# Fascia Documentary: The network of the body without beginning or end

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uK92zS8qq8

[00:10] Mankind has always been fascinated by how the body is connected.
[00:14] We have studied the skeleton, listened to the beating heart, tested the nervous system, measured muscle strength, and divided up the body, piece by piece.
[00:25] Every organ has been dissected and analysed.
[00:28] We’ve made great progress on many fronts.
[00:31] But some of the greatest mysteries remain.
[00:34] The fascia for instance – previously just seen as an insignificant membrane surrounding our muscles, organs, and skeleton.
[00:41] Something we used to disregard and just throw away in autopsies.
[00:45] It’s now one of the most exciting fields of science.
[00:50] Just another piece of the puzzle to help us to see the human body as a whole.
[00:57] Today we know that the fascia is a network without a beginning or an end, and that it works in parallel with the nervous system and the bloodstream.
[01:08] But let’s begin 500 years ago, in Renaissance Italy.
[01:14] The modern understanding of the human body is based on the fact that dissection used to be prohibited and taboo.
[01:24] So some enthusiasts dug up dead bodies and carried out autopsies to understand what we really look like.
[01:33] They did very detailed drawings.
[01:36] Leonardo Da Vinci was involved in doing these kinds of drawings.
[01:40] And that was when we started to see the body as something you should divide up.
[01:44] In different parts and organs, clearly distinguished from one another.
[01:49] And eventually that leads to “let’s study liver function,” “let’s study how the lungs work”
[01:56] And that generates a massive amount of wonderfully detailed knowledge.
[01:59] But this sort of knowledge, this type of mentality assumes a fairly weak foundation for a holistic understanding.
[02:07] Because then you’d need to take a different approach.
[02:09] And we’re not so good at that.
[02:11] It’s not widely ingrained in our tradition and culture to think in that way.
[02:17] Industrialisation – from the late 18th century up until the middle of the 20th century pushed us to see the details rather than the big picture.
[02:26] It fueled our belief that everything can be substituted.
[02:30] Everything could be replaced: by a new worker, a new hammer, and eventually a new body part.
[02:37] The idea of human spare parts was forming.
[02:40] In schools, we started dividing everything into subjects.
[02:43] We all needed to know the same things, and to learn them by heart.
[02:47] But without much thought for the deeper meaning behind them.
[02:51] From a young age and as we grow up, our entire education system is built on dividing things up into different fields and subjects, starting at high school, if not sooner.
[03:06] I don’t want to disrespect this method, as a detailed understanding is important.
[03:10] But if this generalist - almost philosophical approach, is too dominant,
[03:17] If you believe that separation forms the basis for understanding, then it becomes very difficult.
[03:23] In the tradition of thinking we have become used to, holistic views seem somewhat intangible, which is problematic.
[03:31] As the human body is interconnected, it’s actually a whole.
[03:37] So what’s happened to modern-day mankind?
[03:40] We’d rather take a painkiller for a headache than prevent the pain.
[03:43] And why do we insist on eating unhealthily when we clearly all know better?
[03:50] And where is the holistic view in our healthcare system?
[03:54] Maybe this is where fascia research can help us to see all of mankind’s needs.
[04:00] In your first year of medical school you get a cadaver, and they cut it up, and you have to scrupulously tag everything as you’re studying the body.
[04:11] The fascia you can throw in the garbage can.
[04:13] So it’s almost like we’re trained to not pay attention to it.
[04:18] In the early 80s, we started jogging; mainly because it made us feel so good.
[04:23] A source of well-being.
[04:25] The gym and working out soon followed.
[04:28] And eventually we started talking about mindfulness and yoga.
[04:31] We started to look inwards.
[04:34] And this is the context in which the fascia becomes more and more interesting, and for more and more people.
[04:41] We open the left side again.
[04:42] Breathe in.
[04:44] Exhale and thread the right arm through the left.
[04:47] First, if we think that everything is fascia so whatever you do will affect the fascia.
[04:54] If it is dynamic yoga, acrobatic yoga or more peaceful yin yoga then it will affect muscles, nerves and skeleton in that all is fascia.
[05:08] Without fascia there is no life.
[05:16] One group that spends considerable time talkning about the fascia.
[05:19] Are yoga instructors.
[05:22] Perhaps not so surprising when you consider that few other professionals spend so much time working with the elasticity and functionality of the body.
[05:30] The reason that we have started talking more about fascia in yoga is that it cannot be ignored.
[05:35] You understand that it has to do with your immune system and how you feel and if you then reach it through yoga, it will be impossible not to talk about fascia when you do yoga or exercise.
[05:48] And it comes more and more, in all contexts.
[05:52] Fingertips tend to the toes.
[05:54] Yoga is based on wholeness and finding peace and tranquillity in the body.
[05:59] What we try to do with our treatments is to get the body to change itself and start a flow so that the body rebuilds itself.
[06:07] The cool thing about yoga and pilates people is that they have good body awareness.
[06:12] They quickly feel that things happen, which maybe ordinary people don't, because they are more sensitive that way.
[06:20] The fascia is a whole, the body is a whole and yoga is a whole that is based on understanding breathing and movement.
[06:27] Therefore, it is perhaps more natural for them to talk about fascia as a holistic perspective.
[06:32] It may not be as natural for a physical trainer to do that; they talk more about muscles.
[06:37] It's interesting when "gym people" come to my classes who have been standing and pumping up their muscles and looks very strong
[06:49] but they have no function in the body and cannot use their muscles.
[06:54] I don't want to have muscles for "show off"; I want to be able to use them and feel that they have a function for my body.
[07:07] Football players, hockey players - I think all elite athletes train far too monotonously.
[07:15] Fascia, yoga and pilates may come in as a supplementary training method to prevent them from breaking.
[07:30] Health is important and I believe many want to see themselves getting healthier.
[07:34] And also that nutrition and good exercise is good for staying healthy for a long time.
[07:42] When I think of body and health, I immediately think about my own machine.
[07:47] The body I live in.
[07:49] And I want it to last.
[07:51] It’s in my interest to take care of it, to be healthy.
[07:56] “You’re listening to Fasciaguiden, a podcast about the body…”
[07:59] A friend of mine got in touch and told me there’s this amazing podcast that I had to listen to.
[08:03] They talk about tons of stuff that I’m interested in - but in Swedish.
[08:07] A lot of this information is available in English and loads of other languages, but…
[08:11] But being able to hear new findings on this subject in Swedish was so… cool.
[08:18] So I started to binge-listen to Fasciaguiden.
[08:20] There’s a lot of arguing about what fascia actually is - is it the interstitium?
[08:23] Is it the extra-cellular matrix?
[08:28] Is it the collagen threads or the fibroblasts?
[08:29] What does the fascia actually consist of?
[08:32] When I get obsessed with something, I can get a bit manic about it.
[08:36] I really need to understand it.
[08:39] So I contacted Fasciaguiden and attended a workshop.
[08:44] It was a five-hour workshop and I learned masses about the holistic view of the human body.
[08:51] And I got to use their machines and release some tension that I have in my feet and joints, and some old dancing injuries.
[09:02] And it works.
[09:03] And I feel enriched.
[09:04] I feel like, “damn - I’ve found something that works.”
[09:08] [sings] Can we make this work, you think?
[09:13] It’s actually a bit crazy - we go to school and study some biology.
[09:16] Gain a basic understanding of how the body works.
[09:21] There’s a skeleton that holds it all together.
[09:23] And some tendons and muscles that help you to…
[09:27] It’s just so basic.
[09:31] When I really got involved with the fascia,
[09:33] And learned about hyaluronic acid, which absorbs blows to the body and acts like a sort of shock absorber.
[09:43] I didn’t even realise we had functions like that in the body, that could behave in that way.
[09:48] And that this flows through the fascia network, that keeps the entire body in contact…
[09:55] Suddenly I just felt like wow!...
[09:58] Wow!
[10:02] And I keep coming back to the machine analogy.
[10:05] Because the self, and this machine I inhabit, are also two completely different entities.
[10:12] So this is an outlook I have on life.
[10:15] If you have one car for the rest of your life - you get just one car.
[10:21] You’re going to take care of it.
[10:23] And it feels nice to have found my home - to have found friends, likeminded people.
[10:40] It’s important to get answers as to where we have pain in the body, and what the issue is, rather than just curing symptoms.
[10:50] People becoming healthy is a good start.
[10:52] But we started looking at why they were getting better.
[10:54] What sort of mechanisms are getting in the way?
[10:57] And that’s when we started looking at connective tissue and its functions.
[11:01] What we call fascia - or connective tissue, and how much it matters to the health of mankind.
[11:08] Over ten years ago, out of curiosity, Hans and his sons started to test various forms of treatments.
[11:15] They soon came to realise that a healthy fascia could form the basis of a life without chronic pain.
[11:23] To start with, they focused on why there were so few mechanical aids for treating shoulder, back, and hip pain.
[11:29] But that led to work on gathering as much knowledge as possible about the fascia.
[11:35] So I was a trainee chiropractor.
[11:36] And that teaches you how to manipulate.
[11:38] The annoying this is that clients keep coming back all the time.
[11:40] Because they’re not really healed.
[11:42] So, I had two competent friends.
[11:44] An engineer and an industrial designer.
[11:46] And we tried to make a machine.
[11:48] But building machines is not that easy it seems!
[11:50] But we developed it and started testing it.
[11:52] But the fact that it then worked as well as it did… was a bit of a shock!
[11:58] Because I said, “well if you remove the pain, how will that work?!”
[12:02] It’s actually quite challenging to put into words what the fascia is.
[12:06] Basically, it’s a network of connective tissue with no beginning or end.
[12:11] And it surrounds virtually everything in the body.
[12:14] From muscles and the skeleton, to organs and cells.
[12:19] Imagine that every part of the body is wrapped in connective tissue.
[12:23] These webs are in turn connected together, and form one of the body’s basic frameworks, holding everything in place.
[12:30] This web throughout our body is the fascia.
[12:34] Historically I’m a pathologist, so I sit looking at human tissues under the microscope all day long.
[12:40] That’s not the same as looking at living tissue, though we pretend it is.
[12:44] But now we have a scope that looks at the living tissue, and it doesn’t look like what we thought.
[12:48] Fascia is I’d say almost one third of our biomechanics.
[12:51] Now we have hard data that support how the fascia is important for us.
[12:55] Because now we have understood that the fascia can connect the different parts of the locomotory system.
[13:02] We have not understood before this mechanism.
[13:05] Because we can really improve the treatment of our patients, understanding this type of connection through all the different elements that form our body.
[13:17] It seems clear that the fascia is of vital importance for all our muscular movements.
[13:23] But it is at work even when we are at rest.
[13:26] Our immune system for example needs the fascia to keep us healthy.
[13:30] And the fascia works to reduce our pain in case of an accident.
[13:34] If you bang your foot, knee or hip it’s the fascia that absorbs some of that pain.
[13:40] You can also imagine the fascia as a web of thousands of thin cotton threads.
[13:44] Working alongside one another.
[13:46] If the threads get tangled it can be a problem.
[13:50] The body can handle it to a certain degree.
[13:52] But not always.
[13:56] A typical example of something cool that we do…
[14:01] This is a poster, a presentation, from the Fascia Research Congress in Berlin 2018.
[14:06] Where we interviewed a lot of scientists and attended lectures.
[14:09] Two discoveries were made there that were so immense and revolutionary, that it’s very odd that nothing more has come of it.
[14:16] They were both made by a woman named Carla Stecco who is a professor of anatomy.
[14:20] One of the discoveries is that there’s a brand new cell running throughout our bodies, that we didn’t know about until now - fasciacytes.
[14:25] This cell produces the lubricant that allows the entire body to function.
[14:30] So when you move, and you’re able to move well, it’s thanks to this cell.
[14:33] We have discovered a new cell inside the fascia that we have called the fasciacytes, that has a different behaviour and is able to create the gliding surface.
[14:45] Of the different fascia.
[14:47] The second discovery is almost even more amazing.
[14:50] As she discovered that estrogen and other sex hormones affect what’s known as fibroblasts, which is the cell that builds up the collagen structure in the body.
[14:59] What she demonstrated was that women’s bodies rebuild themselves twice a month.
[15:04] So when you ovulate and menstruate, the body actually rebuilds itself.
[15:08] And this is another explanation for PMS and for other types of illness related to women, such as fibromyalgia and hypermobility.
[15:18] And when you start to look at the potential this might have…
[15:22] If we dig even deeper into her discoveries, we find enormous potential to make a difference for women who are displaying all sorts of symptoms.
[15:38] Carla Stecco is a orthopedic surgeon and a professor of anatomy at the university of Padua in Italy.
[15:44] And one of the world’s leading scientists in this field.
[15:50] As well as her discovery of a new cell, she’s also researching what causes pain to occur in parts of the body not impactet for example by a trauma.
[16:00] This is the Galileo Galilei room.
[16:03] The students created a podium to stand up Galileo and to permit to all the people to see Galileo.
[16:15] Padua is home to the world’s oldest anatomical theatre, previously used for dissecting bodies.
[16:24] Now I see the history of Padova.
[16:29] But I see also the future of fascial anatomy and the fascia research.
[16:37] Because in the past the human body was cut in many different pieces.
[16:44] And we learned about the liver, about the stomach, the different muscles and the joints.
[16:52] And in such a way we lost the global view of the body.
[17:01] Fascia was really totally forgotten in the past.
[17:05] They were not able to see the innovation of fascia.
[17:09] Consequently they considered the fascia just as an anatomical structure without a true importance.
[17:19] Now we change the perspective because fortunately we have understood the roll of fascia, and that the different element interfere one with the other.
[17:33] That all the elements are connected to each other.
[17:37] Fantastic!
[17:39] So we decide how the hip can interfere with the back, with the knee.
[17:46] How an old trauma in the ankle can create back pain.
[17:51] If we understand that connection we can cure our patients in a different way.
[17:58] Maybe then we need also the neurosurgeon, the orthopaedic surgeon.
[18:03] But before we have a global vision of the patient.
[18:08] I think that can change really the medicine of the future.
[18:18] Someone else who sees the fascia and it's importance from within is the physiotherapist and ultrasound expert at Swedens GHP Sports center - Niklas Norlén.
[18:29] And there you can see the movement.
[18:31] And it should also move here in this other musculature.
[18:35] And so everything has a dynamic, with connected movement, as you can see.
[18:39] If we look further down here we can feel the bone.
[18:42] And if you then move your fingers, you can see how they glide against each other.
[18:47] Here we can see a fascia gliding against the lower muscle belly of the muscle.
[18:51] And here’s is a fascia gliding against the upper part.
[18:55] And how thin these fascia are when they’re healthy.
[19:01] So there isn’t much friction, and they just glide against one another.
[19:07] The good fascia is a fascia that is very well organised.
[19:11] So with all the collagen fibre, with the precise direction that permit to connect as a bridge the correct part of the body.
[19:21] At the same time the gliding surface that permit to move in respect to the surrounding tissue.
[19:29] In the past, you just studied anatomy and learned about the existence of the fascia.
[19:33] But we didn’t really understand the dynamic and the function in the same way as when… when you work with ultrasound, you understand how amazingly dynamic it is.
[19:42] And how important it is that it’s able to glide and that small scarring and old wounds can mean that it doesn’t really function as it should, and that this can cause pain.
[19:55] When the fascia start to be altered, one of the first elements that we can see also with the ultrasound is a lack of glide.
[20:04] It’s like the true fascia layer or the fascia in the nerve or the fascia in the muscle are attached and don’t move.
[20:12] So if we start with manual treatment to create a friction after one or two minutes we feel that the stuck tissue start to move, start to glide.
[20:24] So the lighter parts you see, especially when I move the probe across here, you see the white fascia lines, that surround every muscle.
[20:36] And here in the calf we can also see fascia strings, here’s another one, so they can be found in every muscle belly.
[20:45] And a lot of injuries lie between the muscle and fascia, or an adjacent structure.
[20:50] So that affects the ability to glide and the ability to stretch and move muscles and tendons.
[20:57] And this can often cause problems, that they don’t glide as well.
[21:03] And that can lead to symptoms.
[21:05] that the muscle can feel pulled or stretched…
[21:07] that it feels less flexible and that new injuries can occur
[21:11] as scar tissue starts to build.
[21:13] But our lifestyle and what we do all affect the body.
[21:17] Our sleep patterns, what we eat, and exercise,
[21:19] we can see that on the ultrasound too.
[21:22] People who exercise, eat well, they have a good structure.
[21:26] and it looks healthy we can see.
[21:28] We might get younger people who don’t exercise or who have
[21:30] a chronic disease or something, and have a much older structure
[21:35] than their actual age.
[21:36] So it’s definitively important.
[21:38] We have a precise anatomy to the fascia that connect the body
[21:44] in a precise way.
[21:45] So we have some line along the body
[21:48] that permit to connect with the feet with the knee, the hip
[21:54] with the back until the neck.
[21:57] And all that element are organised in a very precise anatomical way.
[22:03] Here we can see a small piece of fascia
[22:07] and particularly this is the galea capitis.
[22:11] You can see also that inside there is a small vessel here.
[22:18] And also some muscular fibre - like that or like that.
[22:22] That creates a specific tension into the fascia.
[22:26] So we can imagine that if after for example whiplash,
[22:30] we create a contraction of this muscle,
[22:33] this muscle creates like a tension inside the fascia - like that.
[22:38] That modifies all the structure of the fascia.
[22:42] It’s for that that the fascia is a bridge that connect
[22:47] all the different elements together
[22:49] Without considering the bridge
[22:54] it’s impossible to understand the human body.
[22:59] Fascia that have become tangled or gone through a trauma
[23:01] will affect a person’s movement.
[23:04] And because recent discoveries show that there are six times more nerve cells
[23:08] in the fascia than in muscles
[23:10] fascia problems can be linked to pain
[23:12] in the lower back, shoulder, knee,
[23:15] - anywhere the fascia exist.
[23:18] Why is fascia so difficult and complex to understand?
[23:24] It has several impact factors.
[23:28] A diseased fascia can soon become a vicious circle.
[23:31] It becomes inflamed.
[23:33] The flow of fluids in the body as well as the immune system are affected
[23:36] and the pain itself impedes recovery.
[23:39] Considering the pandemic of back pain around the world
[23:42] from our increasingly sedentary existence
[23:45] it's no wonder that more and more people
[23:48] are becoming fascinated by the fascia.
[23:50] And the most important thing is to know that now we can’t imagine
[23:56] the human body made of separate spots. It’s global.
[24:02] And it’s completely new.
[24:04] It’s a paradigm shift.
[24:06] But this paradigm shift makes able to introduce
[24:11] new fields of science.
[24:13] So we can have links with mathematics, with physics, with biology.
[24:19] What initially caught my attention with fascia was the fact that it’s the real thing.
[24:22] Like wow!
[24:24] It’s so cool to understand the body.
[24:25] It’s so cool that I have a body and that I can learn to understand it.
[24:29] And that I know so little about my own body.
[24:31] I know so little about myself.
[24:35] Along with the clinical studies over the last 10 years
[24:38] the Bohlin family has made practical progress
[24:40] and has thereby been able to confirm scientists discoveries.
[24:44] We treated a lot of people.
[24:47] They came to us with all sorts of problems - and they got better.
[24:50] And we were thinking - how?
[24:53] How can people be getting better with treatment from this machine?
[24:56] Because we’re really not doing much.
[24:57] We’re making sure the body is aligned and balanced.
[24:59] How can these machine treatments give such quick results?
[25:05] Basically the rhythm of the machine put the body’s fascia
[25:08] into a wave pattern.
[25:10] So when you treat the neck
[25:12] you can feel it in the foot, and vice versa.
[25:16] The conclusions they’ve drawn from this are
[25:18] the fascia is a system that affects the well-being of the entire body.
[25:23] But as we all know. It is not sufficient
[25:25] that we ourselves understand the connections.
[25:28] We need to be able to explain them for others and above all
[25:31] implement successful treatments in the long run.
[25:35] Around this time we started contacting and meeting various scientists.
[25:39] We went to the US, Germany and around the world,
[25:42] to talk to scientists who are researching
[25:44] how the body really works.
[25:46] Nowadays we are able to look at the connective tissue.
[25:50] We can see that it contains nerve cells, nerve receptors,
[25:54] lymph vessels, blood vessels and so on.
[25:57] So all of a sudden we realise that there is a true connection from structure to structure.
[26:05] and the connective tissue is the one who actually is connecting.
[26:10] When you realise that there is a new tissue,
[26:13] or that all tissue has new functions,
[26:16] and you have tools to measure it,
[26:18] and that people are collaborating a lot,
[26:20] and you get new discoveries every month.
[26:25] Why has fascia been neglected?
[26:27] The first anatomists wanted to understand the organ
[26:31] more as a system or system based.
[26:34] But they forgot the holistic view of the human anatomy.
[26:37] So instead of isolating organs, now we really understand the importance
[26:44] of the interrelation between organs.
[26:47] Which is mostly done via fascia.
[26:49] So this is like a complete organ in itself
[26:54] that is organising all the other systems together.
[26:57] One segment of your body is affected due to a trauma or anything,
[27:04] so it’s easy now to envision that this tension
[27:09] can be actually migrating into your fascial network,
[27:14] and will basically lead to secondary symptoms
[27:18] that will be described as painful
[27:20] in other regions that the patients will be consulting for.
[27:25] Which are far from the initial problem.
[27:29] To start with it was all about launching the machine.
[27:32] But at the same time it’s been important to demonstrate
[27:34] the effectiveness of the treatment it provieds.
[27:37] For example - here at the Swedish Embassy in Helsinki
[27:40] Hans Bohlin treated a frozen shoulder.
[27:45] In traditional healthcare this has been difficult to do.
[27:48] In 2019 a study was published that proved that the treatment helps patients
[27:53] with Frozen Shoulder.
[27:55] - Frozen shoulder is a somewhat mysterious phenomenon.
[27:59] However, I'm certain that it originates in the soft tissues.
[28:03] Doctor Håkan Borg has made a pilot study on
[28:06] frozen shoulder treatment with deep wave therapy.
[28:09] The result has been beyond all expectations.
[28:12] - They are in a lot of pain and have low mobility.
[28:15] There's a loss of mobility and that's typical of frozen shoulder.
[28:19] Frozen shoulder has been a tough problem in healthcare.
[28:22] That's something everybody agrees on.
[28:24] There's been several different treatments.
[28:26] Everything from physiotherapy to cortisone injections.
[28:30] Sometimes even operations.
[28:33] All treatments have been time consuming and with a lot
[28:35] of pain along the way. And not always that successful.
[28:39] - My colleagues are stuck in old habits and conventional physiotherapy.
[28:44] Medication and in worst case scenarios - cortisone.
[28:47] We have been offering operations but that hasn't been successful.
[28:51] Bad results.
[28:53] The results of this new fascia therapy caught the attention of doctor Håkan Borg
[28:57] Who noticed they were far better than those
[28:59] found in traditional health care treatments.
[29:02] And he wanted to take a closer look.
[29:04] - I saw the potential to do good things
[29:09] for patients that had been suffering for a long time.
[29:12] "This is why he made the pilot study.
[29:14] 23 patients, all diagnosed with frozen shoulder.
[29:19] The study was conducted during 37 days with three treatments - 40 minutes each.
[29:24] - The secret of the machine... Well, actually it's not a secret.
[29:27] The machine has nice and soft frequencies
[29:31] that the body accepts easily. Beacuse it feels nice.
[29:35] It makes the body relax.
[29:38] - You can measure the possible degree of angular movement in patients.
[29:43] Which lets us see that this actually works.
[29:47] You can see the mobility go from about 30° up to 180°.
[29:51] 17 patients completed the study.
[29:53] One patient regained full mobility after the first treatment.
[29:57] 41 % of the patients had full mobility after three treatments
[30:02] and 76 % of the patients could move their arm 45° more
[30:06] than before the treatment.
[30:08] In addition to that, 71 % reported that their quality of sleep had improved,
[30:13] an unanticipated positive side effect.
[30:16] - It's fantastic if you can potentially make an improvement of 60-70%.
[30:22] It's a great success.
[30:25] I think this has been fun - and still is.
[30:28] - One thing about this machine is that it increases the flow rate.
[30:33] A good therapist with good knowledge and this machine
[30:36] will get faster and better results.
[30:38] - I never would have thought that you could cure
[30:41] a frozen shoulder in a week.
[30:44] A real eye-opener for medicine.
[30:47] -Is this good? -Mm.
[30:48] - In the study we treat the actual shoulder for about ten minutes.
[30:52] The first time. Because we treat the whole body.
[30:55] So, it's like a lot of scientists agree upon:
[30:59] Pain in one place of the body can originate
[31:01] from another place in the body.
[31:04] So, it's important to balance out the whole body and increase the flow rate.
[31:08] - I don't think people have understood how good this
[31:11] deep wave therapy is. I mean it's..."
[31:14] You add so much more energy when you use a machine.
[31:17] The important molecule here is the hyaluronic acid.
[31:21] That's what we do here. Loosening bindings in the hyaluronic acid.
[31:24] That's still the main thing. You see, when you're adding energy
[31:30] you will loosen up these bindings.
[31:34] The hyaluronic acid is the lubricant of the fascia.
[31:37] Håkan Borg believes that in a frozen shoulder
[31:40] the hyaluronic acid has turned from lubricant into glue.
[31:44] - This used to be a question of months and years.
[31:47] Now we are down to about a week
[31:51] There is a space for a new standard in well-being.
[31:56] I think there is a good feeling here and great people
[32:00] from different sectors. Health sector, therapist sector.
[32:03] I think everybody is quite curious about this new way of treating.
[32:07] That’s the key for their success
[32:09] She has had a problem with her shoulder - a frozen shoulder.
[32:12] Let’s see if we can have it released.
[32:14] The problem is actually over there - and over there.
[32:18] So we are going to loose it not going to the problem area
[32:21] but go the… Loosing it up before going there.
[32:24] It’s more pleasant that way.
[32:26] I’m really surprised.
[32:27] I didn’t think that it would work for like five minutes.
[32:30] Ten minutes maybe.
[32:31] Yeah, maybe we did this.
[32:32] Yes, it was really good.
[32:33] Yes!
[32:36] Yeah, well - I’m really surprised!
[32:40] It feels really nice.
[32:41] And you were a real frozen shoulder?
[32:44] Well, I didn’t know that it was called that,
[32:46] I just knew I couldn’t lift my shoulder or my arm in a certain way.
[32:51] I didn’t think much about it I just thought I was stiff, that’s it.
[32:56] And how does it feel now?
[32:57] It feels… It feels a bit sore but still I feel a lot more relaxed.
[33:04] And you’re not an actor?
[33:05] No I’m not an actor - at all!
[33:10] I work a lot with athletes and I use it all the time.
[33:14] Why is it so good?
[33:16] Mostly because of the vibration,
[33:18] and it’s hard to make the vibrations using only your hands.
[33:23] You get deeper without causing pain.
[33:26] That’s something you cannot do with other machines.
[33:31] The success continues in the US, England and not least Germany.
[33:35] At the same time Swedish equine massage therapists have
[33:39] shown an interest in the machine and the method
[33:41] leading to several tangible results since placebos aren’t
[33:45] relevant with animals.
[33:47] Harness racehorses were measurably faster and star showjumper Rolf-Göran Bengtsson
[33:54] has shared the positive results he’s seen when his horses jump.
[34:00] We noticed early on that if the rider is crooked then the horse becomes crooked.
[34:04] That connection between Man and horse feel obvious to us.
[34:08] With the Fascia Clinics and Fascia Horse, we have found a concept where these two meet.
[34:12] These are conditions that affect the horse's pressure in the body.
[34:18] Since 2019 Camilla Ranje Nordin has been compiling
[34:23] one of the world's largest fascia research databases.
[34:27] “As an animal scientist, you are very focused on..."
[34:32] We talk about how we can keep the animals healthy-
[34:35] - to make it as economical as possible.
[34:37] Any animal that gets unsound costs a lot of money.
[34:43] This horse seems quite comfortable.
[34:46] It has calm eyes and nostrils…
[34:51] The good thing is that our way of thinking
[34:55] and treatment with our machine,
[34:57] makes the horse feel better as a whole,
[35:00] It moves better, is simply in a better place
[35:03] and stay healthier.
[35:06] The machine is designed so that it gets deeper and wider
[35:10] you can treat in one place, and also have a great effect in other places.
[35:14] It can be difficult to achieve with manual treatment
[35:17] or other machines.
[35:19] Here there is a firmer fascia structure.
[35:23] Here you want to use the semi-blunt or pointed tip,
[35:28] so that you can more easily reach the deep fascia inside.
[35:30] Then you can loosen up a lot of densification.
[35:33] It is usually very clear how the horse behaves, moves or stands
[35:37] before and after treatment.
[35:40] We see how the horse moves.
[35:42] We know how to maximize the effect,
[35:44] to give the horse the best conditions to train and perform well.
[35:48] But that's not all we're looking for.
[35:51] How do we get the horse to
[35:53] recover after a performance, or to rehabilitate after an injury?
[35:56] But also be that best friend as it is for the horse owners.
[35:59] Making the horse feel good
[36:00] and gain body awareness and improved proprioception,
[36:04] that it has nothing to receive in motion.
[36:09] This horse has got quite a lot of treatment.
[36:12] He is one of our regular customers.
[36:13] You can see that his nostrils are pointed and that he has wrinkles around his mouth.
[36:19] It is a sign that he is in pain.
[36:22] This is what is called a "pain face".
[36:24] We are trying to help him become more relaxed.
[36:28] Do you feel the difference when you've been holding on for a while?
[36:31] -Absolutely!
[36:33] Then you can move on to the next place.
[36:36] This is very important, both in rehab and prehab.
[36:44] If you have a horse that works hard, it will incur tensions.
[36:48] You know that yourself, if you have run or exercised hard.
[36:54] You get muscle soreness.
[36:56] This treatment makes you recover better.
[37:01] The treatment also stimulates the healing of injuries
[37:04] as a result of increased fluid flow.
[37:07] It helps you stay healthier.
[37:09] There is no question that horses get better from this treatment.
[37:13] It's movement, just like for humans, that causes the layers
[37:16] of the fascia to glide against each other helped by the hyaluronic acid.
[37:20] A lubricant that also helps bind water to the body.
[37:24] A sedentary lifestyle and a deficit of hyaluronic acid
[37:28] makes the fascia stiff which can cause inflammation and pain in the body.
[37:34] Internationally, interest in the fascia has grown enormously in the last decade
[37:38] and we are definitely heading along the right track.
[37:43] And that’s kind of the point; Trying to inform people
[37:45] about the body in a simple manner.
[37:47] So that people can learn to live with their bodies.
[37:51] Because if you feel well and can get to know yourself,
[37:53] you can take more intuitive decisions,
[37:56] and feel secure and feel better,
[38:01] and in turn treat other people better.
[38:02] But in reality, this is not the case.
[38:05] It’s actually quite difficult to stay healthy.
[38:08] It’s super difficult to eat healthily and to get enough sleep.
[38:12] To avoid stress, to avoid being affected by chemicals in our food,
[38:16] or by our surroundings in general.
[38:19] There’s so much going on all the time,
[38:21] that it becomes difficult to stay healthy.
[38:26] Dance has been my free space.
[38:30] Where I can be exactly as I please.
[38:33] Express myself without needing to talk,
[38:36] but just be able to express my feelings physically.
[38:41] And it really was my life.
[38:44] When I was 13, I was selected
[38:47] for a high-level dance group.
[38:51] which involved a lot of dancing, a lot of classes each week.
[38:57] We had a lot of pressure on us to constantly improve.
[39:01] You can stretch even more - become even more agile,
[39:05] improve endurance even further.
[39:07] And I think that has taken its toll on my body.
[39:11] And at such a young age you shouldn’t have to think about
[39:14] or question what its doing to you.
[39:17] You’re so consumed by what you’re doing
[39:22] that you’ll do anything to be the best and go the furthest.
[39:26] And today its seems it’s taken a greater toll than
[39:32] I thought it would have back then.
[39:38] I discovered quite recently, or just a few years ago,
[39:44] that I was in pain.
[39:47] My feet we’re really swollen - especially my ankles.
[39:51] It was uncomfortable, and it would hurt
[39:53] if I sat still for too long.
[39:57] Flying was really tough, as I couldn’t
[39:59] get my shoes on afterwards.
[40:01] And I was really self-conscious about how it looked.
[40:09] I had no expectations in particular
[40:12] as to how it would help, or even what it was.
[40:17] At first it felt really strange.
[40:20] I started laughing ‘cause I thought it felt odd.
[40:24] But he mainly focused on my feet and under my feet.
[40:28] And when I stood up after the first treatment,
[40:33] I felt a relief in my entire body.
[40:39] I don’t get nearly as much pain and swelling.
[40:43] I feel at one with my body,
[40:46] which I haven’t done for a long time.
[40:55] We all know how difficult it can be to navigate through research reports.
[40:59] So to help bridge a common gap the idea is to disseminate
[41:02] know-how via the Fasciaguiden podcast in a modern and accessible way.
[41:07] But also by training therapists in practical treatments
[41:10] in Sweden at a clinic in Sollentuna.
[41:13] This part is essential in everything we do.
[41:18] We actually started this program as there was no other training
[41:22] that was about the fascia and using the fascia as a perspective.
[41:24] About connecting the parts and forming this holistic view.
[41:27] So we actually created the program to fill a gap in the market.
[41:32] But also to find the structure and the process
[41:37] as to what a therapist actually does in their work.
[41:41] Their way of thinking has really opened my eyes.
[41:46] Because I work with jockeys and their posture, body and balance.
[41:51] Jockeys often have a pelvic obliquity.
[41:56] A misalignment of the pelvis, causing one leg to be longer than the other.
[42:01] So this is going to make a real difference for me
[42:04] when I work with jockeys. For sure.
[42:06] As it will streamline everything, to be honest.
[42:10] The fascia receives and absorbs pressure.
[42:13] There’s lots going on and we’re put through a lot
[42:16] that the body has to handle.
[42:19] So the fascia explains why we’re affected by our surroundings.
[42:24] But also what we can do to be healthy.
[42:32] We’re able to try and understand things differently,
[42:34] and see the body in a different way.
[42:36] And that’s also what’s given us these results.
[42:37] Daring to look for solutions where no one else has looked.
[42:43] Not just treating the symptoms, but trying to solve the problems.
[42:47] And asking where something is coming from and what can we do about it.
[42:49] In the past I was convinced that the fascia is just connective tissue,
[42:54] with some collagen fibre, some fibroblasts and it’s all.
[42:59] Now we know that there are many different cells.
[43:02] And we need to study all the cell how to answer to the
[43:06] inflammation, to the hormones, to the ageing and to the food…
[43:12] All that aspect need a specific research.
[43:17] And only creating an international group
[43:20] that look about the different topic we can really understand the fascia.
[43:27] …and probably from the ganglia. So they will go from the…
[43:32] In the past I’ve thought of fascia as one fascia
[43:35] that was almost the same everywhere.
[43:38] Now we know that we have the superficial fascia,
[43:41] the muscular fascia and the visceral fascia.
[43:44] All that element have a precise anatomical aspect.
[43:51] Different innervation, different fibral components, different cells,
[43:57] and answer to different mechanical inputs.
[44:00] That element interact with each other in a very precise way.
[44:04] So the organs through the fascia, the visceral fascia
[44:08] are connected with the locomotory system, with the muscles.
[44:12] Maybe a person that have a chronic abdominal pain
[44:17] start to also have back pain or start to have pain in the neck.
[44:23] And only if we understand such interaction,
[44:26] we can really cure the patient.
[44:31] Actually the people are treated just with pills that
[44:35] reduce the symptoms, reduce the pain.
[44:40] but don’t care really about the fascia, don’t restore
[44:44] the proper anatomy of a fascia.
[44:49] Somebody asked Carla Stecco, “shouldn’t you do a study on men
[44:54] and testosterone and male hormones?”
[44:57] And she responded that, “you’ve had your years -
[45:00] it’s time we focus on women now.”
[45:02] As apparently, 95% of all studies are done on male subjects.
[45:07] And animal studies are done on male mice, and not female mice.
[45:09] And if you do a study on female mice, hormones will be an aspect
[45:14] that get in the way.
[45:17] They have too much of an effect, so they’re removed,
[45:20] because otherwise it’s too difficult to study what you want to
[45:22] because the hormones are there “getting in the way” of my result.
[45:26] And that’s ridiculous, as that’s the point -
[45:29] that there are hormones there getting in the way.
[45:31] And that’s what we need to understand to in turn be able to understand
[45:33] women and women’s pain.
[45:38] It started with very mild contractions.
[45:42] Then the contractions became more intense.
[45:46] They were so powerful that I got chills.
[45:49] And it was really difficult for me to focus on the breathing,
[45:52] which meant that I was very tense.
[45:55] Then Cayenne came and helped me
[45:58] with this amazing machine
[46:00] which allowed me to relax and focus on my breathing again.
[46:08] And it changed the whole process so it was
[46:10] so much more comfortable and fantastic.
[46:15] I tried my usual tricks to get her to calm down,
[46:20] but I couldn’t do it.
[46:22] And I remember that it wasn’t even worth asking,
[46:25] because Ann was pretty much unreachable.
[46:28] So I took out the machine and thought “it’s now or never!”
[46:32] And then I just sort of placed it against her back like this,
[46:40] and I asked if it was OK of course.
[46:43] And I basically got a “yes” straight away.
[46:49] She saved me!
[46:50] Ten minutes later she’s twitching like a sleeping puppy.
[46:56] And I just thought “this is just wonderful!”
[47:00] From panicking ten minutes earlier…
[47:05] But she did wake up when the contractions came,
[47:08] but this time she was so calm.
[47:10] I think it brought her inside herself, and the pain lessened,
[47:14] and she had a sense of calm and security.
[47:20] And I was glad that I was open to that suggestion,
[47:24] as it was an enormous help.
[47:26] And then every time is completely different.
[47:28] But this time, it came to the rescue.
[47:31] Yes, it did.
[47:33] And I was once asked, when we put out an ad
[47:36] about how we treated someone with a frozen shoulder in 7 minutes.
[47:40] From not being able to move the arm to lifting it all the way up in 7 minutes.
[47:43] And someone said, “I don’t believe it - it’s not possible.
[47:46] I’ve treated loads of frozen shoulders,
[47:47] and results that fast are not possible.”
[47:49] So I said “do you address the pelvis
[47:53] when you’re treating a shoulder?”
[47:55] “What?”
[47:55] … “and the feet?”
[47:56] “Sorry. What do you mean?”
[47:57] “Well, we always start by treating feet, knees, hips and back
[48:03] when we treat a shoulder.”
[48:05] “Oh! Like that?” he said.
[48:08] “Yes. ‘cause you need to include the entire structure and body
[48:11] if you want to solve the problem with the shoulder.”
[48:13] As not being able to lift your arm affects everything.
[48:24] The fascia clinic is the result of everything we’ve done these last 10 years.
[48:27] We’re basing it on a research database of 3000 articles.
[48:32] We’ve created a machine that’s been around the world
[48:34] and been busy there.
[48:35] That’s why people come here with pain and leave without it.
[48:39] But without… This isn’t for people looking for a quick fix, a miracle.
[48:44] It’s for people who want to gain knowledge
[48:48] as to how their bodies work.
[48:50] So that’s what this inauguration is for today.
[48:54] I’ve been working in sport and football all my life.
[48:56] And trained as a physical education teacher.
[48:58] But I haven’t heard so much about the fascia.
[49:01] But that we’ve discovered how important the fascia is,
[49:06] and what it does for the body.
[49:08] Lots of players have come to me with problems,
[49:11] with the calf for example.
[49:13] And we’ve treated the calf.
[49:15] And the player’s been OK, fine, then he’s injured again.
[49:19] And I’ve always said that the problem must be somewhere else.
[49:22] Maybe we shouldn’t be treating the calf, but somewhere else in the body.
[49:27] And when you learn about how the fascia works,
[49:30] that’s very much the case.
[49:32] So I think you can get players, sportspeople, with problems
[49:39] to improve.
[49:40] But also get them back from an injury quicker,
[49:43] because circulation is improved more quickly.
[49:48] This is also a bridge between western and eastern medicine
[49:51] according to professor in medical Qigong Fan Xiulan.
[49:56] It’s a modern and scientific way to understand
[50:00] what’s been talked about in Chinese medicine for millennia
[50:04] in terms of what we call meridians and points
[50:08] that send signals about the effects of healing around the body.
[50:11] What’s been difficult to explain is how these signals
[50:15] have been communicated around the body.
[50:18] The fascia provides much of the explanation.
[50:22] Thereby making it easy for us to understand the affects on our health
[50:28] this method has.
[50:30] With the intention of solving people’s problems in the West,
[50:35] this could prove to be a wonderful tool, for example, in elderly care.
[50:40] It’s all the same human body.
[50:42] And we just have different perspectives on it.
[50:44] I think part of what is going on here...
[50:47] If we’re all talking about the same body then maybe the issues that separate us
[50:52] are all about language and metaphor.
[50:55] I think this kind of work is starting to allow us to see where they meet.
[50:59] And if that happens, then you’d be talking about global medicine and global health,
[51:04] rather than Western versus Eastern and that kind of thing.
[51:08] There’s so much we can do with treatment, diet and nutrition,
[51:13] that will actually make people healthy.
[51:15] Very interesting!
[51:17] And we’ve spoken to a lot of doctors that are thinking similarly.
[51:20] So there’s a new wave in medical science
[51:22] that covers the use of nutrition as medicine,
[51:24] looking differently at how we eat, and finding cures that way.
[51:28] Look at the intestinal flora, mobility and breathing, and so on.
[51:33] And this is a new wave approaching.
[51:35] How can we stay healthy in a more natural way?
[51:40] The best will be to understand all the elements that can affect the fascia.
[51:46] And to prevent the alteration of fascia.
[51:51] Because I really think that if we are able
[51:54] to understand all the elements,
[51:57] we can avoid the ageing. We can avoid the degeneration of the joints.
[52:03] We can avoid many different pathologies
[52:07] In the organ, in the muscle, in the joints.
[52:11] Consequently it means that we can become older in a better way
[52:17] It certainly complements our world view.
[52:19] But I would even go as far as to say that
[52:22] it changes our world view.
[52:24] I can see how this will lead to new forms of healthcare,
[52:30] new lines of research, new perspectives as to what mankind is.
[52:34] New institutions.
[52:37] Yes… a very different view of human beings.