Aaron Hartman, MD (YouTube video) gives a 10,000-foot overview of generalized hypermobility: what it is, how common it may be (estimates cited ~8–20%, author suggests ~20%), and why loose connective tissues affect many systems (musculoskeletal injuries, digestion, autonomic/nervous-system activation, and pregnancy-related perineal tearing). He emphasizes that hypermobility is common but often overlooked in conventional medicine, notes its potential athletic advantages and risks, and mentions interventions (nutrition — e.g., higher vitamin C/minerals, fascia work, electrical/muscular stimulation).
Chapters
Have you known people who could do cool tricks? They could bend their thumb backward or kind of almost dislocate their thumbs or pop the shoulders out of joint. Maybe people who could take their feet and put them on their head when they're, when they're younger. Many of these people actually become pretty good athletes. They can run a little faster, jump a little higher, but at the same time, this hypermobility can be a marker for significant illness and potential health issues. So what I'm talking about here is your connective tissues, your joints, your ligaments, and how they impact all of your health. Some people have heard of the term, the disease Ehlers Danlos syndrome, which is a severe version of hypermobility, where people have a lot of health issues. Chronic pains, joint dislocations. That is common, it's not uncommon, would be how we'd say it in medical school. But what's really common is hypermobility, generalized hypermobility. Depending on what you read, maybe 20% of kids have it, 12 to 14% of college students have it, and 8 to 10% of the adult population have it. I think personally what we're seeing with these different numbers is probably 20% of the population has it. But as we get older, we get tighter. Our joints, joints aren't quite as loose. And particularly if you're hypermobile, you'll tighten up quicker and have more back tightness, rib tightness, si joint issues. And so I want to talk about right now briefly is the concept of hypermobility, the kryptonite that could also be a superpower. So first, when talking about connective tissues, we're talking about everything that connects everything else. It's the stuff between your cells, it's the stuff that holds your organs in place, it's the stuff that holds your, your vertebrae and your spine in place. There's a whole host of issues you can have. Those tissues are loose. But also, strangely enough, if you have hypermobile conn connective tissues, you also tend to have a more activated nervous system. About 80% of the input to your nervous system is sensory, meaning it's your body telling your brain what's going on around it. Most of these nerves are in connective tissues. If those connective tissues are a little more loosey goosey, you'll increase the activation of your nervous system. And your nervous system can also now be on a heightened sense of alertness, awareness. So if you have a low level anxiety, you have a quick spark start response. It's actually interesting. One part of hypermobility is an Increased alertness or awareness of the environment and quicker reaction times, which if you're an athlete can be amazing. I mean many elite athletes are hypermobile, particularly gymnasts, volleyball players. If you've remember seeing Michael Phelps, I still think he's the best swimmer in the history of the world when like the most number of Olympic golds or whatever. But he could literally take his hands and touch them behind his back. Super fast swimmer, but in the wrong place, the wrong situation. The hypermobility can lead to disease and some people are more prone to it than others. So that's what I want to talk about right now is how your connective tissues light of hypermobility can be related to many other health conditions. But first we need to educate what this hypermobility is, what causes it and get more information about it because it's overlooked. When I first started seeing this in my clinic and looking around, I asked my other providers with my conventional practice started doing my functional medicine, integrative medicine clinics. No one's talking even now, no one's really talking about in my, in functional medicine, integrative training, even conventional training. They only talk about the most severe version, which is Ehlers Danlist. And they don't talk about the generalized hypermobility. That is crazy super common. And there's actually things you can do for it. So what are some things that hypermobility can be related to? Now I'm not talking about elders danlist right now. I'm just talking about regular hypermobility. It can relate to gut issues. If you have loose GI tract tissues, you're more prone to things fermenting in your GI tract which can either lead to constipation or diarrhea. You're more prone to low level anxiety, which is really interesting. That regulation of activation of your nervous system can give you a little bit of a low level anxiety. Your connective tissues do so much stuff also because of the increased breaking of these tissues, because they're all loosey goosey, they're move a little more, you have more prone to certain low level injuries. And if you have nutrient deficiencies, those can compound. So many athletes, this happens a lot with elite athletes are hypermobile, they can run a little faster, they can jump a little higher, they have quicker reaction times. But because of poor diets, they injure out of college athletes on athletics or have these massive like you know, tendon tears, rupture tears, et cetera that block their careers because their diets weren't appropriate. These individuals that are hypermobile need higher levels of Vitamin C, trace minerals, nutritional status, being real food is even more important. These individuals. So why is this important? Because it's overlooked. In our conventional healthcare system. We don't have a paradigm for looking at the stuff between everything else, which is the connective tissues. You have your cardiologist, which is your heart specialist, you have your rheumatologist, which is supposed to be the connective tissue specialist. They focus on diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis and other autoimmune illnesses. Connective tissues kind of fall between the cracks in our current healthcare system. And you need someone who looks at the whole picture that can connect the dots, so to speak, to see the relationship with connective tissue and illnesses. Now many people will tell me, oh, I'm not hypermobile, I'm actually tight, I'm stiff, like my back hurts, I can't touch my toes and I'm like, well, how are you? When you were 10? Oh, I could put my fans on the ground and I could, you know, my son has right now, he can actually turn a complete 180. I had my shoulder pop out of the joint, my ribs kind of, you know, sublux. You start listening to story when you're younger, you were really hyper mobile. As you've gotten older, your body is almost, not really scarred down, but kind of hardened. The connective tissues have hardened to hold things in place, making you less flexible. Flexible flexibility, more prone to injuries like back issues, slipped discs, impinged nerves and things like that. And so what happens is because people in their, you know, usually from their 30s on, aren't as flexible because of inappropriate care of the bodies. They don't realize that you were actually hypermobile when you're younger. And now you seem super stiff and non mobile. This applies to all, all tissues in our body, not just thumb joints, elbows, not just knees, not just your back, but include your spine and include your ribs, include your SI joint. I've had patients who've come to me just because of back pain because of an unstable SI joint. See multiple specialists. I kind of start talking to them and oh yeah, by the way, the ribs kind of, you know, I got some rib pain and sometimes I rib kind of goes out place and their therapist will put it back in. You're like, that's kind of strange. And oh yeah, sometimes I roll around bed and I kind of will feel my joints kind of move a little bit. Or the really interesting story will be I was pregnant. During my pregnancy, all my joints got really crazy loose. Now a Little, little pearl, clinical pearl for all the people out there. One of the things that first helped me realize this when I was seeing young females after having babies that would tear significantly during the birthing process, have like grade three and four tears. And I've realized over time that that is way more common in your hypermobile patients. And so it's one of the things that if you've had issues with that, like with significant tears with pregnancy, or even issues without having that with your, your bladder falling, these can be subtle markers that you have some connective tissue issues. Lots of things can be done about it. You can help with fascia work, nutritional work, even certain energy works like electrical stimulation and muscular stimulation can help with your connective tissues. But I want to start our conversation about hypermobility with this general 10,000 foot overview. Because this is really, really common. It's commonly overlooked and it can be a root cause or an important thing for any health issue. Because if it has to do with digestion of food, if it has to do with your nervous system, if it has to do with your hormones, and it has to do with your musculoskeletal system, guess what? It can also have to do with this hypermobility. And I've just basically almost covered 90% or 80% of things out there. Going to talk about this a few more episodes, dive into this a little deeper. But I want us to start appreciating. Our connective tissues literally are the glue that holds everything together. If there's dysfunctional, it affects everything else downstream. So having good connective tissues is super critical and super important. Take care. Talk to you soon.
