What is Fascia?

Fascia is a band or sheet of fibrous connective tissue that surrounds muscle, blood vessels, nerve tissue, and the internal organs.  It’s three dimensional fibrous web protects and separates organs and tissue throughout the entire body, facilitating healthy body function and blood flow. Fascia can be described in three levels: Fascial planes that lie below the dermis: deep fascia surrounding muscle, bones, nerves, blood supply, and organs and fascia deep within the cranial sacral system.

Abnormal stress, physical trauma due to injury, improper posture, or inflammation creates tension and distortion within the fascial compartments.  Since fascia facilitates separation, support, lymphatic flow, circulation and proper metabolism, trauma to the fascial system results in muscular restriction, poor circulation and cellular activity. This results in variety of dysfunctions including, pain, restricted range of mobility, poor posture, and if left untreated creates a chain effect with the three dimensional structure of the human body trying to compensate for the afflicted area further distorting itself from proper gravitational alignment and causing a cascading array of seemingly unrelated symptoms.  Traditional medicine treats the symptoms of myofascial distress but the underlying cause, the stress and distortion of the fascial system, does not reveal itself on standard tests such as X-rays, CAT scans, MRI, and therefore goes largely undiagnosed.