fascia: the missing link between sensory information and nerve signaling
My journey to explain the root cause of my numerous systemic symptoms illuminates a severe deficit in Western medicine’s current approach to diagnosis: there are key systems that cannot be seen by conventional imaging and testing – yet these systems are crucial to overall health and play a vital role in elemental functioning.
Unfortunately, as was true in my experience, this all too often leads practitioners to dismiss symptoms caused by these ‘invisible systems’ as either faked, or ‘in the patient’s head,’ or otherwise ‘not real’ and therefore ‘not needing intervention.’ This approach is both demeaning and dangerous: as in my experience, the patient is left with no options and likely worsening symptoms as a result of traumatic treatment when seeking help from medical professionals.
It is not easy to change the minds of established Western practitioners, but there is little incentive for change until the patient can prove their hypothesis with scientific evidence. In this way, FND patients are in a unique position to become ‘applied experts’ – seeking education that may bridge isolated symptoms to create a homogenous and holistic patient profile.
I had knowledge of the fascia system from becoming a certified yoga instructor, however it wasn’t until my diagnosis of medically ‘impressive’ spinal stenosis that I viewed fascia as a potential root cause of my unexplained stenosis severity and difficulty with gait/mobility.
The definition of fascia includes tissues of mesodermal derivation considered as specialized connective tissues: the blood and lymph. As water shapes rocks, bodily fluids modify the shape and functioning of bodily structures. Bodily fluids are silent witnesses to mechanotransductive information, allowing adaptation and life, transporting biochemical and hormonal signals. While the solid fascial tissue divides, supports, and connects the different parts of the body system, the liquid fascial tissue feeds and transports messages for the solid fascia. This article reconsiders the model of biotensegrity, by revising the definition of solid and liquid fascia, and tries to integrate the fascial continuum with the lymph and blood in a new model, because in the previous model, these two liquid elements were not taken into consideration. The name given to this new model is Rapid Adaptability of Internal Network (RAIN). Bordoni B, Lintonbon D, Morabito B. Meaning of the Solid and Liquid Fascia to Reconsider the Model of Biotensegrity. Cureus. 2018;10(7):e2922. Published 2018 Jul 5. doi:10.7759/cureus.2922
This understanding validates my experience of ‘witnessing my body change density’ once I began targeting my facia and lymphatic health.