19/05/2022
Fascia….what’s the big fuss?
If you have ever been to a movement class (or seen a Musculoskeletal therapist of any kind) you have probable noticed that they are pretty excited about the stuff.
Why?
Well, it connects just about everything in your body and is likely to even serve as a communication route between tissues.
It is also still very mysterious and every bit of new research coming out makes this remarkable, stretchy, sticky, gloopy, constantly shape shifting web like tissue more exciting.
For example, the New Scientist has just reported this:
-Fascia, more than muscles or joints, may be extra prone to pain sensitization, in other words, prolonged pain grows more nerve endings in fascia making them more sensitive, even in the absence of injury. It is therefore fair to target fascia in therapy, for example to deal with chronic low back pain.
-In people with chronic low back pain, it was found that the thoracolumbar fascia (which extends in a big diamond shape from your lower to your mid back) was 20% stiffer than in those without pain.
-Excessive activation of the sympathetic nervous system such as STRESS has been found to contribute to stiffening of fascial tissue via an intricate inflammatory pathway.
-Remarkably, in a small study, volunteers who stretched an hour every day had lower inflammatory markers called cytokines which are involved in pretty much every modern ailment going from depression, to heart disease to cancer. Bigger studies are underway to further investigate because this could be exciting news.
So how can you keep your fascia healthy?
-STRETCH! You don’t have to twist yourself into a Pretzel, just gently and steadily work within your own limits to push those boundaries a little, or at least maintain the suppleness you have. Whether it is straight up stretching, Pilates, Yoga, Qi Gong, Tai Chi, Feldenkrais, dance…..keep that body moving.
-Reduce and manage your stress to reduce the effect stress hormones have on your fascia. The good news is, any of the stretching movements above, especially if combined with mindful breathing, also have a profound stress releasing effect so you are improving fascial health in two ways simultaneously.
-Massage/Osteopathy/Shiatsu/Physical Therapies: We know there is at least a temporary warming and change in the fluidity of fascia after treatment, whether there are long term effects of those therapies is being investigated. Of course, most of the above also have a profound relaxing action on the body which as we know, in turn helps fascial health.
