The link between fascia and chronic pain

As mentioned in the previous article, until now, we still believe that the function of the fascia is merely a supporting tissue. While Fascia helps hold things together and aids movement, the reality is much more complicated. The fascia also plays an important role in movement and exists as the most innate tissue in our body. Yes, the fascia also covers your nerves. How can this be understood? Unfortunately, it's associated with a "sore" problem—chronic pain. And, because we can find Fascia in common locations throughout the body when Fascia is irritated it can cause low back pain, discomfort in the neck, and arthritis.

As a cross-linked connective tissue that extends throughout the body, fascia is directly involved in all unconscious processes. It has more pain receptors than any other tissue type, it is easy to overreact to lesions and is very susceptible to the stress responses activated in your brain.

Indeed, some adverse circumstances can lead to fascia damage and subsequent pain. Trauma, crookedness, repetitive movements, and trauma from excessive stretching or inactivity can all lead to damage to the Fascia.

What is Fascia adhesion?

However, there is good news: Fascia can heal itself. But is there a problem with this? Fascia usually does not heal in its initial state. Instead of restoring the previous flat and smooth texture, Fascia can heal into a messy lump. Called membrane adhesion, the membrane can stick to an existing muscle or growing scar tissue.

When the fascia hardens due to adhesion, many internal and own nerve endings can wrap around the surrounding nerves, leading to nerve root pathology and a series of painful consequences. Likewise, its adhesion limits the independent motion and friction reduction of the entire Fascia plate. This leads to cramps and spasms in the muscles, as well as constantly malfunctioning nerves.

All these cases of improper self-healing can lead to pain and discomfort. Furthermore, since all Fascia is interconnected, localized damage to the Fascia can lead to systemic pain. Even in areas of the body that don't seem to make sense. For example, damaged plantar fascia damage to the foot—called plantar fasciitis—can lead to discomfort when moving other areas of the body, such as the shin. In rare cases, patients with plantar fasciitis may feel pain as far away as in the shoulder!

This stiffness is part of the Fight or Flight response that is caused by the reaction in the Fascia. The natural response of each cell is to shrink in the face of dangerous situations. This miniaturization takes place inside the Fascia network, which runs around and passes through every single cell.

The repeated stress signals cause the Fascia to become chronically tightened.

The main difference between normal pain and chronic pain is that, when pain is chronic, the body constantly assumes that there is still damage even though the repair process has been completed long ago. 

The confined fascia regions create a feedback loop between the blocked tissue and the brain. Signals are constantly transmitted to the loop and the soreness becomes a new normal. Unconscious reactions also contribute to the maintenance of chronic pain. Pain causes the brain to instinctively constantly trigger the Fight or Flight response because it does not distinguish between pain and other threats. Being constantly in the Fight or Flight response causes chronic stress. And this process repeats until you solve the problem in the damaged Fascia area. 

And the simplest and most effective solution is MyoFascial Release Therapy (MFR).