What is Fascia?
Clients often ask me, “What is fascia?”. So here is some information for all of you who would like to understand more about it.
Fascia has been a very neglected part of medicine for a long time. In fact during cadaver experiments, researchers would discard of it as they didn’t think it was important. In recent years, however, it has become more obvious by researchers and the medical world how important it is and how it is connected to so many pain syndromes.
Fascia is both a tissue and a system and is made up of collagen, elastin and ground substance. As far as the body is concerned, your fascia is all one and is not broken up into parts but one complex, self-regulating organ. It is a continuous tissue that is sometimes referred to as a fascial three-dimensional web, it surrounds and penetrates every muscle, bone, organ, every nerve and cell of your body. The fascial network has more nerve endings in it than the skin does. It is also ten times more innervated than muscle tissue.
Energy can travel through it much faster than in neurons, chemicals or hormones. It even ferries electrons, protons, photons and phonons throughout the entire body like a superhighway. If it is dehydrated or damaged energy flow gets disrupted. When we re-hydrate our bodies through steps I will discuss below we make our fascia healthier, re-establish the energy transfer, communication, flow and coherence of our body.
Fascia’s ground substance is the fascia’s fluid component and is a liquid crystal; just like liquid crystals in technology are used for data storage our fascia holds memory. This is why during a myofascial release therapy session, a person can be overcome with emotions as the body recalls the memory and then let’s go of it.
Fascia is a major shock absorber of the body. It can resist both pulling and compressive forces. Your fascia should glide and be able to absorb shock from the everyday activities of life. However, fascia solidifies when there is trauma from injury and forms crosslinks or adhesions and it looses it’s glide which causes compression, pain, dehydration and inflammation in the body. The fascia can also adhere to itself or other structures, distorting the shape of the three-dimensional web of the body by pulling body segments and bony structures out of alignment. Many pain syndromes are due to fascial restrictions in the body.
With this knowledge, just imagine it’s impact on our overall health and how necessary it is to nourish and take care of it.
Tips for healthier fascia:
Myofascial Release Therapy rehydrates the fascia, brings it back to a gel-like state so that it can glide, breaks up holding patterns and fascial restrictions in the body.
Infrared light/Sauna - Red light from the Sun or from red light panels helps stimulate water production in your mitochondria which hydrates your fascia.
Cold Plunges - Facilitate better electron flow through the mitochondrial electron transport chain which produces water which will hydrate your fascia.
Grounding - Standing barefoot on the Earth allows your body to receive electrons from it. The body soaks up and distributes the electrons to where they are needed. Grounding is the ultimate antioxidant which reduces inflammation in the body and the fascia.
