Fascia as a regulatory system in health and disease, 2024, Slater et al.

[Chandelier]

Fascia as a regulatory system in health and disease

Spoiler: Authors

Slater, Alison M.; Barclay, S. Jade; Granfar, Rouha M. S.; Pratt, Rebecca L.

Abstract
Neurology and connective tissue are intimately interdependent systems and are critical in regulating many of the body’s systems.
Unlocking their multifaceted relationship can transform clinical understanding of the mechanisms involved in multisystemic regulation and dysregulation.
The fascial system is highly innervated and rich with blood vessels, lymphatics, and hormonal and neurotransmitter receptors.
Given its ubiquity, fascia may serve as a “watchman,” receiving and processing information on whole body health.

This paper reviews what constitutes fascia, why it is clinically important, and its contiguous and interdependent relationship with the nervous system.
Unquestionably, fascial integrity is paramount to human locomotion, interaction with our environment, bodily sense, and general physical and emotional wellbeing, so an understanding of the fascial dysregulation that defines a range of pathological states, including hypermobility syndromes, autonomic dysregulation, mast cell activation, and acquired connective tissue disorders is critical in ensuring recognition, research, and appropriate management of these conditions, to the satisfaction of the patient as well as the treating practitioner.

Web | DOI | PMC | PDF | Frontiers in Neurology

 

[Chandelier]

Subtitles:

Did you know that fascia might actually be one of the body's most important regulatory systems?
Hi, I'm the Bendy Pediatrician.
I both live with and treat patients with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome
and the conditions that tend to go along for the ride.
Today, I'm going to be reviewing this article, which came out about a year and a half ago.
I had the privilege of being the reviewer when it came out in Frontiers of Neurology
in a specialist edition on autonomic disorders.
So first of all, what is fascia?
So fascia is a connective tissue, which I usually refer to as the glue that holds your body together,
but it's more complicated than that.
Fascia is a layer that wraps around, supports, separates every single muscle, nerve, organ, and bone in the body.
It is a support system and proprioception, which as a reminder,
is your awareness of where your body is in space and helps you move without injury.
Healthy fascia is stretchy and kind of slippery.
When it is not like that, it doesn't work as well.
So when you have a connective tissue disorder, including HSD or HEDS,
that can be disrupted and cause problems.
Now, until fairly recently, we thought that was pretty much all it did,
that it was an inert system that was just there to be supportive.
But it turns out that's not the case.
So it's highly innervated.
There are blood vessels throughout,
and it seems like it's actually sending messages throughout the body.
There are even immune cells embedded deep within this tissue.
In this article, it reviews that it's possible that fascia might actually be
a body-wide network, informationally, of sending messages and supporting the body
in ways that we hadn't previously understood.
Think of it maybe as a smart sensory web, which is kind of cool.
The research is even showing that the fascia might help regulate movement,
posture, hormones, blood flow, inflammation, even the autonomic nervous system,
which, remember, is the part of the nervous system that controls things that should be automatic.
So heart rate, breathing, blood pressure, things like that.
Sound familiar?
So what happens then if the fascia is dysregulated through something like
a genetic connective tissue or collagen disorder or injury or immobility, anything like that?
Well, it might really disrupt the regulatory system,
and that might lead to pain, chronic fatigue, dysautonomia, including POTS,
dysmotility or difficulty with digestion, even mast cell disorders.
And you know what?
It might even lead to the symptoms of anxiety, which is really important to understand.
So remember, this was a review paper.
There was no original research intended, and it just went through all of what is currently
available in the research about fascia as we understand it currently.
So the more we are learning, the more we understand that fascia has been underappreciated.
So more research is definitely needed, but it looks like it might really improve our understanding
of what happens in conditions like HSD and HEDS, why it is so widespread in terms of the symptoms
that people experience.
Maybe there's a reason, and maybe this, dare I say, connects the dots.
Anyways, if this has been helpful, drop a comment below.
I'm a Bendy Pediatrician.
Follow for more.
Bye.

 

[Amw66]

Subtitles:

Not much sleep the past few days so this will sound very tangential. Mods may remove if nonsense .

Does this nicely link to the research paper with scans which initially looked like lymphs lit up and @Jonathan Edwards suggested may be fascia?

 

[Jonathan Edwards]

Does this nicely link to the research paper with scans which initially looked like lymphs lit up and @Jonathan Edwards suggested may be fascia?

I think the review is devoid of any useful content, unfortunately. And they seem to have missed the interesting stuff about immune signalling molecules being adsorbed.