Try answering this question: What helps keep the human body upright?
If you're like most people—about 95 percent—you probably thought of things like "bones," "the skeleton," or "muscles."
All of these elements—bones, muscles, and the skeleton—are interconnected by a flexible, supportive tissue known as fascia. This remarkable structure weaves throughout the body, creating connection and continuity.
Now you may be wondering this structure we call fascia?
A quick but important note about the word "fascia"—because it tends to confuse people.
We’re not talking about the glossy dashboard of a freshly waxed red sports car, and it has absolutely nothing to do with any dark chapters of history. The word fascia comes from Latin, meaning "bands" or "to bind together"—which is exactly what it does. It binds tissues throughout the body into a unified, connected whole.
To help visualize it, think of vacuum-packed vegetables, appliances, or even cuts of meat. Vacuum packing keeps everything tightly sealed, preserving what’s inside. In the body, fascia does something very similar. Every organ, every muscle, every structure is wrapped and held in place by fascia—not plastic—but a living, responsive tissue that supports and connects everything.
STEAK!
Have you ever noticed those thin white lines running through a piece of steak? That’s fascia—a connective tissue that runs throughout your entire body.
Fascia being peeled off the steak
Fascia is more than just a structural layer. It plays a vital role in stabilizing the body, shaping our form, and supporting fluid and nutrient exchange. It wraps around your muscles, bones, and organs, helping to facilitate neurological communication and keeping everything in place.
Describing fascia precisely is tricky—it’s incredibly complex. Think of it like the thin membrane that separates sections of an orange. It acts as a protective and organizing layer, surrounding and connecting all the structures in your body.
Superficial Fascia of human body
Deep Fascia of human body
What makes fascia truly remarkable is its continuity. It forms a single, uninterrupted web that stretches from head to toe. Because of this deep interconnection, pain or tightness in one part of the body can actually be caused by tension or restriction in the fascia somewhere else. Everything is connected.
The Four Main Functions of Fascia
1. Shapes the Body
Fascia provides the body with its structure and form. Acting like a protective barrier, it surrounds, cushions, and shields muscles, bones, and organs—helping to guard against external threats and maintain internal stability.
Superficial Fascia portrait: ~ "Venus-Mary" ~ The entire superficial fascia (subcutaneous adipose layer) of a female form dissected as an autonomous organ and demonstrated alongside the form from which it came. I share this to transform our vision of the fatty fleece beneath our skin so we might consider it with greater appreciation, curiosity and respect.
2. Facilitates Movement
Fascia plays a vital role in movement and mobility. It helps regulate the tension levels in muscles, ensuring the right balance of flexibility and support needed for efficient, pain-free motion.
3. Nourishes the Body
Fascia is essential for the exchange of nutrients and waste within the body. It supports the delivery of vital nutrients to tissues and also aids in the removal of toxins through the lymphatic system, contributing to overall cellular health.
4. Supports Neurologic Communication
Surprisingly, over 80% of all nerve endings are located in the fascia. Between its superficial and deeper layers are sensory and mechanical receptors that allow the body to detect pain, control muscle contractions, and maintain proprioception—our sense of body awareness. This intricate web of communication makes fascia a critical player in how we experience and respond to the world around us.
Fascia is incredibly strong. In fact, during the era of tennis legends like Björn Borg and John McEnroe, professional tennis rackets were strung with fascia derived from cow gut—that’s how durable it is! Even today, surgeons use fascia sourced from sheep intestines—known (somewhat confusingly) as catgut—to tie surgical knots because of its unmatched resilience and compatibility with the human body.
Catgut Sutures
What makes fascia truly remarkable is its impenetrability. It resists almost all biological substances—water, air, blood, pus, and even electrical current tend to slide across it rather than pass through. This property allows fascia to create compartments within the body, forming distinct spaces that serve specialized purposes and allow different systems to function efficiently side by side.
But that’s not all—fascia is also electrically active. It doesn’t just conduct and resist electrical impulses; it actually generates electricity through a property called piezoelectricity. When fascia is compressed or stretched, it produces small electrical charges, which may play a role in cell communication and healing.
Scientific Perspectives on Fascia and Chi
Modern research into fascia has uncovered its vital role in transmitting electrical signals and facilitating communication between cells and tissues throughout the body. These discoveries offer a compelling parallel to traditional concepts of chi (or qi)—the life energy said to flow through meridians in many Eastern healing systems.
The transmission of electrical impulses through fascia-rich networks may provide a biological framework for understanding how energy is perceived to move through the body. Additionally, fascia’s unique ability to contract and relax in response to mechanical tension and movement mirrors the dynamic, flowing nature of chi along the meridians. This growing intersection between ancient wisdom and contemporary science suggests that fascia may be a key anatomical and physiological basis for interpreting the concept of energetic flow in the body.Fascia is made up of 70–80% water and is incredibly flexible and resilient. In fact, it can withstand significant force while remaining adaptable. When we're young, our fascia is typically more fluid and elastic, allowing for better movement and quicker recovery.
However, when fascia becomes unhealthy or damaged, it changes. It becomes thicker, drier, and less responsive to the body's needs. In this state, the tissue transforms, developing more fibrous cells known as myofibroblasts. These cells are larger and stiffer, contributing to inflammation, reduced mobility, and chronic pain.
Because these myofibroblasts restrict the flow of water and nutrients, movement becomes limited and the fascia loses its ability to support the body effectively. Damaged fascia often becomes dehydrated, leading to adhesions, chronic tension, and even the development of scar-like tissue.
Importantly, this kind of tension doesn’t show up on standard X-rays or MRI scans, which is why fascia-related pain and dysfunction have often gone unrecognized. Yet growing research suggests that fascial tension may play a major role in many modern illnesses—including conditions that were previously misunderstood or lacked a clear medical explanation.
If this tension is ignored or merely masked with painkillers, it can worsen over time, potentially leading to joint degeneration, chronic inflammation, and even degenerative diseases like arthritis.
Issues such as pain, stiffness, instability, joint problems, headaches, and more are increasingly being linked to fascia health. Even how the body retains and distributes water is influenced by fascia. It’s not just about how much water you drink—it’s about how much actually reaches your cells. And that depends heavily on the state of your fascia.
In other words, if your fascia is compromised, your cells may dry out, even if you’re drinking plenty of water. Over time, this internal dehydration can accelerate aging and reduce your body’s ability to function at its best.
Examples of diseased fascia pathologies I routinely see in medical practice includes :
Plantar fasciitis is the inflammation of the plantar fascia, tissue in the foot used during walking and foot movement. Plantar fasciitis can be caused by a number of factors, including type of shoes, foot structure, overuse and types of walking surfaces.
Dupuytren's Contracture:Dupuytren contracture is an abnormal thickening of the skin in the palm of the hand. The skin may develop into a hard lump. Over time, it can cause one or more fingers to curl (contract) or pull in toward the palm. You may not be able to use your hand for certain things.
Peyronie's disease of the penis causing abnormal curvature
The Elusive Channels—Hidden in Plain Sight
Acupuncture meridians have long puzzled Western medicine. While they often trace the paths of muscles and tendons with surprising accuracy, they also seem to veer off unexpectedly, following their own internal logic. Some alignment exists with the body’s known fascial compartments, but that relationship becomes inconsistent once those compartments end.
Despite centuries of anatomical study—bodies dissected, stained, scanned, frozen, and irradiated—anatomists have yet to find any definitive physical structure labeled “meridians.” This absence of direct, observable evidence has been a key argument used to dismiss acupuncture’s validity in scientific circles.
And yet… the answer may have been in their hands all along.
Surgeons and anatomists rely on a tissue system that is omnipresent, almost invisible, yet absolutely essential: fascia. It lies beneath their scalpels, under their gloves, guiding their movements through the human body like a roadmap. Fascia is everywhere—wrapping, dividing, connecting. But because it’s so thin, so translucent, so often overlooked, its significance has gone largely unrecognized in this context.
In seeking proof of meridians, Western science may have missed the very thing under their fingertips—the fascial network. Ignoring fascia while searching for acupuncture channels is like a man looking for his glasses while they’re sitting on his face.
There is a straight connection between a body structure and its function. Think of a car. If it has a flat tire, say on the left side, the whole car will be tilted - i.e. be lower - on the left side. It follows that the function of the car is restricted. You may still be able to drive with it, but it is uneconomical as more fuel will be needed and in the long run, it will be completely wrecked.
As an example, we may look at a forward-head posture. This is a commonly seen structural feature. When your head is in front of your body, your neck muscles and especially the trapezius have to work in order to keep your head from falling off your shoulders. The fascia of these structures around this area will become hard and stiff over time and the normal function will be decreased. More often than not this also leads to neck pain and headaches.
If I was to work solely on the neck part I could possibly alleviate pain for a while. But after a few weeks (or sooner) it would return. Simply, because the structure has not been changed. The head belongs above the shoulders, not in front of it. So working solely on the neck does not solve the problem. We have to work on the body as a whole and e.g. open and straighten the front line and release the fascial adhesions, maybe work on the position of the pelvis and also work on the feet and legs. As soon as the head is above the shoulders again and the fascia is free gliding, pain will be gone for good and function returns. That's how important body structure and restoring healthy fascia is.
Fascia: A Modern Lens for Ancient Wisdom
Fascia provides a compelling scientific framework for understanding the channels described in acupuncture. Not only does it align with the major meridians, but it also helps explain the intricate network of smaller pathways known in traditional Chinese medicine as the Jing and Luo—the primary and secondary channels. Since fascia is present everywhere in the body, it naturally accommodates the idea of a nearly limitless number of acupuncture points. These points often align with fascial junctions, planes, and lines of tension, making the once-mystical map of meridians anatomically predictable.
Stored Emotions and Unresolved Emotional Trauma Can Affect Fascia Causing Illness
Fascia can harden and become dehydrated also as a result of emotional trauma and the body’s response to extreme stress. This dehydration, tightening, and hardening decreases the space between the fibers and increases friction and irritation inside the fascia. As a result, fibers shorten, thicken, and constrict, putting pressure on the adjoining areas.
This resulting pressure then compresses nerves and capillaries. Which in turn leads to discomfort, pain, and reduced blood flow in the area, affecting the immune system and reducing your resilience even further causing the onset of arthritis, impaired function and even the catalyst for frequent infections and malignancy (cancer) due to the faulty lymphatic drainage as a result of diseased fascia.
Acupuncture and fascia are interconnected through the concept of the myofascial system. Acupuncture, particularly when targeting trigger points, can influence the fascia, potentially releasing tension and improving musculoskeletal function. The fascia, a network of connective tissue, plays a vital role in overall health and well-being, and its interaction with acupuncture is becoming increasingly recognized.
How Acupuncture Affects Fascia:
Releasing Tension:
Acupuncture needles inserted into trigger points can cause tense muscle fibers, and the surrounding fascia, to relax.
Improved Circulation:
Acupuncture stimulates blood flow to the treated area, enhancing circulation within the fascial network and promoting healing.
Pain Reduction:
By addressing fascial restrictions, acupuncture can alleviate pain associated with myofascial pain syndrome and other musculoskeletal conditions.
Holistic Approach:
Acupuncture, along with other Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) techniques like cupping and Gua Sha, can work synergistically to release fascial tension and improve overall musculoskeletal health.
One of the most exciting developments in this area is the connection between fascia and morphogens—biochemical signals that direct how cells develop, migrate, and form tissues. These substances play a vital role in stem cell behavior, tissue regeneration, and even cancer development. In this light, Qi is no longer a metaphor, but a living, biochemical process shaped by fascia and its interactions with the body’s signaling systems that can be altered and treated with Medical Acupuncture.
Sincerely yours,
Dr Lee Seng Khoo
Director, Skin Check Malaysia
