● Heath Hack - The microbiome in the oral cavity (mouth) contains nitrate reducing bacteria that takes nitrates from the foods we eat and converts them into nitric oxide, a potent vasodilator in our bodies. This means how you take care of your oral health will impact the health of your entire body. Studies show that using bacteria killing mouthwashes and fluoride containing toothpaste can kill the good bacteria in our mouth, leading to symptoms of hypertension. Zack uses Ayurvedic medicine approaches to his oral health including tongue scraping, oil pulling and brushing with fluoride free toothpaste (1,2).
● Fun Fact - Movement is absolutely necessary in all parts of the body, even the eye. The beating of the heart creates movement of the optic nerve and sclera (white of eye) of the eye. This creates a gliding effect with each beat between the two tissues creating stimulating cascades like nitric oxide synthase, endothelin 1, and others, to allow for more drainage and nutrition of those tissues (3).

Language of Human Body Understanding
● Language has evolved over centuries, and even just in the last 10 years, on how to describe human movement.● The complexities of tissue movement and glide, the structural and physiological mechanisms behind it and the integration of these movements make it difficult to conceptualize in language.● Are muscles long and short? Are there truly eccentric and concentric contractions? Do muscles expand and compress? Are all questions that are difficult to conceptualize but may be important in clinical understanding.
Conceptualizing Tissue Movement
● Tissue architecture is dictated by its neurovascular supply, but what are the intricacies of this movement?● The documentary, strolling under the skin, shows how tissues almost telescope or fold within themselves to change in orientation as well as allow for efficient vascular fluid movement within each layer of tissue.● John Cleland's work showed that Biarticular muscles do not change in length when they are contracted or used to create vectors of force.● Even looking at monoarticular muscles (crossing one joint), which attach to all the surrounding structures, including the bones at which they are approximating, structures that are not changing in length, do they truly change length?
The History of Understanding
● Looking at old literature in any field is always surprising to see how much they understood based on their ability to observe phenomenon● Today, we hold our scientific research methods as the highest standard of accumulating evidence and discredit the standards of before. The issue with this is that our modes of research today are very reductionist and specific; it can be difficult to extrapolate clinical use. In the past, observational and case study based research allowed practitioners to see how methodologies would fare in real world application. There are so many variables to try and isolate when looking to find cause and effect, in nature these variables are inherently accounted for because these are the conditions in which the understanding of cause and effect will be applied.
How Models can be helpful and their limitations
● Conceptual postural models can be helpful for building a framework that you can then apply to more complex concepts.● Especially for the student who is still building their understanding of anatomy and physiology, models can allow them to apply concepts quicker.● It is important to understand that no model is complete except for the human body in front of you. Models simplify or isolate parts from the whole. It is important to understand this limitation as there will be situations where the model does not work and the less complete the model, the more times these situations will arise. ● What is a fascial model without an understanding of neuromuscular control? What is a biomechanical model with understanding nerve, artery, vein and lymphatic? What is an understanding of the foot without an understanding of its relation to the rest of the body?● The body, its systems, its tissues and its intricacies can not be separated unless it is to build conceptual understanding. It is important to always look at the parts in relation to the whole. The whole being the anatomy and physiology of the person in front of you.
Resources
Strolling Under the Skin
John Clelland MD (Biarticular muscles do not change length)
Gilbert Ling
Dr. AT Still
Bill Hartman
Zac Cupples
Connor Harris
Postural Restoration Institute



References:
1. Kaumudi Joshipura, Francisco Muñoz-Torres, Jeanpaul Fernández-Santiago, Rakesh P. Patel & Angel Lopez-Candales (2020) Over-the-counter mouthwash use, nitric oxide and hypertension risk, Blood Pressure, 29:2, 103-112, DOI: 10.1080/08037051.2019.1680270
2. Joshipura, K., Muñoz-Torres, F., Fernández-Santiago, J., Patel, R. P., & Lopez-Candales, A. (2020). Over-the-counter mouthwash use, nitric oxide and hypertension risk. Blood pressure, 29(2), 103–112. https://doi.org/10.1080/08037051.2019.1680270
3. An L, Chao J, Johnstone M, Wang RK. Noninvasive imaging of pulsatile movements of the optic nerve head in normal human subjects using phase-sensitive spectral domain optical coherence tomography. Opt Lett. 2013 May 1;38(9):1512-4. doi: 10.1364/OL.38.001512. PMID: 23632535.