Hypermobility and Fascia: Could Your Connective Tissue Be Why You’re Still Stuck? | E183

Well, what's happening is it's not that the hypermobility is healing and going away. That'd be great if it was. What happens in our bodies, and this is a really interesting phenomenon with your fascia, is from being stretchy over time, they will actually start to contract. So all of a sudden you'll see someone who's hypermobile in their 50s. Oh, my back is tight. I'm not flexible at all. I can't bend over and move. But their pinkies still goes back. Their elbows still go back. Their knees still go backwards. It's all connected. Everything in our body is connected. We're connected to the outside world. We're connected to the earth. It gets kind of a little weird and woo-woo, but these are actual things that we have data for and scientific information for. So why did I start with it's connected? We talk about why are you not getting better? Why are you still sick? One of the things I've discovered in my practice and my research and studies recently is the idea of your connective tissues, your fascia, the stuff between your organs, the stuff that holds your organs in place. The stuff that holds your cells in place. It's really interesting. There's not a, you know, in science, we have a cardiologist, we have a rheumatologist, we have an orthopedic surgeon, we have, you know, our cancer specialist. But who is the connective tissue fascia specialist? It's hard because the fascia are different. The fascia in your nervous system are different than the fascia holding your organs in place, or different than the fascia within each one of your organs. And this fascia itself, if you have hypermobility spectrum disorder, loose fascia, that by itself can set you up for chronic health issues. So there's this thing called the Pentad Super Syndrome. And what it is, it's 5 things that tend to live together. So if you see one, you look for the other ones: hypermobility, mast cell activation syndrome, autoimmune issues, gastrointestinal problems, and POTS or dysautonomia. So if you have any one of those, you always look for the others because they can come together. And there's a lot of these associations, you know, gut-immune-brain, you know, we talk about a lot, adrenal-thyroid-pancreas. There's system organizations we've seen in science and historically that actually are associated. And one One of the things that connects all of this are your fascia. So, if you're not getting better, you feel like you're stuck, why aren't you getting better? It could be because you're hypermobile. Now, what's the problem with this? Well, let me explain that a little bit. What is hypermobility? Hypermobility is not just being double-jointed, not just being able to do cool tricks when you're a kid. Like, I'm not double-jointed. I can't take my thumb and touch this. I can't push my pinky up past 90 degrees. My elbows are bent this way. They don't flop backwards. The thing about it, it's not just joints and not just being able to do cool tricks, it's actually everything holding everything in place. Another way to think about your fascia as well is it's like if you think of your body as a big computer, as a supercomputer, the semiconductor, the stuff that kind of sort of is an insulator but also can communicate signals is your fascia itself. The silica that goes into making chips for use for all kinds of stuff are your fascia. Yeah. Think about like that. The other thing about it is that with your nervous system, like, you know, you have like your vagus nerve, you have sensory nerves, you have your sympathetic, autonomic, you have all these kinds of things in your nervous system. But 80% of the innervation in your tissues is sensory back to your brain. So most of what your nervous system is doing is sensing your body. What's going on in my gut, liver? What's the kidney doing? What's the spleen doing? It's your skin with your outside environment. And if that tissues are, those tissues are loose, you'll get more activation of your nervous system, which can be interesting when you start getting into trauma and limbic kindling and vagal nerve dysfunction, all these things. If you're hypermobile, you have more activation of your nervous system from the get-go, which can be a superpower, but can also be a kryptonite. Every fall, the schedule tightens and most of our attention goes to getting the kids ready. Almost none of it goes to the person holding the whole thing together. So I put together these 3 things just for that. A daily multivitamin in the active forms your body can actually use, quercetin and nettles to support your immune and respiratory health without the drowsiness, and NAC, N-acetylcysteine, to help your body rebuild its own antioxidant reserve. This is what I take every fall. That's aaronhartmanmd.com/backtoschool. So, is hypermobility common? Is it uncommon? This is a conversation I have a lot. People have different opinions. Ehlers-Danlos, which is not what I'm talking about here, is an extreme version of hypermobility. It's you're so hypermobile, you actually just dislocate joints. Your shoulder might just pop out while you're sleeping, hip might pop out. You might— I remember I was riding bikes with my son one time and he was going around the turn and his shoulder kind of popped out. He's hypermobile, popped out, went back in place. But that happens pathologically, which means it happens with pain. That's in a severe version. 1 in 500 people have that. But what about hypermobility in general? This is where seeing people, being a clinician, talking with other experts, other pediatricians, other psychiatrists. It's really interesting. And when I go to conferences, I talk with pediatric neuropsychiatrists, pediatricians that work with autism, ADHD, PANDAS, OCD stuff. I say, hey, you know, there's an association with hypermobility. And all those issues, they're like, oh my gosh, you're right. Because they see how common these double-jointed kids are, but they didn't realize there's a connection between that and the neuropsychiatric symptoms that the patients are having. And based on the research articles and literature I've looked at, well, 20% of kids are hypermobile. Okay, so that's 1 in 5. That's pretty common. When you go to college, another research article I was looking at said 12.5% of college students were hypermobile. So that's a pretty big drop. Yeah. And then you get in adulthood, it kind of peters out and, you know, maybe it's, you know, 5%, 3%. It gets a lot smaller. Well, what's happening is it's not that the hypermobility is healing and going away. That'd be great if it was. What happens in our bodies, and this is a really interesting phenomenon with your fascia, is from being stretchy over time, they will actually start to contract. Your fascia actually have these fibrils that you can make microscarring tissue, right? So you get these tightening, you get these cords, these bands, this tightness in your fascia. So all of a sudden, You'll see someone who's hypermobile in their 50s. Oh, my back is tight. I'm not flexible at all. I can't bend over and move. But their pinkies still goes back. Their elbows still go back. Their knees still go backwards. But they lean over like, you know, they can't touch their knees hardly. You ask them, when you're a kid, oh, I could do— I can turn back and I could do the scorpion and stuff. And it's a phenomenon that happens particularly in people that are hypermobile that their fascia gets tighter as they age. And as that happens, All of a sudden, now you get more pain, more activation of a different part of your nervous system—the pain part of your nervous system. So hypermobility is a really interesting thing. I'm actually going to do a whole series on it, talking about it's all connected. I don't want to spend a lot of time on that here, but the point is hypermobility is super common and sets you up for certain things. People that are hypermobile tend to bruise easier; they tend to bleed easier. If you're an athlete, you might train, get strong, but you get injured. Why am I getting injured? I've had some. Patients actually injure themselves out of college sports because they're not eating appropriate and overtraining. You have a higher need for vitamin C if you're hypermobile because vitamin C is important for making collagen. You know, a severe example of that would be scurvy, right? Vitamin C deficiency, bleeding gums. You know, we think about that, you know, low vitamin C, but we don't realize you bruise easy, you bleed easy, you get these little skin tears. Measure vitamin C level. It might be undetectable. It's amazing how many undetectable vitamin C levels you'll see on patients. The other thing that's needed is more protein because you get these micro tears and micro injuries. More protein is needed, especially collagen type protein. Maybe that's one of the reasons why collagen protein has become so popular recently, particularly in middle-aged women, because you have a whole bunch of people, maybe 20% of the population. That's well half of the population, you know, women actually more than half the population that's gained in age, 20% of them being hypermobile. All of a sudden, you're uncovering the need for more protein because of loss of estrogen. It's really all these things are really quite quite. Quite interesting. But in general, people with hypermobility need more protein, specifically collagen. So maybe that's another reason why bone broth has become super popular. And trace minerals, rare earth minerals, manganese, strontium, silica, barium, there's all these things that— beryllium, iodine, chromium, zinc, a whole bunch of trace minerals and rare earth minerals. And there's about 96 trace and rare earth minerals, most of which we don't know what they do. Wow. People with connective tissue like hypermobility need all these. That's where organ meat, that's where bone broth comes into play, drinking mineral water, all this kind of stuff. But all of a sudden, if you're hypermobile, are you meeting your nutritional status? And also, hypermobility sets you up for dysautonomia, POTS, mast cell activation syndrome, autoimmune issues. And so, all these patients that come to my clinic, I'm looking for hypermobility. Every fall, the schedule tightens and most of our attention goes to getting the kids ready. Almost none of it goes to the person holding the whole thing together. So I put together these 3 things just for that. A daily multivitamin in the active forms your body can actually use, quercetin and nettles to support your immune and respiratory health without the drowsiness, and NAC and acetylcysteine to help your body rebuild its own antioxidant reserve. This is what I take every fall. That's aaronhartmanmd.com/backtoschool. Again, we'll do a whole series on this, but if you're hypermobile, there's a thing called Beighton score, B-E-I-G-H-T-O-N score you can do. It's actually made to be self-administered or administered by anybody, any healthcare practitioners for educational purposes, but to also realize, hmm, you might be hypermobile. Again, that's for EDS. If an adult has a score of 4 or greater, in my book, they're hypermobile. A kid, 5 or greater, they're hypermobile. But it's really interesting how many people might have a score of 2 or 3. And they're super tight and you'd ask them, how were you when you were 12? Oh yeah, I could do all those things. That's where part of it, getting the history is important as well. But it's all connected. Your connective tissues connect everything. And if you are hypermobile, this could be setting up for a lot of health issues. And if you're not literally addressing the stuff that holds everything together, that might be one of the reasons why you're stuck, why you're still sick and not getting better. So food for thought. Hopefully this information is helpful. Take care. Talk to you soon. You came here for straight answers on your health. No hype and no gimmicks. We work hard to give you that on every single episode. So if you could do me a favor, that would be amazing. Leave a quick review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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