Great question, and one that’s becoming more and more common for people looking to achieve optimum health.
Before we get into the details, let’s explain why we’re discussing fascia. The reason it’s so critical to us from a chiropractic standpoint is because of its role in keeping the structure of your spine and nervous system functioning at a high level.
Fascia can affect your spine in a negative way if not handled properly.
When this happens, pain, discomfort, and other symptoms can be the result.
Fascia is the outside layer that covers your muscle tissue. For many years, scientists thought the only purpose of fascia was to hold the muscle tissue together.
However, in recent decades more has been discovered about the important role fascia plays in our health and function.
Whenever someone feels pain or discomfort, the fascia could be a contributing factor. This happens for a variety of reasons:
-dehydration
-improper movement/posture
-mental/emotional stress
-etc.
Dehydration can cause the fascia to clump up. When this happens, instead of sliding with little resistance every time we move, like it should…the fascia stays stuck in place and causes us pain and stiffness.
Improper movement can cause fascia to be over-worked in some areas, and under-worked in others. This imbalance over time can lead to pain, stiffness, and loss of flexibility.
Our emotions are also intimately tied to how our bodies function and perform during the day. When we’re stressed, overburdened, frustrated, fatigued, worried, fearful, or angry these emotions will cause a stress response in the body that results in hormones being released that tighten muscle tissue and fascia down.
When this happens repeatedly over time, the discomfort levels in our body will rise. This causes the fascial layer specifically to not function properly.
Next week’s post will go into detail about some ways we can relieve the tension in the layer of fascia that surrounds our body. This way our nervous system and spine will have the best opportunity possible to function at their highest levels.
Until next time…stay healthy friends.