Low-force Chiropractic Care for Fascia in Murrysville
Fascia is an interconnected web of connective tissue that covers nearly every inch of your body from muscles to organs. It covers all of our muscles and is even present around our organs as well. This web of tissue is one of the many important layers that provide our bodies structure and support.
Why Is It Important?
Until recently, fascia was considered nothing more than a thin layer that lies beneath the skin and envelopes all of our muscles and organs. It was thought that its only real function was to separate our muscles allowing them to slide past one another more easily. However, new research has revealed that it does far more than that. For starters, fascia has more than five times as many nerves as our muscles do. This is important because it means that it plays a huge role in our pain levels and also plays an important factor in our body’s coordination. This means that when our fascia is relaxed we are less likely to accidentally injure ourselves while being physically active and less likely to suffer from trips and falls.
Fascia also contains specific cells called fasciacytes whose job is to produce hyaluronic acid, which enables our connective tissues and muscles to slide across one another more easily. Fascia plays a vital role in supporting proper immune function and enables fluids such as lymph to easily circulate around the body. It has been found to be extremely reactive to hormones and in particular, estrogen in women. This has lead to research that shows that fascia responding to increasing levels of estrogen in women can lead to a worsening of menstrual cramps. Since fascia covers our entire body, research has shown that trauma, injuries, and issues in one area of the body may have an affect on one or more other areas of the body due to the way the issues cause a ripple effect in the fascia.
How We Address Fascia
At Gentle Family Chiropractic, we use an advanced instrument called an Arthrostim which uses 12-14 gentle taps per second to make adjustments instead of one manual thrust. The Arthrostim was developed over a period of nearly 10 years to do more than just perform adjustments, it was specifically engineered to increase neurological feedback effects in the body. For instance the 12-14 taps per second is not an arbitrary range, but is the exact range that the researchers determined inhibited the most motor activity and enabled the most muscle and fascial relaxation. Herein lies the biggest advantage of adjustments administered with the Arthrostim, we are able to perform the adjustments and relax the fascia at the same time!
Instead of performing the adjustment and then doing a separate treatment for the fascia before or after we are able to relax the fascia at the same time that the adjustment is administered. This allows the adjustments to be longer lasting because we are relaxing the fascia as the adjustments are delivered. This instrument coupled with our cutting-edge way of analyzing the body enables us to deliver adjustments at the exact vector needed to correct your specific misalignments.
The Issue With Hands-On Chiropractic and Fascia
Chiropractors that utilize hands-on adjustments typically rely on either IASTM (Instrument-Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization) tools such as Graston or a percussive tool such as the Theragun. These tools work, but come with drawbacks. IASTM techniques are effective but take considerable time to do properly and can be very painful. Percussive tools are also effective and avoid the extreme pain of IASTM techniques, however, they are not able to be used on delicate areas like the neck, head, and other areas of the body where there is not much tissue between the skin and bone.
There is one other flaw that both IASTM techniques and percussive tools have which is that they separate the adjustment from the fascial component. In other words, there is no way to perform the adjustment and affect the fascia at the same time. This is a major issue because research has shown that the bumps of daily life and especially those from accidents affect the fascia in those areas and often lead to fascial issues in other areas of the body as well.
Takeaway & Next Steps
At Gentle Family Chiropractic, our goal is to provide adjustments that are not only precise and gentle, but also more effective and longer lasting. By using the Arthrostim, we can address spinal alignment and fascial tension simultaneously, helping the body relax and respond more naturally during treatment.
Why It Matters
Improved mobility and flexibility.
Reduced muscle and fascial tension.
Greater comfort compared to many traditional hands-on techniques.
Schedule An Appointment & Learn More
If you would like to learn more about the way that we adjust or if you have any questions pertaining to your specific case please don’t hesitate to reach out. You can reach our office at 724-320-2003, and we would be happy to help!