Myofascial Release

  I just wanted to revisit the topic of scars and the concept of the treatment of scars.  As you may remember, a couple months ago there was a blog titled, “Scars”  which discussed the importance of assessing and treating scars, no matter how large or how small, once they are healed.  You can access my “Scars” blog at the following link:

http://massagemag.com/massage-blog/myofascial-release/2009/11/22/scars/

We received a couple more comments about scar releases and they are listed below:

1. Submitted on 2009/12/18 at 1:29pm

Dear John,

   I have been dealing with the aftermath of my accident for 14 months now. I have scars from the initial facial surgery and neck fusion. Most recently I have new scars from revision facial surgery. I have a new scar in my naval where they withdrew fat to inject into my lips. Knowing what I know about the fascial web, I was still amaze at how a tiny incision in the naval could cause soreness all the way up to my ribs and down to the pubic bone. I could feel the fingers of tender fascia. I was also aware of the tiny restrictions created in my lip margins from the injections. As tiny as they are, they feel significant. All the scars have had an impact on my entire structure from head to toe and I believe my functional progress has been largely due to receiving MFR throughout the past 14 months. I have specifically requested scar releases as I believe as long as there is a tight scar it will pull any other work out of alignment. I hope the greater medical community will understand the importance of this work (especially scar releases) in achieving improved function.

Thank You
Joanne Richards PT

2. Submitted on 2009/12/18 at 12:47pm

John,

I knew very little about “scar tissue” before attending Intensives and Healing Seminars you offer.

The first week a therapist did a psoas release on my right side of my abdomen near my old appendectomy scar. I would experience pain on my left side ribs, lats, and rhomboid! The fascial connection was obvious.
Later, when being treated intra-orally with a therapist’s finger in my nostril I could “feel” the scar tissue of an old sinus surgery. Then, through my palatine in the roof of my mouth to the scar tissue then down my dural tube through my hips and left knee (scars from surgeries again)and leg to my neuropathic foot. Afterwards, I regained more than 40% of the feeling in my left foot! Fascia is fascinating!

I have avoided multiple neck, spine, and hip surgeries and reversed scoliosis and stenosis today.

I can never thank you enough for your dedication and perseverance in developing your extraordinary form of manual therapy and authentic healing.

Happy Holidays!

Dan

http://www,getwellhealed.com

Much is written about the ‘fight/flight response’ and its impact upon our neuroendocrine system, however the ‘freeze response’ seems to be completely ignored by the vast majority of therapists and other medical practitioners. When this natural response to an overwhelming traumatic event occurs as the instinctual optimal act of survival…and we survive the traumatic event, discharge of this enormous surge of energy within our system is paramount to release the trauma and free our systems to restore homeostasis. Seems this is beginning to become recognized in various therapies, especially bodywork/somatic type approaches. John, your Myofascial Release Approach appears to be one of the few which recognizes how this holding can create tremendous tensions within the entire body. Using Myofascial Release to ease into areas where that instinctual freeze response has become woven into the very tapestry of the entire human form, thus recreating enormous dysfunction…and allowing for discharge of energy as it naturally needs to express itself… is remarkable!
It moves the therapist/patient from the limitations of considering how trauma not only impacts upon the nervous system and allows access to profound healing of the subconscious mind as it shapes and holds our very form.

 As you can read from the above comments and how I mentioned in my blog about scars, do not underestimate even the tiniest scar, because if they are a source of a restriction, they too can cause significant symptoms. 

Thanks.

John

I’m very interested in this previous thread on inflammation. I’ve been reading about chronic inflammation and how many now agree that this process is behind many diseases.

It leads me to wonder if the chronic, systemic inflammation caused by a diet high in processed foods leads to widespread gumming up and restricting of the fascial system, in turn affecting cellular respiration and degeneration.

I usually think of the inflammatory processes that lead to myofascial restrictions as being caused by the primary inflammatory processes associated with injury.

Do you think that the process causing chronic inflammation to manifest disease is born out by changes in the fascial system?

Testing this hypothesis, I turned to Dr. Dean Ornish’s book on reversing heart disease. He talks mostly about poor diet diminishing blood flow to the heart through plaque build-up, etc. I get how fascia is involved in hardening of the arteries but not in plaque build-up.
I know this is only one disease of many to consider.

I’d be very interested if you can offer even more insight than you’ve already offered into the subject of inflammation.

Thanks,

Owen Dodge

Hi Owen,

   Thanks for your question.  I recently had a well known Pathologist from San Francisco as a patient.  He was very disappointed at the resistance of his medical colleagues to his and others new ideas.  For many years as he dissected recently deceased humans, he saw the roughness of the inside of the blood vessels.

   His years of experience and a multitude of recent research has shown that as the fascia on the inside of blood vessels becomes rough and solidified, it can trap the cholesterol. This can cause a thickening and/or blockage within the circulatory system leading to serious consequences.  Fascia has a profound effect on the functioning and health of the entire circulatory and lymphatic systems. 

   You may also want to look at my recent article titled, Therapeutic Insight: The Myofascial Release Perspective—Inner Light.
http://www.massagemag.com/News/massage-news.php?id=8516&catid=62&title=therapeutic-insight-the-myofascial-release-perspectiveinner-light.

         This article discusses how my approach to myofascial release treats the biomechanical aspect but also uses different fluid dynamic principles that address our fluidity, which tends to solidify from trauma or thwarted inflammation processes.  This article also talks about how a Myofascial Release therapist uses their genius by engaging the power of their intuition, instinct, and rational mind.  This total engagement allows the patient to access their wisdom for authentic healing. 

Have a good week.

Sincerely,

John