#fascia

#fascia

As early as 2015, a conference at Harvard Medical School examined links between fascia, acupuncture and oncology; the lectures remain available online and underline how much more we need to understand about fascia's role in medicine. Manual therapists have long recognised the importance of working with fascia. Andrew Taylor Still, the founder of osteopathy, stressed its significance, and newer approaches such as the Bowen technique aim to improve hydration, proprioception and flexibility by engaging fascia gently but directly.

The easiest way to describe fascia is to think about the structure of a tangerine, says Natasha Kilian, a specialist in musculoskeletal physiotherapy at Pure Sports Medicine. You've got the outer skin, and beneath that, the white pith that separates the segments and holds them together. Fascia works in a similar way: it's a continuous, all-encompassing network that wraps around and connects everything in the body, from muscles and nerves to blood vessels and organs.