An older patient presented with difficulty in walking. She was shuffling more, and the tightness in her chest and neck caused breathing and throat issues. The medical model was baffled.
In my clinical examination her fascial web was extremely tight. She and her husband agreed that she was tight. There is no medical testing, medication, or surgery for tightness. Sometimes stretching and exercise are recommended, but neither releases the fascial web.
Fascial restriction is much more than muscle function. Since the web connects every cell, body systems can be adversely affected too. Key organs like the liver, pancreas, stomach, intestines, kidneys, and heart can become tighter, possibly affecting their function. Tight meningeal fascia can restrict brain and spinal motion, possibly initiating neurological issues. We may feel like old age is approaching, but maybe our bodies are just getting tighter.
We believe that the web can hold a lifetime of physical and emotional traumas from conception. Long forgotten events can be held like the layers of an onion, each one creating a little more tightness in the body.
The key to freeing up the web is to do techniques that release the restrictions. The Gillespie Approach presents one method of therapy where we believe the body knows best how to heal itself, and we just listen for presenting strains to facilitate the healing.
More therapy is obviously expected for an older patient. The root cause of many problems for patients of all ages can be due to soft tissue birth trauma. For authentic healing those patients need to revisit and clear that trauma.
In a perfect world every newborn would be cleared of birth strain and checked periodically during life. Maybe someday health care providers will embrace that concept.
Since the fascial web connects every structural cell, the human body exists as one functioning unit—An Osteopathic Principle.
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