Dmitro Jovynruk’s Background
● Dmitro grew up with a great interest in learning how things worked from cars, machinery, all the way to the human body. He found himself regularly going down rabbit holes of anatomy and physiology as it pertained to human health. He followed that passion to the University of Wilfrid Laurier where he completed a bachelor in Biophyschology. He then found his way into Osteopathic Manual Sciences as the philosophy resonated with him and graduated from the Canadian Academy of Osteopathy and is currently working as an Osteopathic manual therapist.
Digestion is Regulated by the Autonomic Nervous System ● The autonomic nervous system (ANS) has 3 sides, the sympathetic (Fight or flight), parasympathetic (rest and digest) and enteric nervous systems. Each of these play an important role in modulating digestive activities.● The parasympathetic nervous system works to enhance digestibility through peristalsis, segmentation, secretion, absorption and helps to move blood to the gastrointestinal tract so that it may complete its activities.The sympathetic nervous system slows down digestion and priorities blood flow to the skeletal muscles (muscles of locomotion) and can impair digestibility.● The enteric nervous system is responsible for short reflexes within the gastrointestinal tract (5).Due to the fact that stress can influence the ANS, stress can also influence our digestion. If we eat before, during or right after stressful states or tasks like driving, watching TV or working out, our body will prioritize the sympathetic nervous system and our digestion will be impaired.● Also poor digestion is a stress on the body. Just like when you exercise without warming up, trying to digest food without having a good blood supply can be damaging to the gastrointestinal tract. This creates a perpetual loop of stress causing poor digestion and poor digestion causing more stress.
Mechanical Influences on Neurovascular Structures
● When we have immobilized areas within our bodies and compensation patterns, it changes how forces are applied to tissues.Having compression and tension forces applied to nerves and arteries (along with other fluid vessels) effects their ability to function and innervate/supply tissues which then affects the tissues function (1,2,3,4). ● An example of this is the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve is a parasympathetic nerve that travels a long distance from the brainstem, through the neck in the carotid sheath, the thoracic cavity and into the abdomen to innervate the digestive organs so that they may do their job. If your neck is stuck side bent, or your thorax is rotated, or any other change in force distribution that is changing forces on the vagus nerve, will influence its function negatively. This means that movement dysfunction in the body can influence your digestion (1). ● Another example of this is the diaphragm. The inferior vena cava, aorta and thoracic duct are blood and lymph vessels that drain and supply the abdomen and lower limbs (literally everything below the diaphragm). These structures have to travel directly through holes (hiatuses) in the diaphragm. Therefore, if the diaphragm is not functioning properly due to poor thoracolumbar mobility, rib movement dysfunction, contracture, changes in force distribution, etc, it will influence the fluid drainage and supply to the digestive system along with everything below the thoracic cage (5,6).● There are many examples of how mechanical change can influence neurovascular supply and innervation on digestion. 
Mechanical Influences Directly to Organs
● Portions of the digestive tract, due to muscular tissue and nerve innervation, have the ability to create motion to move food through the tube. These motions are called peristalsis and segmentation. These are very important for digestion but they are not the only forces being applied to the abdominal organs (5).● When we think of connective tissues like ligaments and fascia, we tend to think about the musculoskeletal system but these exist in our organ systems as well. There are connective tissues like the peritoneum and associated mesenteries that connect our organs together for stability as well as to that musculoskeletal system. These direct connections mean that motion and motion capabilities of our somatic or musculoskeletal systems will directly influence our digestive systems.● An example of this is that the right Psoas muscle (hip flexor) directly attaches to the root of the mesentery. This means this muscle has a direct pull into our digestive organs through the connective tissue. This is not a bad thing, as we walk the pull from these muscles like our hip flexors, help to pump fluid in and around the digestive organs. But if this muscle is dysfunctional in its motion capabilities, is contractured, it could negatively influence the mobility, motility, drainage and supply of the digestive tract organs (2,3,4).● This truly shows the complexity and intelligence of how our body's architecture is designed. Every movement and force that is applied to the structure is utilized in the most efficient way to allow function. At the same time, it shows how perversion of structures can negatively influence function.
Visceral-Somatic (Organ to Muscle) and Somato-Visceral (Muscle to Organ) Reflexes
● We also find mechanical relationships of organs and muscles through neurology.● Peripheral nerves have motor fibers that have to travel from the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) to the peripheral muscles and organs as well as sensory fibers traveling back from the structures to the CNS. Some of these nerves start at the same spinal levels. This means you have nerves from muscles and organs coming back to the spinal cord through the same spinal roots.● This is significant because firing of one nerve will influence the firing of another that is closely associated with it. This is called facilitation. Nerve impulses coming back from one sensory nerve can decrease the threshold for an action potential to fire in another nerve within the region (make it easier to fire). This opens up reflexive communications between organs and muscles and vice versa. If an organ is in distress, then having increased impulses coming back to the spinal cord, this can make it easier for a muscle to fire and contract that shares its spinal nerve root. The same can happen if a muscle is in distress, impacting an organs innervation (7).● An example of this can be shown at the sacrum. The pelvic splanchnic nerves which come from S2-S4 nerve segments innervate the last third of the digestive organs. We also have our big sciatic nerve which comes from L4-S3. This nerve root connection means that issues with the hamstring muscles or muscles of the lower limb can influence our pelvic splanchnic nerves and therefore our digestion. This also means that things like gastrointestinal distress or constipation in this area of our GI can influence the muscles of our legs.
Compensations are a stress on the body and can influence Digestion
● Compensations not only can negatively affect our digestion but they also take up resources to hold us together.● Our bodies constantly want to keep our eyes level. When we have a movement dysfunction that throws off our alignment, the body will compensate in other areas to keep the eyes level with the horizon● If we now have a compensation that negatively influences our digestion like the ones described above, not only does it reduce the amount of nutrients we can absorb, it also costs more energy● For the individuals and athletes trying to optimize, this is a crucial piece. If the absorbability of our digestion system is down even 1-2%, this will accumulate over time to noticeable decreases in health. We must start at the most fundamental level of health, which is the structure's ability to complete its duties before we start dumping in supplements and “bio hacks”.
Dmitro’s Philosophy
● The number 1 question he asks himself when assessing/treating a patient is “what is preventing them from properly healing on their own, what is the thing their bodies cannot overcome?”● He takes a holistic look at that potential area from the anatomy and structure, what's its blood supply/drainage, what's its nerve supply, what are its associated structures?● Before we start to add in external factors, are the fundamental structural components in front of us capable of doing the tasks they are designed to do. ● The individual is only as healthy as the structural machinery it has to do work.● You can't just focus on one structure or segment. The complexity of the connections described above display that any problem can be coming from anywhere due to the compensations the body does to survive. You need to have the ability to take a step back and look at the global picture so that you may understand how the local and focal dysfunctions connect.● Your bodies on your side, it wants you to function. Take stress off of it structurally and you will influence it positively.

Resources
Instagram: @DmitroOsteopathyWebsite: Dmitro Jovynruk

References
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2. Young SH, Ennes HS, Mayer EA. Mechanotransduction in colonic smooth muscle cells. J Membr Biol. 1997 Nov 15;160(2):141-50. doi: 10.1007/s002329900303. PMID: 9354706.

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4. Phillips RJ, Powley TL. Tension and stretch receptors in gastrointestinal smooth muscle: re-evaluating vagal mechanoreceptor electrophysiology. Brain Res Brain Res Rev. 2000 Nov;34(1-2):1-26. doi: 10.1016/s0165-0173(00)00036-9. PMID: 11086184.
5. Marieb, E. and Hoehn, K., 2016. Human Anatomy & Physiology. 10th ed. Pearson Education Limited, pp.425.

6. Bordoni B, Morabito B. Symptomatology Correlations Between the Diaphragm and Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Cureus. 2018 Jul 23;10(7):e3036. doi: 10.7759/cureus.3036. PMID: 30258735; PMCID: PMC6153095.
 7. http://www.asthme-osteopathie.com/en/irvin-korr-explanation/