. How a Mysterious Body Part Called Fascia Is Challenging Medicine EXPAND But unlike many alternative therapists, Findley seems to recoil at the mention of words like "energy field." Among bodyworkers like Rolfers, the standard practice may be to offer therapies that elude quantification and verification, but this, Findley says, is problematic. "The point of science is to ask a question in a way that can be answered either 'yes' or 'no,'" he says, "and a lot of practitioners pose questions in ways that aren't really answerable in a scientific context." [At left: The logo for the Rolf Institute of Structural Integration, which markets Rolfing. According to the RISI, Rolfing "works on the web-like network of connective tissues, called fascia, to release, realign and balance the whole body, potentially resolving discomfort, reducing compensations and alleviating pain."]
Findley thinks the answers he's looking for could be hiding in fascia. On the scientific side of things, the field of fascia research has grown considerably in recent years, though it lacks the coherence of other, more established areas of physiological investigation. For decades, anatomical dissections and representations have presented the body as stripped of its fascial tissues, and the majority of physiology textbooks make little mention of it. "Most scientists," says Wallace Sampson, alternative medicine skeptic and professor emeritus at Stanford University, "even those wary of alternative therapies, admit that the field of fascia research is a field of neglect, and remains sorely under-investigated."
By uniting alternative therapists with researchers, Findley hopes to spur discovery. He is fond of telling conferencegoers that when he was in medical school, glial cells (the predominant cell-type in the central nervous system) had no function. "We now know [glial cells] have a major function in memory, and do all sorts of things," he says. "What about fascia?"
"We strip it, do away with it, say it has no function at all," he continues. "Well, I suspect we're going to find major functions in fascia, just as we find major functions in glial cells."
Growing Acceptance
It's been almost seven years since the first Fascia Research Congress, and both Findley and his conference have celebrated their fair share of accomplishments. World-renowned biomechanics researcher Peter Huijing, who was reluctant to attend the first FRC for fear that it would damage his reputation, has become one of the biggest headliners at subsequent meetings. He volunteered to help organize the second FRC in 2009. He even convinced his home institution – Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam – to host it.
In 2007, Wallace Sampson, the alternative medicine skeptic, roundly criticized the Fascia Research Congress, calling it "A Meeting of Incompatibles." You have to do the basic science and build from there, he insisted at the time. "You can't force the clinical side." In 2014, Sampson applauds Findley. "Findley may be in a position to point out, better than anyone else, in any other field, the reasons for the conflict between alternative medicine and basic science," he told me.
And yet, fascia's "major functions" have yet to reveal themselves. To date, there have been no home runs establishing a clear, causal link between fascia's molecular, cellular, or biomechanics properties and the effective treatment of pain, injury, or disease – at least to the satisfaction of the broader scientific community. Findley continues to reference discoveries that have yet to be made. His e-mail signature is a quote, attributed to Albert Einstein.
"For an idea that does not first seem insane," it reads, "there is no hope."
But how insane is Findley's idea, really? Does it not make intuitive sense that a tissue found throughout the body would harbor some form of medical or therapeutic significance?
Sure, says John Hutchinson, professor of evolutionary biomechanics at University of London's Royal Veterinary College, but intuition can be dangerous when it comes to research. "There's a lot about it we don't understand," he says, noting that it remains an understudied tissue, "but when you point to something as complex as fascia, it's easy to use the fact that it's understudied in a way that's convenient to your argument."
Robert Schleip – a longtime Rolfer turned researcher, and director of Ulm University's Fascia Research Group – has expressed similar frustrations over what he calls "the current trend among bodyworkers of attributing anything wonderful or astonishing to the properties of fascia":
[Our research group] has been receiving an almost exponentially increasing number of inquiries from enthusiastic healers (and martial art teachers) worldwide who wish that we would sanctify their claims that fascial contraction provides the explanation for their observed miracle powers. While I do tend to believe that the fascial net plays much larger roles in human functioning than previously assumed in orthopedic medicine, I am afraid that such over-zealous claims and projections are undermining the seriousness of the investigation. In a presentation delivered at the 2012 International Fascia Research Congress (a video of which appears below), Schleip expanded on this point in a talk about how his experience as a scientist has informed his personal Rolfing practice:
"We have been teaching for several decades that with the rolfing strokes we are changing a gel-to-sol transition int he ground substance, or that we are also loosening cross-links within the collagen fibers," says Schleip, in reference to common phrases employed by Rolfers to explain their work to their patients. "But, if you meet us teachers late night at the bar, we don't know shit about it and we agree to that."
To quote Eric Jacobson – a lecturer on Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School with longstanding ties to the Rolf Institute of Structural Integration, the Ida P. Rolf Research Foundation, and the Fascia Research Congress – the current state of fascia science is such that one must always bear in mind "the difference between what we know about fascia and what we're hypothesizing its significance might be."
What Does Medical Science Know About Fascia?
Scientific investigations of fascia have grown considerably in recent years, as evidenced by a continuous rise in its MEDLINE references since the 1960s. Suffice to say, there is more research to summarize than there is space to do so. Science writer Paul Ingraham sums up a great deal of this work in his article "Does Fascia Matter?"
Robert Schleip sent me six scientific articles that he regards as "home runs" for the field of clinical fascia research (see references below). I showed the studies to Hutchinson and to Silvia Blemker, a biomedical engineer at the University of Virginia.
Blemker says the the clinical studies Schleip references "all provide evidence to support the role of fascia in health and disease, but... they are small bits and pieces of the puzzle and in many ways do not fit within the community's conceptual models of disease processes." In this light, she continues, "it is understandable that these studies get push-back from the [larger scientific community.]"
How a Mysterious Body Part Called Fascia Is Challenging Medicine EXPAND Neither of the rodent studies seemed particularly momentous to Hutchinson. "Even considered together and taken rather credulously in terms of the details of the science, these two rat studies seem incremental to me." As part of a sustained research effort, Hutchinson says it's possible these studies might eventually dovetail with others and lead to some improvements in care. "Possibly," he hedges, "or not."
Hutchinson's language echoes that of Rolfing-researcher Eric Jacobson, who had the following to say at a recent presentation on the therapeutic implications of the lumbar fascia – a collagenous sheet that spans and connects to various bones and regions of the back:
The hypothesis now is that maybe chronic low back pain has something to do with a dysfunction in that fascia. [That] it's at least part of the story, maybe.
Both Hutchinson and Blemker had good things to say about Huijing's work, but they agree that it raises more questions than it answers.
Scientists know, for example, that fascia surrounds, separates and connects muscles throughout the body. According to Blemker, Huijing and his colleagues have developed a long line of research demonstrating fascia's ubiquity in the body enables it to transmit some degree of force within and between muscles, but "this line of thinking has yet to adopted by the mainstream biomechanics community because it does not yet fit within our conceptual model of musculoskeletal function."
"There's no question Huijing's work is fascinating," adds Hutchinson, "and there are aspects about myofascial force transmission that may be right. We just don't know how right, and how generalizable it would be, yet."
At least in the eyes of Hutchinson and Blemker, these are not "home runs." Are they interesting? Yes. Deserving of further investigation? Absolutely. But the therapeutic benefits of fascial manipulation remain too poorly understood to inform therapeutic interventions.
"Once you say something is not well known," Hutchinson says, "then as far as science is concerned, as far as evidence-based medicine is concerned, that's where you stop. You don't elevate it to some other level of significance."
Ingraham, for his part, draws a similar conclusion:
Fascia is biologically interesting! All biology is. But clinical relevance is the central question of this article: if fascia science cannot actually improve treatment, then it makes no sense to be fascinated by it in a therapeutic context. The New Age Tradition vs. Science
Where do new age ideas about fascia originate? To hear Findley tell it, therapies exist that have targeted fascia for thousands of years. But his personal views on fascia, and the ethos of the Fascia Research Congress as a whole, have been informed in large part by the writings of Andrew Taylor Still, the 19th Century founder of osteopathic medicine. Writes Findley, in an essay titled "The Fascia Research Congress from the 100 year perspective of Andrew Taylor Still":
I was fortunate in 1988 to inherit the library of more than 100 journal articles… which included the writings on fascia by AT Still. I knew there was important information there, but did not examine them closely until an Osteopathic student was doing a research rotation with me in 2012. The first three fascia congresses thus evolved from 2007 to 2012 without the benefit of guidance from Dr Still, but remarkably cover most of the concepts he proposed in his writings. How a Mysterious Body Part Called Fascia Is Challenging Medicine EXPAND The essay reveals how much Findley's work is influenced by Still's osteopathic philosophy, which he summarizes in four points:
1. The human body functions as a total biologic unit
2. The body possesses self-healing and self-regulatory mechanisms
3. Structure and function are interrelated, and
4. Abnormal pressure in one part of the body produces abnormal pressures and strains upon other parts of the body.
Sampson says Findley's references to Still (pictured above, photo via LOC), and other anatomical concepts that developed in the 1800s, reflect an anachronistic approach to science.
"Still and his contemporaries had concepts that they described in terms of wholeness, proper function, and the like," says Sampson. These are words that accommodate innumerable little reactions, associations and constructions of the human body, and of life in general. The problem, says Sampson, is that when we talk about "wholeness," "proper function," "total function," "intact function" and so forth, we do so with words "whose definitions we understand, but whose underlying meanings we do not."
The Future of Fascia Research
Sampson comments on the limitations of language are especially timely, in light of an ongoing debate within the field of fascia research. A recent issue of the Journal of Bodywork and Movement devoted no fewer than six editorials to the lack of agreement over what should or should not be referred to as "fascia." To hear contributor Paolo Tozzi tell it, "there is no area of anatomical science stigmatized by a larger divergent terminology as the one regarding fascia-related connective tissue."
The issue of nomenclature was first brought to the table in an editorial by University of Padova anatomist Carla Stecco, first author of one of the "home run" studies sent to me by Schleip. She summarizes the problem with fascia nomenclature as follows:
Fascia is often described as an ubiquitous tissue that permeates the human body, organized as a three-dimensional network that surrounds, supports, suspends, protects, connects and divides muscular, skeletal and visceral components of the body. If we agree with this wide definition [Ed. Note: There are definitions still more expansive than this one. See this popular definition, which classifies even cartilage and bone as fascia.], then fasciae could include every connective tissue, loose or dense, regular and irregular, with so many functions that would be impossible to study and understand from a scientific point of view. Responses from Stecco's fellow contributors on the matter range from supportive:
"...inconsistent usage of anatomical terms makes it difficult to compare results across research studies and to draw generalized conclusions. This is a serious problem that will slow progress if not addressed. "
- University of Vermont neuroendocrinologist Helene Langevin (another researcher cited by Schleip) To, at times, borderline dismissive:
In the absence of another word, 'fascia' has a popular meaning that is in such widespread use that we should 'go with it' for our communication with the world of the public and large groups of practitioners.
-Tom Myers, author of Anatomy Trains, a popular guide to myofascial therapy for manual and movement therapists The most telling editorial of all, however, may be the one penned by Leon Chaitow, the journal's Editor in Chief, titled "Can We Describe What We Do?", in which he notes:
It seems... that detail of a single manual method might need to incorporate a dozen or more descriptors. And since, in many manual treatment settings a range of methods are involved in a single session – precise replication, based on such descriptions, would at times be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to realise. The upshot? No. Bodyworkers, including those who purport to target fascia in a therapeutic fashion, cannot describe what they do. At least not currently. " This might not be an impossible task, but it would certainly require focused attention from many for a considerable time," concludes Chaitow (who, it bears mentioning, sits on the Board of Directors of the Ida P. Rolf Research Foundation, as well as its Science Advisory Council). "Are we prepared for such a task?"
Sampson says Chaitow, Schleip, Findley, and anyone else who straddles the divide between researcher and alternative practioner must be, if they are to elevate the field of therapeutic fascial manipulation to a new plane of biomedical legitimacy.
"I applaud them," says Sampson, noting that he took away more from the First International Fascia Research Congress than he had anticipated. "I spent considerable time reviewing the research that was presented, and learned a lot from it." But demonstrating the therapeutic benefits of fascial manipulation, which he concedes is "an interesting concept" cannot be accomplished through language and thought alone. It has to be through mathematics, and statistics, observation, repeated observation and validation. It must be based in reproducibility, "not feedback into your fingers."
Sampson says that attempting to unite traditional and alternative medicines – an undertaking he initially condemned – has put Findley in a unique position to explore the divide in alternative medicine. "Dr. Findley strikes me as a reasonable, sensible person" he says "one who could keep the organization on track," even as "attempts to find connections to function and therapy fail." Such an endeavor, he says "could lead one to see the futility of extending connections too far beyond reasonable probability."
"Tell doctor Findley and his crew that 'it's tough,'" Sampson says. "And i don't mean 'tough titties.' I mean to say that it is very hard."
"That's life," he says. "That's science. We do the best we can."
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started. They could still get him out of office. But instead, they want mass death. Don’t forget that.
Fascinating both for the content and the extraordinary degree of gate-keeping, academic suppression, slowing of progress and investigation, protection from novelty, and domination of discourse from the pseudoskeptics.
Some far left field speculative musing: I sometimes think about Mycelium and the bodies fascia. Be cool if there was some commonalities.
If I knew all mysteries and all knowledge, and have not charity, I am nothing. St. Paul I hang onto my prejudices, they are the testicles of my mind. Eric Hoffer
I can't help but also see some kind of commonality among the fascia, the Mycelium and the "galactic filaments," aka the "cosmic web" or "Intergalactic Medium."
Trees are now known to communicate with each other, and even send water and nutrients to nearby trees (even to other species) who need it, through the below-ground fungus network. Is there an analogous function to the galactic filaments?
“The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists.” ― Joan Robinson
Paul Grilley, the American yogi, talks about connective tissue and fascia in his Anatomy for Yoga, DVD. He cites research by Dr. Hiroshi Motoyama and Dr. James Oschman in his work in getting students to slowly develop the joints through yin yoga, to better help the passage of beneficial energies.
He makes the connection between the operation of the connective tissue and fascia as being instrumental in the healthy passage of chi/prana, and that the bioelectric communications networks along these fascia lines overlap more or less precisely with the meridian system, as described by Eastern medicine.
http://www.kurzweilai.net/merging-nanoe ... an-tissues Merging nanoelectronics into 3D engineered human tissues Researchers grow cyborg tissues with embedded nanoelectronics August 28, 2012
3D reconstruction confocal microscopy image of a 3D macroporous nanoelectronic scaffold; a nanoelectronic device exists (too small to see in image) in each circular region (credit: Harvard University)
Harvard scientists have created a type of “cyborg” tissue for the first time by embedding a three-dimensional network of functional, biocompatible, nanoscale wires into engineered human tissues. The research team led by Charles M. Lieber, the Mark Hyman Jr. Professor of Chemistry at Harvard, and Daniel Kohane, a Harvard Medical School professor in the Department of Anesthesia at Children’s Hospital Boston, developed a system for creating nanoscale “scaffolds” that can be seeded with cells that grow into tissue.
“The current methods we have for monitoring or interacting with living systems are limited,” said Lieber. “We can use electrodes to measure activity in cells or tissue, but that damages them. With this technology, for the first time, we can work at the same scale as the unit of biological system without interrupting it. Ultimately, this is about merging tissue with electronics in a way that it becomes difficult to determine where the tissue ends and the electronics begin.”
Contributing to the work were Robert Langer, from the Koch Institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Zhigang Suo, the Allen E. and Marilyn M. Puckett Professor of Mechanics and Materials at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
3D reconstructed confocal microscopy image of synthetic 3D neural tissue with neurons (red) and nanoelectronic circuitry (green/blue) (credit: Tian, et al./Harvard University)
The research addresses a concern that has long been associated with work on bioengineered tissue: how to create systems capable of sensing chemical or electrical changes in the tissue after it has been grown and implanted.
The system might also represent a solution to researchers’ struggles in developing methods to directly stimulate engineered tissues and measure cellular reactions.
“In the body, the autonomic nervous system keeps track of pH, chemistry, oxygen, and other factors, and triggers responses as needed,” Kohane said. “We need to be able to mimic the kind of intrinsic feedback loops the body has evolved in order to maintain fine control at the cellular and tissue level.”
Building 3D networks of nanoscale sensors
Using the autonomic nervous system as inspiration, Bozhi Tian, a former doctoral student under Lieber and a former postdoctoral fellow in the Kohane and Langer labs, joined with Harvard graduate student Jia Liu in Lieber’s Harvard lab to build meshlike networks of nanoscale silicon wires.
Scanning electron microscopy image of one circular region of the nanoelectronic scaffold, with nanowire transistor at the center. (credit: Harvard University)
The process of building the networks, Lieber said, is similar to that used to etch microchips.
Beginning with a two-dimensional substrate, researchers laid out a mesh of organic polymer around nanoscale wires, which serve as the critical sensing elements. Nanoscale electrodes, which connect the nanowire elements, were then built within the mesh to enable nanowire transistors to measure the activity in cells without damaging them.
Once completed, the substrate was dissolved, leaving researchers with a netlike sponge, or a mesh, that can be folded or rolled into a host of three-dimensional shapes.
Once complete, the networks were porous enough to allow the team to seed them with cells and encourage those cells to grow in 3-D cultures.
“Previous efforts to create bioengineered sensing networks have focused on two-dimensional layouts, where culture cells grow on top of electronic components, or on conformal layouts, where probes are placed on tissue surfaces,” said Tian.
“It is desirable to have an accurate picture of cellular behavior within the 3-D structure of a tissue, and it is also important to have nanoscale probes to avoid disruption of either cellular or tissue architecture.”
Schematic of the conceptual basis for the 3D networks of nanoscale sensors (credit: Tian, et al./Harvard University)
Using heart and nerve cells, the team successfully engineered tissues containing embedded nanoscale networks without affecting the cells’ viability or activity. Using the embedded devices, the researchers were then able to detect electrical signals generated by cells deep within the tissue, and to measure changes in those signals in response to cardio- or neuro-stimulating drugs.
They were also able to construct bioengineered blood vessels, and used the embedded technology to measure pH changes — as would be seen in response to inflammation, ischemia, and other biochemical or cellular environments — both inside and outside the vessels.
Though a number of potential applications exist for the technology, the most near-term use, Lieber said, may come from the pharmaceutical industry, where researchers could use it to more precisely study how newly developed drugs act in three-dimensional tissues, rather than thin layers of cultured cells. The system might also one day be used to monitor changes inside the body and react accordingly, whether through electrical stimulation or the release of a drug.
The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health, the McKnight Foundation, and Children’s Hospital Boston.
REFERENCES: Bozhi Tian, Jia Liu, Tal Dvir, Lihua Jin, Jonathan H. Tsui, Quan Qing, Zhigang Suo, Robert Langer, Daniel S. Kohane, Charles M. Lieber, Macroporous nanowire nanoelectronic scaffolds for synthetic tissues, Nature Materials, 2012, DOI: 10.1038/nmat3404
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started. They could still get him out of office. But instead, they want mass death. Don’t forget that.
Thanks. Here is an interesting video about the marvels of fascia. Some nice mind food, the narration leans a little too much into early 60's wonders of science at times though.
I did the Rolfing sequence some years back and it was great and have had some sporadic Rolfing done since. I'm thinking if I get some bread together of going through the sequence again. I do remember before I had a session laughing off how painful some people said it could be even though supposedly it had mellowed some since Ida Rolf's day, man was it painful at times! I have really tight hips and hamstrings and someone running down them with their elbow made me see stars a few times.
Too bad R.I. doesn't have bodywork subforum. But then I already spend too much time here as it is.
If I knew all mysteries and all knowledge, and have not charity, I am nothing. St. Paul I hang onto my prejudices, they are the testicles of my mind. Eric Hoffer
Interesting topic. Since breaking my back in October of '91 I've lived in pain.
My top-half is no longer connected to my bottom-half as it is in most people and now L4 floats freely above and 40% forward of L5, which sits 30% forward and floats freely above S1, so I must be careful and always move thoughtful that a misstep could could put me down and leave me paralyzed, permanently in excruciating pain, or without control of my bowels or bladder.
Sitting in a pain management doctor's office filled with patients suffering the effects of failed back surgeries convinced me not to have surgery. The procedure then was crude and now has been so improved as fusion can now be done arthroscopically.
I had been taking a small dosage of morphine twice a day and muscle relaxants three times a day. I preferred a natural substance in place of methadone, but I really got tired of wondering what damage the muscle relaxants were doing to my liver and got off all pain medications and have remained without analgesics for a decade or more.
But in 1998 I fell asleep driving home after putting in a 19 hour day. It was a country road and it turned left and I continued straight into a deep ditch with a high bank that propelled me alongside the roadway about 100' into a tree. Although I had my seatbelt fastened, it was defective and failed to prevent me from impacting the steering wheel, fracturing and displacing my sternum and snapping my head forward, causing a concussion, though my head impacted nothing. My left arm was twisted around in the steering wheel when it spun to the left after the initial impact, and tore the hell out of my muscles from my wrist to my neck, and dislocated and displaced my scapula permanently. I was arrested for DWI and humiliated.
A friend bailed me out. Three days later, still rather delirious, and vomiting, I asked him to drive me to the hospital, stopping occasionally along the way for me to empty my empty stomach.
So what's the point of all this? The only thing that gave me relief from this additional pain was going to a licensed massage therapist, the only person in our area who then practiced myofascial massage for treatment.
I tell you, it was miraculous! With simple touch, I felt the muscles of my lower arm actually relax bringing immediate relief from nagging discomfort. I swear by myofascial massage!
I'm still quite broken-up and try my best to compartmentalize my pain, you know - it only hurts when you think about how bad it does hurt, to ignore it the best I can, because once you start to focus upon your own discomfort... well, to do my best not to let pain take control of what's left of my life.
As I said before I have Morgellons and something called *Marfan syndrome--a genetic disorder that affects the body’s connective tissue. (Supposedly Morgellons is more likely to manifest in people with connective tissue disorders.) Anyway, prior to the Morgellons manifesting, about 20 years ago, I learned about Rolfing and deep tissue massage which stayed in the back of my mind. So about 3-4 years ago, I started doing what I call "deep tissue acupressure", using letter openers, fingers, massagers, etc to penetrate through muscle, as deeply as I can, wherever I can reach. When I do this, if I hold it long enough, or after I release the pressure, I feel this electric current throughout different parts of my body depending on where I, more or less, dig into. Once I start to feel this electrical current in the place I'm trying to heal, I know it's only a matter of days until it's gone. Reading this article makes me believe that whatever I'm doing, as crazy as it sounds, is working to one degree or another.
Having said that, I started doing this after enduring the worst of Morgellons, which after a couple of years of agony, cleared up after treating it with Jim Humble's MMS. Today, I only get mild flare ups on my face every once in a while, but even these mild flareups are very uncomfortable and ugly.
* although if I really do have it, it's very mild.
'I see clearly that man in this world deceives himself by admiring and esteeming things which are not, and neither sees nor esteems the things which are.' — St. Catherine of Genoa
The ‘new’ organ you didn’t know you had POSTED 6:19 PM, JANUARY 5, 2017, BY CNN WIRE, UPDATED AT 07:49PM, JANUARY 5, 2017 How the mesentery functions in your body. (A) Peritoneum, mesentery, fascia and intestine. (B) Mesentery, fascia and intestine. (C) Mesentery and intestine. (D) Mesentery.
In case you’ve ever wondered what connects your intestine to your abdomen, there’s a word — and now, a single organ — for that: the mesentery. But don’t worry; you haven’t grown a new organ. It’s always been there, performing important functions that affect systems throughout the body, from cardiovascular to immunological.
Leonardo da Vinci depicted it as one contiguous organ, and it remained that way for centuries until 1885, when Sir Frederick Treves’ findings presented the mesentery as fragmented amongst the small intestine, transverse colon, and sigmoid colon.
The research of Dr. J. Calvin Coffey, foundation chair of surgery at the University of Limerick, is reclassifying this part of the digestive system as a contiguous organ. In a new study, Coffey has established the anatomy and structure of the mesentery, using images and compiling research to show that the organ’s continuity can be seen only when it’s exposed in a certain way.
The current findings resonate with those of Carl Toldt, who accurately described the presence of the mesentery in 1878. But his research was largely overlooked. At the time, Treves’ findings supported the statements of Henry Gray, who mentioned multiple mesenteries in the 1858 first edition of his book “Gray’s Anatomy,” the go-to medical textbook for students around the world.
Coffey’s research has already prompted the latest edition of “Gray’s Anatomy” to refer to the mesentery as a continuous organ.
What does it do?
Linking your gut to the rest of your body is an important task, and the mesentery performs it well.
Among its functions, it carries blood and lymphatic fluid between the intestine and the rest of the body. It also maintains the position of the intestine so that it’s connected with the abdominal wall without being in direct contact.
That connection is key.
“Without a mesentery to keep the intestine connected, the intestine would have to attach directly to the body wall,” Coffey said. “It is unlikely that it would be able to contract and relax along its entire length if it were directly in contact. It maintains the intestine in a particular conformation, ‘hitched up,’ so that when you stand up or walk about, it doesn’t collapse into the pelvis and not function.”
Although researchers know that the mesentery plays an important role in the intestinal, vascular, endocrine, cardiovascular and immunological systems, more research is needed to determine the extent of those roles.
But they do have evidence that the mesentery takes environmental signals from the intestine and orchestrates the body’s response, Coffey said. One example is how bacteria are sampled in the lymph glands in the mesentery. In response, the glands then coordinate immune responses.
Why has it been misunderstood?
To look at the shape of the membrane, which Coffey calls remarkable, it’s easy to see why the mesentery has been depicted differently. It has a spiral formation in the abdomen and is packaged along a spinal trajectory, starting in the upper abdomen and ending in the pelvis.
“In between, it fans out, like a Chinese fan, to span the length of the intestine from the upper small intestine to the end of the large bowel,” Coffey said.
The latest anatomy and structure clarifications aid not only doctors, but medical students as well.
“For students, it greatly simplifies the matter of the mesentery,” Coffey said. “This was traditionally regarded as a complex field. The current anatomic model is elegant and simple and will help students understand this structure. It will also provide them with a new perspective from which to view other organs in the abdomen. For example, we now know that the mesentery and intestine intersect along the entire length of the small and large intestine, whereas previously, this was thought to occur in some regions only.”
Improving surgery and treatment
More research will allow for better definition of the gut membrane’s function, what happens when it functions abnormally and diseases that affect it. This also allows for mesenteric science to become its own field of medical study, like neurology.
Coffey hopes that creating a better understanding of the mesentery can help with diagnosing issues and less invasive ways of assessing them. Currently, its remote location in the body means the mesentery can be accessed only radiologically or surgically. This research lays the foundation for investigating possible prescriptions and how less-invasive endoscopic procedures during a colonoscopy could map the mesentery.
Adopting a universal classification like this in the medical world has benefits that extend to standardizing surgical procedures, such as moving or cutting into the intestine. The mesentery extends from the duodenum, or first part of the small intestine immediately beyond the stomach, all the way to the rectum, the final section of the large intestine.
Because of this, it can factor into diseases such as Crohn’s, colorectal cancer, inflammatory bowel disease or cardiovascular disease and major health concerns like diabetes, obesity, and metabolic syndrome. The more doctors know about the exact function of the mesentery, the more measures they can take to investigate the part it plays.
“For doctors, it provides us with an opportunity to refresh our approach to many diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease and others,” Coffey said. “This could help in identifying the mechanisms underlying these conditions and help us in unraveling their cause and how they develop.” http://q13fox.com/2017/01/05/the-new-or ... w-you-had/
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started. They could still get him out of office. But instead, they want mass death. Don’t forget that.
The ‘new’ organ you didn’t know you had POSTED 6:19 PM, JANUARY 5, 2017, BY CNN WIRE, UPDATED AT 07:49PM, JANUARY 5, 2017 How the mesentery functions in your body. (A) Peritoneum, mesentery, fascia and intestine. (B) Mesentery, fascia and intestine. (C) Mesentery and intestine. (D) Mesentery.
In case you’ve ever wondered what connects your intestine to your abdomen, there’s a word — and now, a single organ — for that: the mesentery. But don’t worry; you haven’t grown a new organ. It’s always been there, performing important functions that affect systems throughout the body, from cardiovascular to immunological.
Leonardo da Vinci depicted it as one contiguous organ, and it remained that way for centuries until 1885, when Sir Frederick Treves’ findings presented the mesentery as fragmented amongst the small intestine, transverse colon, and sigmoid colon.
The research of Dr. J. Calvin Coffey, foundation chair of surgery at the University of Limerick, is reclassifying this part of the digestive system as a contiguous organ. In a new study, Coffey has established the anatomy and structure of the mesentery, using images and compiling research to show that the organ’s continuity can be seen only when it’s exposed in a certain way.
The current findings resonate with those of Carl Toldt, who accurately described the presence of the mesentery in 1878. But his research was largely overlooked. At the time, Treves’ findings supported the statements of Henry Gray, who mentioned multiple mesenteries in the 1858 first edition of his book “Gray’s Anatomy,” the go-to medical textbook for students around the world.
Coffey’s research has already prompted the latest edition of “Gray’s Anatomy” to refer to the mesentery as a continuous organ.
What does it do?
Linking your gut to the rest of your body is an important task, and the mesentery performs it well.
Among its functions, it carries blood and lymphatic fluid between the intestine and the rest of the body. It also maintains the position of the intestine so that it’s connected with the abdominal wall without being in direct contact.
That connection is key.
“Without a mesentery to keep the intestine connected, the intestine would have to attach directly to the body wall,” Coffey said. “It is unlikely that it would be able to contract and relax along its entire length if it were directly in contact. It maintains the intestine in a particular conformation, ‘hitched up,’ so that when you stand up or walk about, it doesn’t collapse into the pelvis and not function.”
Although researchers know that the mesentery plays an important role in the intestinal, vascular, endocrine, cardiovascular and immunological systems, more research is needed to determine the extent of those roles.
But they do have evidence that the mesentery takes environmental signals from the intestine and orchestrates the body’s response, Coffey said. One example is how bacteria are sampled in the lymph glands in the mesentery. In response, the glands then coordinate immune responses.
Why has it been misunderstood?
To look at the shape of the membrane, which Coffey calls remarkable, it’s easy to see why the mesentery has been depicted differently. It has a spiral formation in the abdomen and is packaged along a spinal trajectory, starting in the upper abdomen and ending in the pelvis.
“In between, it fans out, like a Chinese fan, to span the length of the intestine from the upper small intestine to the end of the large bowel,” Coffey said.
The latest anatomy and structure clarifications aid not only doctors, but medical students as well.
“For students, it greatly simplifies the matter of the mesentery,” Coffey said. “This was traditionally regarded as a complex field. The current anatomic model is elegant and simple and will help students understand this structure. It will also provide them with a new perspective from which to view other organs in the abdomen. For example, we now know that the mesentery and intestine intersect along the entire length of the small and large intestine, whereas previously, this was thought to occur in some regions only.”
Improving surgery and treatment
More research will allow for better definition of the gut membrane’s function, what happens when it functions abnormally and diseases that affect it. This also allows for mesenteric science to become its own field of medical study, like neurology.
Coffey hopes that creating a better understanding of the mesentery can help with diagnosing issues and less invasive ways of assessing them. Currently, its remote location in the body means the mesentery can be accessed only radiologically or surgically. This research lays the foundation for investigating possible prescriptions and how less-invasive endoscopic procedures during a colonoscopy could map the mesentery.
Adopting a universal classification like this in the medical world has benefits that extend to standardizing surgical procedures, such as moving or cutting into the intestine. The mesentery extends from the duodenum, or first part of the small intestine immediately beyond the stomach, all the way to the rectum, the final section of the large intestine.
Because of this, it can factor into diseases such as Crohn’s, colorectal cancer, inflammatory bowel disease or cardiovascular disease and major health concerns like diabetes, obesity, and metabolic syndrome. The more doctors know about the exact function of the mesentery, the more measures they can take to investigate the part it plays.
“For doctors, it provides us with an opportunity to refresh our approach to many diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease and others,” Coffey said. “This could help in identifying the mechanisms underlying these conditions and help us in unraveling their cause and how they develop.” http://q13fox.com/2017/01/05/the-new-or ... w-you-had/
I never heard of it until a friend of mine was diagnosed with lymphoma that was located in the mesentery. Prior to this I never thought about what connects the intestines to abdomen.
'I see clearly that man in this world deceives himself by admiring and esteeming things which are not, and neither sees nor esteems the things which are.' — St. Catherine of Genoa
Rory » 18 Aug 2014 01:26 wrote:Paul Grilley, the American yogi, talks about connective tissue and fascia in his Anatomy for Yoga, DVD. He cites research by Dr. Hiroshi Motoyama and Dr. James Oschman in his work in getting students to slowly develop the joints through yin yoga, to better help the passage of beneficial energies.
He makes the connection between the operation of the connective tissue and fascia as being instrumental in the healthy passage of chi/prana, and that the bioelectric communications networks along these fascia lines overlap more or less precisely with the meridian system, as described by Eastern medicine.
How did I miss this thread before?
A year or so ago my yoga obsessed wife was going gaga for this tissue issue as part of her yoga teacher training anatomy lessons.
Love the speculative as above so below angles...
And LOVE the citation of Dr. Hiroshi Motoyama whom I became aware of as having scientifically proven acupuncture and acupressure points many many moons ago.
CIHS Journal 2008: Vol 3 No1 Acupuncture Meridians exist in Dermis (Connective Tissues) – Comparative studies of Electrical Potential Gradient and Direction of Current Flow in Epidermis and Dermis – Hiroshi Motoyama, Ph.D. http://www.cihs.edu/journal/Vol3No1/Mer ... dermis.pdf
WARNING: Video below says "The following clip includes images of human cadavers, which support the lesson. I am deeply grateful for the gifts bestowed by the donors and their families: we who view this material are the direct beneficiaries of their gifts."
The entire Integral Anatomy Series is available for viewing on YouTube. V1, pt. 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K68kC9... Here, Gil Hedley, Ph.D., of http://www.gilhedley.com gives a lesson on the importance of movement and stretching to maintain the sliding properties of tissues in the body, as well as the value of bodywork modalities and yoga when movement potential has become inhibited.
I made this little clip when I was filming my DVD series in 2005.My thoughts have matured a little bit as compared to the way the ideas are presented in here, as might be expected from anyone engaging their learning curve and involved in a process of discovery, but I am also glad that so many people enjoy it "as is." However, for those who like to study up and learn more, I have posted a Note at the following link(http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gil-Hed...), where you can read my more current thoughts on this interesting subject!
The relationship between the superficial fascia and the deep fascia consists of a variety of transitional tissue configurations, sometimes very loose (normally) and sometimes very fixed (normally), and I have found these differences are quite predictable from one area of the body to another, and from one body to another, whether the tissue is fixed or not.
Also, it is normal for there to be "fuzzy" tissue between "individual muscles" within the muscle layer. As with all tissues of the body, all the matter of which it consists is transitioning at various paces, some quicker, some more slowly. "Fuzzy" tissues indeed cycle more quickly then some more dense tissues. By example, the stomach lining sloughs off in 3 to 5 days, the skin cycles in 2 to 5 weeks, bone is cycling over the course of months.
There are what I call "filmy" fasciae all over the body, and when the dissector pulls on these "filmy" fasciae, they have the appearance of "cotton candy" when in traction (I show this in the fuzz speech), and this demonstrates the normal structure of the tissue: filmy and loose, usually found between layers of muscle, and sometimes between deep and superficial fascia.
I used this type of "normal fuzz" in my video as a way of providing an illustration for the fact that, at a level which is initially beneath visual recognition, there is bonding (covalent bonding and hydrogen bonding) occuring throughout the body under various conditions, and this bonding is occuring amongst the connective tissues at large.
By using something visible to illustrate something invisible, people are helped to understand the importance of stretching, but for those wanting to understand more precisely, it is important to comprehend the difference between my illustrations using normal tissue "fuzz," and the kind of bonding which is taking place invisibly in connective tissue which can, in some instances, represent a pathological progression of tissue growth limiting movement.
That having been said, there are some areas of the body which do indeed demonstrate the possibility of tissue binding at the gross, visible level, such as accumulations around the thoraco-scapular interface, "normal" scar tissues, and visceral adhesions.
I recently wrote an article for the Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, ed. Leon Chaitow, on this very subject, called "Visceral Adhesions as Fascial Pathology." In this article I discuss normal and abnormal types of adhesion in the viscera, as well as their causes and their effects, with illustrations provided. I think you can look this article up on line or will be able to once the print version is officially published, though I'm not sure that the print version has "hit the newsstands" yet, as the article was just accepted for publication in November 2009.
I mention this article because it is a concrete demonstration of examples where the inhibition of movement results in tissue binding and pathological states of mobility.
There are students of the body who are oriented towards the research literature, while I am oriented towards the very practical efforts of observation in the laboratory. I consider myself more of a sculptor and philosopher than a scientist. Still, those involved deeply in the professional conversations surrounding these matters (and I have many such colleagues) assure me there is ample scientific research and support backing the general implications of statements I make in "the fuzz speech," which itself is offered not to "prove" anything scientifically, but rather to inspire folks to expand their inner horizons and outward relationships with this inspirational bit of fun. Thank you for watching!
