Mechanobiology and Diseases of Mechanotransduction
Donald Ingber, Phd, MD Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School
Donald Ingber, Phd, MD Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School
Annals of Medicine of Medicine 2003; 35 (8), pp. 564-77
This is exactly what I have been writing about in previous blogs with respect to needing to remove scar tissue from the body not too mention the removal of toxins and weaknesses...now I understand why. This is nothing short of HUGE in terms of health care. Enjoy the reading."What does the title of Inger’s study, Mechanobiology and Diseases of Mechanotransduction have to do with musculoskeletal care? Absolutely everything. And, here’s why.
Our current health care system focuses on disease but ignores the fact that many of the phenomena leading to pain and disease are secondary to changes in tissue structure and mechanics. Pretty interesting I’d say as this implies that as a person loses physical capacity, posture, and control of movement their risk of disease increases.
As clinicians this means that everything we do to restore a patients physical capacity increases their chances of having a more productive and gratifying life with less risk of organic disease. Giving a patient those benefits is about as high you can go on the scale of doing good for a better world as far as I’m concerned.
Let’s look at several important points made by Ingber in his publication:
1. “The global shape of the cell determines it’s behavior (eg growth versus differentiation or apoptosis), and these effect are mediated through tension-dependent changes in cyctoskeletal structure and mechanics.”
This statement is profound as the take home is that anything that changes the shape of the cell needs to be removed so the body can function as it’s designed to.
So, what are those things that could change the shape of cells that fall into our domain as practitioners? Well, just thinking off the tope of my head, here’s a short list of items: tight muscles, scar tissue, hypertonic muscles, fascial tension, inflammatory pockets, muscle incoordination, skeletal asymmetry, handedness, movement pattern distortion, emotions, toxicity, metabolic debris,… and the list goes on.
Considering this list and what it means in terms of cell behavior and illness, not to mention loss of energy and stress on structure from cell distortion, it’s obvious that we need to have clinical strategies for removing all of these interferences to normal cell function so the body can get and keep itself well.
2. “Local changes in tissue structure also may explain why genetic diseases, including cancer, often present locally.”
One of my mentors, Harold Kristal, DDS, was one of the most incredible humans I’ve ever met. Harold was a passionate tennis player. One day while playing tennis he was hit on the anterior surface of his lower leg and developed a large hematoma. The hematoma went away and a few years later he developed osteosarcoma at the original site of injury and died. I always wondered about the connection between previous trauma and subsequent vulnerability to health complications. Having read Ingber’s article I now understand the why: the shape of the cell determines its behavior. And, why, we as clinicians, must do everything possible to unwind our patients bodies to remove as much cell distortion as possible.
It’s important, as mentioned in other parts of my blog, that distortions have numerous origins and can reside, often silently, as locations distant from symptomatic complaints.
3. “When the shape of the a molecule is altered, it’s biophysical properties change, and hence biochemistry (eg chemical reaction rates) will be altered.”
This statement appears to say that biochemistry is subservient to tissue structure. If that’s true it further reinforces the important role that body posture and movement symmetry play in how well a person performs in daily life, how fast they age, and the quality of life they will have.
It’s obvious from this statement by Ingber that a patients willingness to do the correct restorative and wellness exercise is paramount in creating a vital and productive life. And, if purposeful movement isn’t done in sufficient quantity and quality a certain percentage of life quality will be compromised.
4. “Understanding of the relation between structure and function in living tissues and of fundamental mechanisms of cellular mechotransduction may therefore lead to entirely new modes of therapeutic intervention.”
This is music to my ears as it validates everything we do as practitioners dedicated to restoring and maintain the physical body’s form and, therefore, function. Just think about that. This means that every time we help restore form back to the body its function improves and life becomes just a little bit better. Now, this is a concept we can hang our professional hat on with confidence. And, we should feel a true sense of empowerment from this as puts our practice purpose at a much higher level than just chasing symptoms and hoping something positive with happen with the patients health. In essence, it’s helping give them there life back.
5. “Because our bodies are hierarchical structures, mechanical deformation of any tissues results in structural rearrangements in many tissues.”
There it is folks; just as we’ve discussed. When anything is changed in the body the whole body is affected. That’s why when you address a patient’s symptomatic complaint condition the body must be evaluated as a holistic single entity, not just a collection of random cells floating around in salt water (which happens not to be the case which we’ll discuss at another time).
This all’s begs the question of treating a diagnosis. If all we do is address our treatment towards the diagnostic complaint we most often miss critical “causes” of why the complaint is there because the important key factors are most often elsewhere in the body a locations that may no rational reason for being there other than they’re part of the single system body. And, if these key factors in complaint generation aren’t addressed and their interference removed then it makes complete resolution of a patients condition less likely, and in my experience impossible.
Summary
To me Ingber’s paper gives me incredible optimism because it creates a level of cause and effect that allows us to create a clinical model that addresses a known cause and major contributing factor to increased morbidity, disease, and life compromise.
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