Posted by dj on March 4, 2001, at 11:34:37
Some info. below on fascia and musculature relation awa the general reaction of same to illnesses... My questions for CamW, Sunnely and anyone else who may know is whether depression and/or ADs have specific impacts on this part of the body. Others have mentioned bodily tension when using some ADS (headaches, backaches, etc. - both of which I've experienced with and without ADS, so uncertain about cause and effect... posture is certainly an element but how is that impacted by depression and/or ADs?) and as I noted in a thread above, a former Psych.Doc of mine (who is now the head of Psych.-ed at a major Cdn. Med. school across the country)once indicated to me that depression has a slackening effect on muscularture (seemingly whether working out or not, as memory serves me - which it often does not...) and ADs have a tightening effect.
Insightful comments and/or on-line references??
"When we visualize the muscles of the human body, we often think of the structures as individual muscles, as shown on the picture on the left. However, fascia is a broad diffuse matrix that encapsulates each individual muscle as well as overlaying all the individual muscle structures of your body, as shown on the picture on the right. Hilton’s Law says that the nerve root that supplies a joint, supplies all the muscles that attach to that joint, and the overlying skin. Hilton further states that "every fascia of the body has a muscle attached to it, and that every fascia throughout the body must be considered as a muscle." Thus, when you have been chronically ill or injured, the muscles of your body often behave in two seemingly contradictory ways. Your muscles become soft and flaccid. They lose tone and mass. Yet at the same time, you feel as if almost every muscle in your body has contracted and tightened up making you stiff and sore. Why does this happen?
Keep in mind that fascia encapsulates each individual muscle, each muscle group, as well as the entire body. Fascia is usually a slippery substance, which allows your muscles to easily slide through and over each other, and allows muscles to lengthen and shorten within their "fascia casings." Fascia allows individual muscles to move freely without binding. That is; unless you have been chronically ill or injured. Fascia then becomes less resilient and slippery. And notwithstanding ageing alone, illness or injury only accelerates that contraction.
Nature has created quite an amazing mechanism for protecting its creatures when they have become injured or ill. When injured or ill, what does an animal in nature do? Where does it go? Does it go about its daily activities such as foraging for food or communing with others? Does it go to the doctor? Well no! It finds a dark, safe, quiet little place in which to lie down until it recovers or dies. It does this because nature knows that to prevent further and perhaps irreparable damage, the animal needs time to heal; to immobilize itself for a time before it resumes its normal activities.
We should do this as well, but we generally do not. Therefore, normal fascia contraction is a mechanism that helps to heal your body. It impedes excessive movement, which could exacerbate your condition or injury. Unfortunately, fascia contracts as a natural process of aging and further accelerates when you are chronically ill or injured. Even under ideal health conditions, fascia naturally begins its contractile process and begins losing resilience when you are in your late twenties to early thirties and continues to contract about every ten years thereafter. One reason why younger people with similar illness and injures usually heal faster than older people is partially due to the resilience of their fascia."
http://extensionyoga.com/Fascia.htm)
poster:dj
thread:55529
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010302/msgs/55529.html