Myofascial Release

    As you know, the state of a current health care system is a hot topic among many people including politicians, health care workers and consumers.  There has been a lot of speculation about what is going to happen to our health care system in the future.  But what concept they are missing is that most therapists are taught obsolete techniques that only produce temporary results which drive up health care costs.

   All of this consternation about the collapsing health-care system is to me no more than a reshuffling of the deck chairs on the Titanic. The Titanic is an inept health-care system based on principles that are more than 300 years old and were proven to be obsolete in 1923 by Max Planck, the founder of the Quantum Theory. Many of the principles taught in medical, dental and therapeutic schools have been proven to be wrong for more than 70 years and yet are still being taught. Medical theory has degraded into the biochemistry of disease, as if we were just mindless bags of chemicals.  A massive amount of recent research supporting our experience with myofascial release has shown that fascial restrictions change the shape of the cell and the viscosity of its surrounding environment, the extra-cellular matrix.

   For more information about the future of health care, you can access John’s new Therapeutic Insight article titled, “The Titanic is going down” at the following link: http://www.massagemag.com/News/massage-news.php?id=8721&catid=62&title=therapeutic-insight-the-myofascial-release-perspectivethe-titanic-is-going-down .

   As always, feel free to ask any questions or add your valuable insights on this topic.

Thanks,

            John

  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

   Are you frustrated with temporary results? You may have tried exercises, supplements, stretching, and different forms of bodywork to no avail.  Nothing seems to last.  Could it be powerful Myofascial restrictions and/or its subconscious bracing patterns that are what is blocking your pain free movement and expression of life?

   For more information about how your powerful subconscious buried within the myofascial system may be inhibiting your efforts to improve, read my new article in the techniques section of the Massage Magazine website.  The new article is titled, “Therapeutic Insight: The Myofascial Release Perspective-What Makes a New Year’s Resolution Fail? and can be accessed at the following link:
 http://www.massagemag.com/News/massage-news.php?id=8373&catid=62&title=therapeutic-insight-the-myofascial-release-perspectivewhat-makes-a-new-years-resolution-fail

   Feel free to ask any questions or to respond to my blog with your valuable insights and/or experience with Myofascial Release. 

Thanks,

      John

Greetings,

    I just received a very sad email from a therapist that I met on the beach in the Cayman Islands over 20 years ago. Many of you may know him from before. He is struggling right now as you will see by his email below.

   He is a great guy and could really use your help. I am requesting that if you all could be kind enough to spend some time tonight at 10:00pm eastern standard time to quiet yourselves and visualize a very tall handsome man with long dark hair and a beard and please send him a lot of love and light.

  Thank you very much.

 Love,

          John

    Are you frustrated with temporary results? You may have tried exercises, supplements, stretching, and different forms of bodywork to no avail.  Nothing seems to last.  Could it be powerful Myofascial restrictions and/or its subconscious bracing patterns that are what is blocking your pain free movement and expression of life?

   For more information about how your powerful subconscious buried within the myofascial system may be inhibiting your efforts to improve, read my new article in the techniques section of the Massage Magazine website.  The new article is titled, “Therapeutic Insight: The Myofascial Release Perspective-What Makes a New Year’s Resolution Fail? and can be accessed at the following link:
 http://www.massagemag.com/News/massage-news.php?id=8373&catid=62&title=therapeutic-insight-the-myofascial-release-perspectivewhat-makes-a-new-years-resolution-fail

   Feel free to ask any questions or to respond to my blog with your valuable insights and/or experience with Myofascial Release. 

Thanks,

      John

   If you’ve had trouble keeping your New Year’s Resolution in the past, there may be a good reason why!  To find out why keeping a resolution can be so difficult,  look out for my new article in the techniques section on the Massage Magazine website titled, “What makes a New Year’s Resolution fail?”    This new article should be available in early January and it may to help answers some of your questions about why adhering to  those New Year’s Resolutions can be so challenging.

John,

I have been practicing the JFB MFR approach since 1996 and have been amazed at the relationship between headache pain and old post-operative scars (i.e. C-section, hysterectomy). Can you please elaborate on your experiences and findings with scars in general? Thank you for your continued guidance and effort in providing real effective treatment approaches that addresses the whole individual.

            –Richard Staudt, MOT, OTR/L, LMT

 Hello Richard,

     Your question about scars is a very good one.  Often times scars  get overlooked, even though they can be the source of many problems. 

     Scar tissue can put an enormous amount of strain on the fascial system, especially in cases where the person has had multiple surgeries in the same area.  If you imagine the sweater example that I have often used to illustrate the continuity of the fascial system, a restriction would be equivalent to a “pull” in the sweater.  Not only is the area that is being pulled affected, but the whole sweater is affected at some degree or another. Now, if you were to then sew a few stitches (i.e. a scar) in the sweater in one of the areas of pull (restriction), you just created additional “drag” within the system.  The other important thing to remember about scars is that most scars look fairly neat and uniform on the surface. However, underneath the scar you have tissue that is laid down in an irregular fashion, which helps to strengthen that vulnerable/”injured” area.  In some people, there is an excessive amount of scar tissue laid down (adhesions- A fibrous band of scar tissue that binds together normally separate anatomical structures). So in other words, the scar is just the “tip of the iceberg”. 

    So Richard, to answer your question, I agree with you, there does seem to be a relationship between headache pain and old post-operative scars (e.g. C-section, hysterectomy, etc.) Scar tissue can create extensive dysfunction within the fascial system, thus affecting the craniosacral system.  These additional restrictions can have long-reaching effects throughout the body, causing seemingly unrelated symptoms and dysfunction (e.g, headaches, migraines, depression, mood swings, etc).  No scar should go unevaluated, as even the smallest one could cause significant fascial dysfunction. 

 Thanks for your inquiry.

      John

     Water is a vital part of living things, especially the human being. The following facts from my rebounding seminar may be of interest to you.             

             “Over 70% of total body weight is water.  Most people know that blood, lymph, urine,  sweat, and tears are mostly water.  The lungs are 90% water, the brain is 76% water, and even the bones are 25% water.

             “67% of the water in the body is inside the cell (i.e. the intracellular fluid).  The other 33% lies outside the cells in the extracellular fluid that flows through the fascia’s extracellular matrix.”

       Scientific research on the fascial system was done on cadavers. As we all know cadavers are brittle, so the only focus was on the three dimensional fibrous network and no attention was paid to the fluidity of the body. The fascial system is the container of the fluid and the transport medium of the fluid and all that lies within.

      I would like to quote from the 40 years of research done in Germany. “The Extracellular Matrix and the Ground Regulation” by Alfred Pischinger is a fascinating book full of information about the importance and functions of the fascia’s extracellular matrix.  The following quotes are by Dr. James Oschman who wrote the foreword:

           “The ground substance gel is composed of water, proteoglycans and related molecules with strong collagen fibers embedded within it.”

             “Recent research also has demonstrated that the matrix components are actually semi- conducting liquid crystals, materials known to have a variety of remarkable properties for  transmissions, storage and processing of  information.”

              “Simply stated, every function and every process of the human body involves the fascia’s matrix in one way or another. The reason for this is every cell in the body  is nourished by the fascia’s extracellular matrix and all waste products of the cellular metabolism likewise pass through the ground substance which is the actual milieu. The matrix is also the terrain in which all immune responses and tissue repair processes take place.”

    These 40 years of research have helped to explain why Myofascial Release is so extraordinarily effective.  This is an exciting time to be a Myofascial Release therapist.  Join us to be part of this important revolution in healthcare!

John

Owen Dodge // Aug 31st 2009 at 12:11 pm

Hi Owen,

        Myofascial Release can be very helpful for menopausal symptoms. 

     From the Myofascial perspective, “Menopause” is a label for unrecognized and improperly treated myofascial restrictions.  “Menopause” is an effect, a symptomatic complex created by fascial restrictions in the fascia’s extracellular matrix(ECM). 

     Recent research has shown that aberrations in the fascia’s extracellular matrix can change the shape of the cell, which can then alter the production and balance of the biochemical and hormonal aspect of a woman’s physiology. 

     For more in depth information, go to www.massagemag.com and scroll down to the technique box.  Then click on my Therapeutic Insight article titled, “Female Problems.”

     Thanks for your interest, Owen.

John