VI - Three Important body parts you never hear about

What are the most important parts of the body? In western medicine we might say the heart, brain and blood. When you look at the body through an immune system lens the answer is PSOAS,  FASCIA and LYMPH. Lets look at each of these critical parts of body, how they interact with the immune system and impact your health.

PSOAS (pronounced SO-as)

Lets start at the beginning - the psoas. The first question is: How is this the beginning? Isn't it in the middle of the body. It is because the psoas is where the body started life at conception. The original cell at conception was the middle of the body; it's where we attached to our mothers during the birthing pregnancy. It is a logical place to start. Think of making pizza pie. To make the crust we place a dough ball in the middle of the pan and stretch in all directions. The same thing happened to our body during pregnancy and throughout the growth or our bodies - we expanded from the middle.

The psoas muscle (referred to as tenderloin in some animals) is the center of the body connecting the legs to the upper body.



As you can see, the psoas is very complex. Notice the many connections from the hips to the spine and  the legs.  This is the key body part connecting north and south - it is where the legs connect with the back. It is the key muscle determining the flexibility of hip flexors. A healthy, flexible psoas allows olympic divers to press their chests against their thighs during a "jack-knife" dive. An unhealthy tightened psoas pulls everything toward the middle. We notice this in old people who cannot stand upright. Our posture is determined by the psoas. When healthy and loose we can reach from the hips; shoulders go back and are in straight horizontal line with our hips and knees. When tight, the psoas constantly pulls the spine which brings the shoulders and head forward. Thats why we see those old people walking at half mast.

The legs are also impacted by the psoas. The psoas has direct link to your hip flexors. When loose, hamstrings and IT band stretch sufficiently to allow bending and lifting without pain or restriction. However, when tight, cramping will appear in hamstrings, calves and feet  (plantar fasciitis). Our fascia, (which will be discussed in a second) runs from head to foot and it all goes through the psoas.

We hold our emotions in our psoas. Anxiety and stress tighten the psoas; laughing and crying release the psoas muscle. Intuition comes from the psoas. Hunched shoulders of the emotionally abused and depressed is a tightened psoas. We have sayings that refer to these emotions: tight ass, belly laugh, gut decision, etc. This answers the age old question why do I cry when I laugh? Both laughing and crying are "releases" from the psoas. In fact, burping and hiccups are diaphragm releases that can be caused from psoas releases. Just further proof that it's all connected. In all animals it starts in the middle, the PSOAS.

The way to heal your psoas is twofold. First, to clean the lymph system so the psoas has proper nutrition flowing through it (see lymph below). Second is through a psoas release. At times, the psoas is so tight that it takes months or even years to get a full release. A psoas release is an intense massage technique. During a release a patient can have laughing attacks, crying spells, recall forgotten emotional tragedies, etc. All that is stored within the psoas comes pouring out. Think of your body like a spring with the psoas in the middle. When tight the spring is pinched. When released it opens and allows you to open the rest of the body to release or stretch.

FASCIA

How does the flexibility spread to all parts of the body if it starts at the psoas? The fascia is an elaborate system of bands and sheaths from head to toe that hold our skeleton, organs and muscles together. Think of this as seven layers of wet suits from head to toe. The deepest level wraps the spine, the outer most level is just under the skin. There is a level outside the ribs and one inside the ribs. At times, the fascia is very similar to under armor clothing where it is sheath spread out over an area (in the chest area), in other areas, it is a rubber band (around the knees). This is why so many people have knee pain. The fascia is so minimal around the knee. Sick lymph will show many times show in the knee first.

And here's the Deep Front Line from the inner arch (left) to the bat ears of the temporalis muscles coming from the jaw (right). 

The pictures above are from the Tom Myers site anatomy trains.
(www.anatomytrains.com/blogs/tom-myers/2009/05/30/374)

This is the first American dissection of fascia in 2006. (Think about it - most dissections are done horizontally to show body parts.) It clearly shows the connective links from head to toe. When the middle tightens, you can see how everything is pulled. That is why headaches to foot pain are caused from sick fascia and tight psoas. The theory is simple: Bad food and emotional tension tightens the psoas, pulls the fascia and causes pain in the weakest part of the body causing symptoms ranging from migraines in the head to plantar fasciitis in the feet and everything in between.

Try this:
1) Sit on the edge of your chair.
2) Interlock your fingers in front of you.
3) Straighten and push your arms away from you with palms pointed away
4) Now lift your arms above you and in back of your head with your arms straight and REACH

Notice how you feel this in your chest, middle section and many times your toes will move outwards when you reach.  Now look at the picture above and do it again. Many of you will feel all parts of this frontal line stretch. Welcome to the world of fascia.

To regain flexibility and have the ability to move through space with grace a myofascial release is necessary. After the psoas is released, a trained myofascial expert can "spread the pizza dough out from the center. The sequence above the waist is; psoas, diaphragm, chest, shoulders, arms, neck and head. The sequence below the waist is quads, hamstrings and IT bands, calves, feet.

LYMPH

OK, now that you know how we start in the middle, spread to the outside through fascia - the question is how do I stay healthy? The answer is the lymph. Lymph travels through the fascia delivering nutrition to all parts of the body. A friend of mine, Paul Chhabra, is on the front end of research proving that what we ingest is the biggest factor on fascia health.

The body is designed to eat natural foods from plants and animals that eat natural plants. When something different is eaten, the immune system is taxed to clean out the toxins brought from the foreign foods, drink, air or meds. As the immune system becomes taxed and can't keep up, the lymph becomes polluted and deposits toxins throughout the body. Our bodies then become more susceptible to disease and pain. The following are ALL symptoms of toxic lymph traveling through fascia:

Joint pain, head aches, runny nose, cough, sneezing, muscle pain and cramps, light headedness, ringing in the ears, rosacea, sweating, stomach ache, vomiting, etc.

There are three steps to healing all body parts: 1) Clean 2) Heal 3) Nourish. Too often, we take meds to rid the symptoms without curing the cause - a dirty lymph system. The meds rid the symptoms but often make the lymph more toxic. The only way to rid the symptoms AND improve your health is to do a food cleanse - eating only natural foods and flushing the toxins out of our body. The REALLY good news is that anti-inflammatory natural foods have cleansing properties. So green veggies and herbs act as soap for the lymph. Drinking filtered water and herbal teas flushes the toxins out after the "soap" scrubs them out of our joints, etc. The lymph will extract the toxins and use the circulatory system, sweat glands and digestive system to exit the body.

In summary, when looking through the immune system lens, the three most important parts to your body are, psoas, fascia and lymph. The three are integrated and coordinated to deliver nutrition and clean toxins throughout the body. It is a biological miracle. The best way to stay healthy is to breathe good air,  drink clean water and herbal tea, eat natural foods and avoid synthetic medications.

God Bless