| Excerpted from "Fibromyalgia and Chronic Myofascial Pain Syndrome: A Survival Manual" by Devin J. Starlanyl M.D. and Mary Ellen Copeland M.A. M.S., copyright 1996 New Harbinger Publications Oakland CA, 800-748-6273, ISBN 1-57224-046-6 |
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Myofascia is a thin, almost translucent film that wraps around muscle tissue. It is the tissue that holds all the other parts together. It gives shape to and supports all of the body's musculature. You can see myofascia if you cut up a fresh chicken. It is the thin, sticky, somewhat filmy material that wraps around the muscle tissue. It wraps around muscle fibers, bundles of fibers, and the muscles themselves, and then goes on to form tendons and ligaments. For people with fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) and/or myofascial pain syndrome (MPS), the myofascia takes on a new importance. Tightening and thickening of the myofascia occurs in many cases of FMS and/or MPS. If both of these conditions are present, this tightening causes more than double the trouble. |
When the myofascial tissues become thickened and lose their elasticity, neurotransmitter ability to send and receive messages between the mind and body is damaged, and the communication between the mind and body is damaged. Myofascia, then, may well be the key to what goes wrong in FMS/MPS. In the myofascia there is a material called ground substance. This material can exist in a solid, semisolid, or fluid state. When ground substance changes from a liquid to a gel, the myofascia tightens, and it is difficult to get it to reverse to a liquid state again without intervention. |