Fascia Overview Flashcards
What is an everyday image to use in order to visualize what fascia is?
Fascia is the glue that holds us together. Biological fabric. Connective tissue.
What cells does the ovum become?
ectoderm, mesoderm, endoderm
Define ectoderm
Means ‘outer skin’: forms nerves and skin.
What do nerves specialize in?
Conduction
What do muscle cells specialize in?
Contraction
Define mesoderm
Mesoderm cells create muscle cells
Define endoderm
Inner lining: epithelial cells: inner lining of digestive tract, lung lining, membranes. Decides what comes in and what goes out: filtering. Very good at secreting and absorbing. Found on all kinds of borders.
What do connective tissue cells do?
Protect from outside invaders with white blood cells – diseases etc. Also serves to build the stuff that holds all the stuff together. Makes the connective tissue the myofascia around the muscles to tie them together in a net. Myalinated cells of the nerves conduct better: myalin is produced by connective tissue.
What does myalin do for nerves?
Myalinated cells of nerves conduct better.
What is fascia?
All collegenous soft tissue
Define epimysium
the fascial clingwrap around the muscles - fascius profundus
Define aponeuroses
muscle attachment to the spinus processes- how the muscle eventually feeds to the spine
Define perimesium and septi
cotton candy fascia in between the muscle layers
Define endomysium
The smallest level of fascia; that which encases each individual muscle cell
What is collagen?
Most of what makes up fascia is a protein called collagen (= glue). The most common protein in the body. Constitutes 1/4-1/3 of all protein by weight in the body. All of them are stronger than steel. All of them are long and thin and triple helixed like old rope. Has about 25 different types of molecule.
What is the traditional view of fascia?
When a doctor says ‘fascia’she means: certain layers and sheets of biological fabric: likthe thoracolumbar fascia or plantar fascia.
What is the less traditional view of fascia?
Extracellular Matrix (ECM) everything outside the cells: everything in your body that isn’t a cell (plus the cells that create and maintain it) the environment that your cells live in. Bones and cartilage should be included in the same process, same system, but not ‘fascia’ proper. Considered the ‘hard’ connective tissues. Same matrix. Constructed out of the same processes.
how is the nature of fascia used in terms of organ transplants?
Fascia helps direct the motion of the muscle cells. When you transplant a heart body does not reject it because the ECM helps direct how the cells need to form themselves. can grow from cells from your own body
Why might skin not glide?
Layer of fascia underneath the skin is what allows for the sliding mobility of the skin. If you have fascial adhesion, propogated by immobility, inflammation or microinjuries/macroinjuries due to overloading, will not glide.
what is one way fascia serves bones?
Fascia creates a suspension system for the bones to keep the muscles (and therefore bones) in correct alignment
Is fascia alive?
Fascia is alive (fascia is produced by cells, the fibers are not cells – it is kind of our endoshell) been largely seen as inert and dead. Even though it is a product, it is responsive.
How does fascia transmit force?
Fascia transmits force globally
Fact about injuries
Most injuries are fascial
Describe the sensors in fascia
Fascia listens with its many sensors : more sensors in the fascia than there are in your eyes, than in your tongue, six times more sensors than there are in the muscles.
fact about fascia and time
Fascia responds on many time scales
If we were to make every system invisible except one, which would show the shape of the whole body inside and out?
neurological body, fluid body, fascial body (fibrous body)
fact about fascia and bloodflow
Fascia has less bloodflow than cartilage/tendons- takes a long time to get the proteins to repair. Much slower recovery than muscle/bone injuries.
how fast is nerve propogation along the membrane?
170mph- ionic flow
roles of sensory and interneurons
Sensory neurons gather information about stimulus of the outside world, interneurons decide whether react or not and other neurons tell the muscles to fire
What is the role of the pituitary gland
The pituitary gland is the first stop of the blood before distribution to the brain. It is the taster and tester of the blood, and depending on what it finds there will secret small amounts of hormones into the the blood. Pituitary glad secretes only about a thimbleful of hormones over the course of its existance but it is critical to the development of maturing and sexual attraction etc.
What is the role of the fluid body
Blood, lymph, CSF and the rest
the body’s cytoplasm and transport system
What is the size of the surface of the lung
Surface of the lung is huge- about a tennis court for every adult non-smoker
How many cells in the body?
70 trillion
Every cell in the body stays alive because…
every cell in the body, if it is going to be living has to be in contact with this fluid system. all of our cells developed in the sea and we have the circulatory system to maintain the internal sea within us.
Is outer skin alive?
200 layers of dead cells on the surface of your body- so our contact with the air is mitigated by these dead cells- unless you scrape away the surface of your skin until you weep.
What surface of the body is actually alive?
The only area on the surface of your body that is actually alive are the eyes, and you have to keep wetting it with tears in order to keep your eye alive. If you force your eyes open, cells would dry out and begin to die.
Describe the fascial system
The medium of movement and stability. the system has viscosity the system has elasticity (spring back)
Describe the motion of fascial system
Visco-elastic motion (plastic- change- arresting length of the fascia) if you do it slowly enough, you are working within the phisiological ability to change- if you do it too quickly you will tear
What kinds of loads cause fascial injury
Generally low level loads on it. Not high level loads- causes injury
How does the neural system communicate? What is the timing of the neural system?
communicates in a binary way (0 or 1) coded information because the neuron is either on or off. What is the timing of the neural system: seconds (very quickly)
How does the vascular system communicate? What is the timing?
chemical communication in a fluid medium- it must be dissolved in a fluid- can move around the body in a few minutes, and levels in the body change over a few hours- slower system
How does the fibrous system communicate? What timing?
mechanical communications: impulses: tension and compression response over days/weeks/months (to repair). The fibrous system can communicate at 560mph speed of sound through a liquid medium- faster than the neurological system can move.
How does our neurological system relate to our consciousness?
our neurological system is our alarm clock – keeps time- orders our experience in time. Our logical or our thought processes in terms of sequential thought
How does our vascular system relate to our consciousness?
our emotional storage system, and it is our matter. Looking at emotion it is always a fluid change- colors of the skin, changes in the fluids flowing- dry mouth, having t o urinate etc. Arguably changes in the fluids cause the emotions.
How does our fibrous system relate to our consciousness?
Deals with space: when you change the fibrous system, you are changing people’s belief systems. Once you start changing the fibrous system, you are changing a person’s belief system.
What does fascia literally mean?
Bundle. Fascia is biological fabric – it is what holds us together. Woven. Fascia means bundle- the individual fiber not strong, but as a fabric, as a bundle, it is strong.
What are the three properties of fascia and what do they do?
Viscosity:acts as a solid when hit at high speeds (pig and silly putty)
Elasticity: can train the elastic energy
Plasticity: deformation, change in the spatial arrangement. Resting length of the fascia has changed.
What is the definition of fitness?
ability to adapt to your environment with ease and imagination
What was the evolving image of fitness through throughout the last 40 yrs?
70s: Power
80s: Aerobics (Jane Fonda- cardiovascular health)
90s: Neural Coordination (are you recruiting the right muscles at the right time)
00s: Core support
10s: Fascial Health : the role of fascia in the fitness realm
How many muscles in the body?
600
Describe folding of fascia
Demonstrated scientifically that there is no separation between layers of fascia- think instead of origami being folded.
Describe layers beneath skin
kin and dermis, beneath is areolar/adipose (generally women have a thicker layer of this than men. Humans have thicker layer than any other ape) superficial meridians seem to run on this layer. This layer has a thicker fatty layer and a lymph layer below. Below this Fascia profundis (unitard): plantar fascia on the foot for example. Ilio-tibial tract
below this is the epimysium: the saran-wrap around the muscles
In the muscle is the intermuscular septa: the fascal layering in between the muscle
Periosteum- saran – wrap around the bone
endosteum- inside the bone
all the visceral sacs and strings which encase the organs are fascia
the meninges and (holding the brain)
bones, ligaments and joint capsules (inner bag)
the parietal myofascia (outer bag)
Describe ECM heart
ECM of a heart cleaned and washed by a detergent to produce this shape which is clean of cellular material. Then you can inject in cells from the receiver of the heart and the ECM will take it in and offer structure and grow a whole new heart it is a way to ensure that the heart will not be rejected by the body. Amazing how the fascial matrix organizes the growth of the cells. This will form a nervous system and circulatory system using the fascial system as scaffoldin
describe connective tissues in the brain
nside the brain- white matter: myelin/fat: insulates each nerves from each other: 10 times more connective cells in the brain than neurological cells in the brain. Always using all of your brain
Beginning to discover:
Seeing that the astrocytes (far more numerous than neurons) light up in certain meditative states /emotional states. Possibly much more of consciousness is happening in neuro-gleal cells.
how can you think about tensegrity in the body?
the bones are floating in the balanced sea of myofascial tensionstructures where the integrity rests on the balance among the tension members
characterized by continuous tension, and isolated compression- just like our body
tensegrity structures respond as a whole, distributing strain evenly throughout
Ergo, the body is a strain distribution machine, not a strain focusing machine
tensegrity: the integrity rests with the tension members or guy wires
What are the four components of fascia/connective tissue
Fascia/connective tissue has four components:
cells (fibroblasts, mast cells)
water (bound and unbount)
fibers (collagen, elastin, reticulin)
ground substance–SNOT (GAGs and mucopolysaccharides like heparin, hyaluronic acid, chontroitin, fibronectin)
All connective tissues from blood to bone – combine these four elements in different proportions
A continuum of cells and ECM
The Fibrous Syncytium
The Fibrous Syncytium
A continuum of cells and ECM
What do fibroblasts produce?
collagen- the cells link through their exudate, their ‘product’
fibroblasts leave a trail of matrix similar to a snail leaving a trail of slime. produce fiber
What happens when your body has more fascia?
The more fascia you have in your body- the more stable your body is – but often also less flexible, whereas people who are more flexible are often less stable.
