 Aloha, Hawaii. I'm your host Eileen Paolo-Crisco as we explore taking your health back. We're coming to you live from the studios of Think Tech, Hawaii at Pioneer Plaza in downtown Honolulu. Today our topic of discussion will be fascia, the missing link to optimal health. Join me today. Joining me today is Anthony Crisco, CEO of Your Body is Waiting, a founding member of the FASHA Research Society and inventor of the FASHA Nation Method of Self-Myofascial Release. Anthony has been a movement educator and post-rehabilitation specialist for 25 years. He'll talk about the importance of fascia in movement and health and why fascia can be your best friend or your biggest nightmare. Anthony, it's great to have you on the show. Thank you very much for having me. So your biggest nightmare or your best friend, that's a huge polarity right there. It is, it is. And what we mean by that is, you know, fascia is this amazing organ that has so many benefits if you take care of it. At the same time, if you don't take care of it, it can be the root cause of many, many, many musculoskeletal ailments and other disease processes. Right. So fascia is, it seems like it's a very important thing. And we really, I would really love to know and love our viewers to know, what does fascia look like? Well, what is fascia is the question. We get that question a lot. And we have some information for you to look at here. Number one, I want you to think about an orange, okay? An orange, it has the peel and it has the pulp and the white stuff. And then it has these other pieces of that skin that hold the orange together. Well, what is holding that orange together in those wedge shapes? And when you think about it like a fruit that's growing, the juicy stuff is what's growing. But what's nourishing that orange to have that juicy stuff? It is the pulp or in a body or in a state, I peel the stake apart, you have different layers of this clear, slippery stuff. And then you have deeper layers, it wrap the nerves and ligaments and the tendons. Fascia is basically the largest organ of the body. It wraps all your nerves, 45 miles of nerves, 640 muscles, 206 bones, 360 joints, 900 ligaments. It wraps everything, everywhere. And it's, what's the word? The question isn't, where is the fascia? It should be more is, where isn't the fascia? Because it's everywhere. Wow. And because it's everywhere, it's just goes layers deep, kind of like an onion, right? Right. You want to think about your body has all these muscles, right? Well, imagine each muscle is in a saran wrap bag. And if I look into the different individual muscle fibers of those muscles, each of those muscle fibers are in another individually wrapped bag. Kind of like those Russian dolls where you open one, there's another one, open that, there's another one. There's multiple layers within our body. And they have multiple functions. Namely, well, we'll get into that in a minute. Yeah. So you mentioned functions. Let's talk about some of the functions of fascia. All right. Well, first thing you want to understand is fascia behaves like a sponge. And I brought a little model for us to look at here. And first, if you see the slide, the bottom sponge is dry and stiff and hard. And I bet it doesn't smell too good either. But if you look at that top sponge, it's fresh. It's healthy. It maintains its original shape. So nothing is being bent out of shape. There's no undue tensions being applied to the other parts of the body. All right. So I have a little model here that represents what fascia is like and how it behaves. This luffa sponge is a great representation to give us an example of how fascia is. It does behave like a sponge. So when it's dry, it can squeeze your arteries, your veins, your nerves, and your lymphatic vessels. And when I use various types of movement therapies, I can cause a higher percentage of water to flood into the tissue, thus taking the pressure off the nerves, the arteries, the veins, and the lymphatic vessels. Yeah. So it really does make sense why you want to take care of your fascia. Because if it's surrounding all those conduits, then you're not going to have good nutrient flow. You can probably have problems with nerve conduction and drainage of all the junk, all the toxins and waste products that are in our body. That's right. I mean, we have 80 trillion cells in our body. And I want you to imagine every single one of those cells takes in nutrients, but it also has to produce waste to start to keep the living process happening. Well, what is helping these cells remove the waste from the rest of the body? If some of that liquid, that fluid, that stagnant fluid doesn't move, it can cause inflammation, it can cause tendonitis, bursitis. I mean, a whole host of things. So you mentioned inflammation, bursitis. All those things sound very painful. All the itises, right? Inflammation. What other symptoms are there as a result of stiff, dry or fascia? Well, in the years that I've been working with people and their fascia, these are some of the things that we go down. I'll just name them off. It's a long list. We've actually documented about 75 different things that we've been able to either help with, manage or completely eliminate. Starting from the foot, plantar fasciitis. Okay. We have increased range of motion, stiffness. We have those knots, the adhesions in your body. We can have sharp pain, dull pain, chronic pain. We can have poor posture and structural imbalances. We can develop what's called a fibrotic adhesion or also known as scar tissue. It can also lead to a lack of proprioception where we think we're stepping, but our foot isn't going as high as we wanted to. So I end up hitting the sidewalk and falling down and breaking my pelvis or whatever else can happen. Like I don't know what happened. I just fell. So those are some of the symptoms of when a fascial structure isn't taken care of. We have other things too. Let's talk about that next. Okay, yes. That's a lot of symptoms that I know every, you know, everybody I know suffers from one or at least many of those. And, you know, all of a sudden you have someone coming into the office, there's complaining about stiffness here and pain there. And next to you know, I hear them talking about some kind of autoimmune discussion or disease. Things can progress very fast, right? Right. So if you think about autoimmune disease and these other types of systemic issues, these are some of the things that have been linked to a dry fascia or dysfunctional fascia. Number one, cancer. Okay, how does that work? Well, I was at Harvard in 2015 for the first joint conference on fascia, lymphatics and cancer. And the number one takeaway there was that cancer cells embed themselves in the stiff parts of your fascia. So if I have tight tissues here, or down where the prostate is, or down around my abdominal area, what's happening is you're not letting that cellular waste leave the body. And in doing so, that cellular waste creates a stagnation, fermentation, inflammation. And it's that inflammation that can turn on cancer genes. They're known as oncogenes. And yes, everyone has a gene for cancer, we get cancer every day, but your immune system fights it. And most of the time it wins. However, if the environment is such that it's loaded with stagnant fluid, then the cell, that opportunity for that one cell to mutate and take advantage of its genetic predisposition, then it becomes manifest. So if I neutralize this environment, I can help prevent cancer. As a matter of fact, we have several students in our classes here on Hawaii. One of them, she had positive mammograms for 10 years in a row. So for 10 years in a row, she had to get a biopsy. And she was wondering, is this the year that I get breast cancer? Well, I'm pleased to share with you. This year she had her her mammogram, the 11th year. Of course, she's thinking, Oh, I hope I don't have cancer this time. Well, guess what? It was the first year she had a negative mammogram in a decade. Wow. So she really took advantage of taking care of her fascia and neutralize some of these imbalances that you're talking about. And that can be obstruction of flow. And also just reducing inflammation. Right? It's very powerful, very powerful. Yeah, what else is on that list of ailments we saw there with the inflammation? I got neuropathy. So neuropathy, allow me to go down this list here and just define what these are. Okay. We're talking about cancer. So autoimmune diseases like lupus and chogren's disease, rheumatoid arthritis. So we were lucky enough to partner up with these chogrens and lupus foundation of Hawaii last year. And we presented at their patient conference. We're actually beginning to go into Kauai this Saturday to Wilcox Memorial Hospital to roll out another bunch of lupus sufferers or lupus warriors as we call them. And the reason they've invited us to come and do this on all the islands is because what we're talking about as a direct correlation with the level of inflammatory waste products that are being trapped in this body, thus causing the autoimmune disease response. Okay, the other thing we had on there was neuropathy and fibromyalgia. So fibromyalgia, it's actually defined as this, a non specific musculoskeletal pain disorder with no known etiology. Okay, so all the tests will come back negative. And they'll say we don't know what's wrong, we're just going to give you a sleeping pill, a muscle relaxer and anti depressant, because they can't really understand they can't really tell them what's going on. Okay, well, yes, with fibromyalgia, patience, there is a higher level of sensitivity. But if you manage the fascia regularly at a level that you can handle, you will see changes in how you feel every day. Back to the other side, it says tendonitis, neuropathy. So neuropathy means numbness and tingling of an unknown nature. If it's numb, and they don't know why, what's the solution? What are they going to do for you? They give you nerve pills, they're going to cut your tissues, they're going to tell you no, there's nothing wrong. Or they just say, Well, we don't know that's what happens with aging. Well, sure it does happen with aging, but you can manage this body and you can take ownership of your health. And you can keep those age related processes from taking over your life. Great. So it sounds like a lot of research has gone into developing this self care method that you've developed a self myofascial release. And you mentioned going to Harvard, where you met a lot of researchers and scientists that are also part of this big fascial movement, or taking back your health. Absolutely, I sure did. Yeah, I'd love to talk about that. Yeah, a little slide there. It's basically my field trip pictures. So when I went to Harvard, but I was so fortunate enough to meet some of the most influential pioneers in fascia research. The first guy there, Tom Myers, he is one of the he's the one who founded the anatomy trains idea where he didn't cut all the muscles off the body, he kept the muscles intact with the fascial structures attached. And it helps us understand how a body moves in the real world. James Ostman wrote the book energy medicine, he's a biologist, but he also has the one who talked about how the fascia is where the meridians live is where the Qi Gong in our body lives in Eastern medicine and your Qi is actually defined as para crime signaling molecules, hormonal transmission, water transmission and electrical currents. The woman on the bottom Helen Longvin, she's at the Osher Center for medicine for women and children in Boston. And she was doing experiments where they were able to shrink cancer tumors by 52% just by stretching. And then the gentlemen on the bottom. It's those guys that are responsible for this whole modern movement. We got Thomas Finley and Robert Schleip. And as a matter of fact, I was just with Robert Schleip again this last summer in June. And I have a movie on YouTube. It says the fashionator goes to Goobin. And I was part of the first ever fascial plastination project in history. What is that? Well, if you remember when the bodies exhibit came to Hawaii, all those plastinated bodies. Well, it was the first time that anyone ever dissected the fascial structures out of a body and actually preserve them so we can see what is this body held together with not just looking at the bones and muscles and skin. So it's the first time and I was so fortunate to be on that team. Wow, that's great, Anthony. Thank you so much for enlightening us on fascia and how we can learn about it to take our health back. We are going to take a 60 second break. And we're going to hear some words from our wonderful sponsors here at Think Tech Hawaii. Aloha, I'm Yukari Kunisue, the host of Konnichiwa Hawaii, Japanese talk show on Think Tech Hawaii. Konnichiwa Hawaii is all Japanese broadcast show and it's streamed live on Think Tech at 2pm every other Monday. Thank you so much for watching our show. We look forward to seeing you then. I'm Yukari Kunisue. Mahalo. Aloha and Mabuhay. My name is Amy Ortega Anderson, inviting you to join us every Tuesday here on Pinoy Power Hawaii. With Think Tech Hawaii, we come to your home at 12 noon every Tuesday. We invite you to listen, watch for our mission of empowerment. We aim to enrich, enlighten, educate, entertain and we hope to empower. Again, Maraming, Salamat po, Mabuhay and Aloha. Aloha, Hawaii. I'm Eileen Crisco, host of Taking Healthy Back here at Think Tech Hawaii and I'm here with Anthony Crisco and he's talking about the importance of fascia, which is the largest organ system of the body and very, very important to understand in order to empower yourself to be healthier and live your life with more joy. Anthony, so we are talking about the research in fascia and you've developed a method based upon this research and based upon working with clients that have a lot of musculoskeletal ailments and also things that lead to dysfunction, even autoimmune disease. Right. And your method is called the fascination method. Yes, the fascination method. Yep. And it addresses a fascia, yes. That's right. Okay, do you want to tell us about that? Sure. Well, what the fascination method is, it's a total body rolling program. You want to think self-massage and what it does, it incorporates the fascinator roller that I invented back in 2012. It's designed from new science of fascia and as well as my quarter century of experience working with people with injuries and all kinds of other issues. What our trademark is or our secret sauce, if you will, is we focus on those neurovascular bundles that I talked about earlier with the sponge. What this does, this improves the circulation of the blood and the lymphatic fluids throughout the body. So think about it like this. If I have oxygenated blood flow to my structures and I have lymphatic drainage of cellular waste away from my structures where it can get filtered by my lymph nodes, then is my body going to be overtaxed fighting inflammation all the time? Or is my body going to say, hey, I don't have much to do here. I guess I'll repair this, this skin and this bone and this nerve. I'll just start helping and maintaining this house. Think about it. Do you want to be fighting fires all day? Or do you want to start building that new house? Right. Like the keyword, one of the keywords that I think you said was maintenance. Yeah. So it seems to me that this process that you've developed is kind of like daily housekeeping. Absolutely. It's actually more akin to brushing your teeth. So if I do this every day, but I'd never take care of all these 640 muscles, what good is to have all these beautiful teeth if you can't even put your socks on because you can't bend down that low? And this is what we deal with. People wonder, why is my body falling apart? Well, it didn't really start falling apart all of a sudden. It happened over years and years and years of not moving on a regular basis, not expanding your horizons in terms of new movement abilities. And it could be maybe you're stuck at a desk. Maybe you're stuck in traffic. Maybe you have you're raising a family and you don't have time for you. Well, what we try to develop is a class where you learn from us, but you take your fascinator home and you keep rolling every day. And that is one of the big things people ask us. So how often should I roll? How often do you brush your teeth? And there's always one smart guy. Oh, what's the week? Well, of course not. It's every day, multiple times a day if you want. And our methodology is proven. We got seven years of experience nowadays because we have so many people have been rolling so long. We have these clients who have rheumatism rheumatoidologists and their doctors tell them, hey, you know what? All your blood works kind of normal right now. I don't need to see you for another year. Whatever it is you're doing, keep doing it. We have other clients who had cancer. Well, they've been rolling since their cancer was done. They get their yearly checkup one year, two year, three year, four year. And they said, Anthony, the doctor said my blood is unremarkable. And we celebrate because that is what it's all about. You know, I lost my mother at the age of 52 to ovarian cancer. And unfortunately, she didn't make it. They told her she had gas, even though her stomach was sticking out like she was six months pregnant. They gave her Zantac. And, you know, nowadays I feel good because I know we're impacting lives and allowing them to live better, live longer, enjoy this beautiful place we call Hawaii. Yes, that is, it's wonderful that people can take classes to address this whole large organ system in our body. And you keep talking about rolling. So what exactly are we rolling? All right, that's a great question. Well, think about it like this, we would start with your foot, go up the back of your leg to your calves, and then on the side of the lower leg and the front of the lower leg, through your hamstring, your thigh, your inner thighs, your tummy, your chest, your back, your underarm, your shoulder. We roll the whole body. So think about it like this. Some people say, well, Anthony, it's just my knee that hurts. Where should I roll for my knee? And I say the whole body. But no, but it's just my, my elbow. What about my elbow, the whole body? But no, no, it's just my wrist. And I go, pardon me. Which tooth did you brush this morning? Well, I brush all of them silly. Well, you roll your whole body silly. Easy answer. Now I want to talk about this toy here. I'm staring at this. Tell me more about what this is. This is a tensegrity model. And if you look closely, none of the wooden sticks or dowels are touching each other. What's holding this collection of sticks in this semi solid form are these bands that we that simulate your muscles. Now, watch this, if this is the front of my leg and this is the back, okay, if the muscles in front of my leg are tight, it's going to pull my spine and my pelvis in a forward position. And that's going to change how your bones and your joints articulate with one another. If I can neutralize all of your imbalances, right, head to toe, left to right, back to front, am I going to be this person who has migraines and plantar fasciitis? Or am I going to be this person with this neutral body with full range of motion who can look over his shoulder when he's backing up his car? If you take care of your body, head to toe, your body will take care of you. And yes, that is one of the things the top complaints people come for us. They are like, I have to see you because I can't look over my shoulder when I'm backing up my car. Well, as you know, that's dangerous for pedestrians, for other cars, for everybody. So not only are we helping people live better, we're keeping the roads safer. Right. Yes, posture, posture, posture. I did hear that, you know, I had a computer a lot. I can be there for 16 hours a day without even moving. I should drink more water so I can go to the bathroom to force myself to get up. Right. But I notice as I'm sitting there, my head just keeps coming forward an inch more every hour or so. And that worries me because that can really affect things like the blood flow to my brain. Right. Absolutely. And you know, cause other problems like maybe ringing in the ears. Years ago I had that and maybe it was, you know, from this poor posture. Well, it's funny you bring that up because one of the techniques in our class is we roll this muscle called your sternocleidomastoid. If I take that muscle off, you'll see that there's 12 different nerves that come down from the brain through the neck before they go back into your face and down to your organs. So people who get vertigo when they're really dizzy, that nerve in here is called your vestibulococcal nerve. Maybe it's getting compressed by this tight fascia due to that forward head. People with tinnitus are ringing in the ear. Right. It wakes people up sometimes. That's another nerve, the auditory nerve. Bell's palsy is another one. When the face falls asleep, that's the facial nerve. We have other students who complain that they had night vision blindness. Well, your optic nerve is in here too. And yes, we've rectified night vision blindness with a retired surgeon for all, for what all that matters, right? Someone who's a doctor who was kind of skeptical. She kept trying. She kept trying. She wrote me a little testimonial. She goes, Anthony, after two months, my arthritis at 30 years completely disappeared. And after eight months, my night vision blindness gone. I see perfectly at night. What can I say? What you're doing is revolutionary. And I love it because yes, now we have the support of certain physicians in certain disciplines like rheumatism and other autoimmune diseases like lupus. And we even are working with an international fibromyalgia coaching group. Isn't that right? That's right. Who is that person that you're that we're working with? That person, her name is Tammy Stackelhaus and she suffered from fibromyalgia herself. She still suffers from it, but she's learning how to manage those symptoms by a lot of different mind body modalities. When she has to, she probably does take medicine, but there are a lot of things like myofascial release that you can do just to minimize the stress that can cause tension all throughout the body. No, that's perfect. I'm glad you brought up mind and body because in our experience of people who have been rolling with us for a long time, not only does their body feel great, but their minds are clear, their minds are sharp, they are planning, they're thinking, they're not foggy. I mean, I wish I could just share every single story in the world with you, but we don't have time for that. We have all those testimonials on our website though. Yes, we do. Yes, we do. So it's so great that you have classes all around the island and you also have classes on other islands and other states. Yes. And countries as well. That's right. But here in Hawaii, what community partnerships do you have? Oh, perfect timing. Well, we are working with the Shogrens and Lupus Foundation of Hawaii and Malaka Kanella is the president of that organization. She's also an RN Shogrens sufferer. Shogrens is dry eye in case you're wondering. We also have had a long standing partnership with Down to Earth stores here in Hawaii. As a matter of fact, Tuesday the fifth, I will be giving my fascia cancer and lymphatics lecture at their new Pearl Ridge store. It's four times bigger than the old store. We'll be at the upstairs mezzanine level on Tuesday at 6 p.m. Down to Earth Pearl Ridge. Yeah, that's that's one that I would hope to see much of the community go to because cancer, you know, it's like you said, we all are. We all have cancer cells inside of us, and it really depends on how we nurture our bodies, how we control those micro environments in our bodies on whether we'll actually have the battle, the big battle with cancer or not. That's right. And you guys out there in TV land, I'm not sure if you know, but Mrs. Crisco here worked with the 2009 Nobel Prize winner for medicine as a cellular biologist. So when we talk about your fascia, having implications down to the cellular molecular level, trust me, it does. I've seen it in with my own two eyes in a microscope many, many, many years ago. And all I can ask you guys is to open your minds, open your ears, put yourself first, take care of yourself so you can take care of your families for the duration. Yes, that is a wonderful message, Anthony. We have the opportunity to change our lives, bring more joy in our lives just by getting to know our body much better. And the fascinator is a great implement so that we can really learn where our aches and pains are and we can address inflammation right away. I would really like to thank you for being here today teaching us about fascia. I would also like to thank think tech Hawaii for the opportunity for us to talk about bringing healthy back. Please join us again on YouTube and also this show is on every other week and you'll have Wendy Lowe as the guest. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me.