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Meet the Interstitium, the Largest Organ We Never Knew We Had (thedailybeast.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Daily Beast: A study published in Scientific Reports on Tuesday suggests that a previously unknown organ has been found in the human body. More astonishingly, the paper puts forth the idea that this new organ is the largest by volume among all 80 organs -- if what the researchers found is, in fact, an organ. The new organ, [pathologist Neil Theise] explained, was a thin layer of dense connective tissue throughout the body, sandwiched just under our skin and within the middle layer of every visceral organ. The organ also made up all the fascia, or the thin mesh of tissue separating every muscle and all the tissue around every vein and artery, from largest to smallest. What initially seemed to be a solid, dense, connective tissue layer was actually a complex network of fluid-filled cavities that are strong and flexible, yet so tiny and undiscerning that they escaped the attention of the brightest scientific minds for generations. In fact, Theise expanded, this "interstitium" could explain many of modern medicine's mysteries, often dismissed by the establishment as either silly or explainable by other phenomena. Take acupuncture, Theise said -- that energetic healing jolt may be traced to the interstitium. Or perhaps the interstitium acted as a "shock absorber," something that protected other organs and muscles in daily function. Also, the space is in direct communication with the lymphatic system as the origin of lymph fluid -- which means the interstitium's system of fluid-filled backroads could explain the metastasis of cancer cells and their quick spread beyond the limits of the organ in which the cancer started.
What initially seemed to be a solid, dense, connective tissue layer was actually a complex network of fluid-filled cavities that are strong and flexible
I propose:
The interstitium is the body's internet.
After all, it's a very small layer of tubes that transmits through the entire body...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The Interstitium would help to explain the value of walking, shifting around the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/..., providing background circulation of fluids. It would help to explain why people find comfort in a peace amble, especially those suffering from mental conditions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... could be a form of internalised therapy, to make up for stress affecting other fluid flows. Got nothing better to do, walk around you home to keep circulation going, whilst waiting for water to boil for a cuppa, or while roasting a steak, just a peaceful amble about to home to stimulate Interstitium fluid flows, the expansive and contracts of major muscle groups would certainly move that fluid around the body.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
Now that this structure of what appears to be the container for the extracellular fluid and a major shock absorber for tissues has been identified, it will be interesting to see what disease processes might be the result of degradation of its function.
I'd expect examination of breakdowns in this system to result in the causes of several diseases, currently dismissed as psychosomatic or as real but mysteries, to be identified.
I'd also expect that the structure might degrade in old age, and that this might be another source of age-related problems.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
I grew up on those "I am Joe's ..." articles as featured in Readers Digest. :)
In any case it's complete bollocks, the Boardwalk Hall Auditorium Organ is the largest organ. Everyone knows that.
Well, everyone should know it.
Why don't you show us a random controlled trial that demonstrates that true acupuncture is actually working better than placebo acupuncture where you stick the needles in random places ?
there is no "healing jolt" ...
You may know it better as the backhand, or the bitchslap.
This one weird organ was discovered by a stay at home mom who now earns $3,453 per week working part-time!
#DeleteChrome
Who marked this insightful?
The link is to a study that compared acupuncture to sham acupuncture (needling anywhere) to conventional therapy and found that both acupuncture and sham acupuncture had the same effect.
The GP specifically asked for evidence that acupuncture works better than random needling.
Were you too busy seeing what you wanted to see to actually read either the GP or the link you think disproves them?
Needling has been shown to help some chronic pain, most probably through release of endorphins and similar. That's a far cry from acupuncture's claims of meridians or acupuncture points and acupuncture's claims to be able to treat a range of other ailments.
Explain how a machine that makes noise by blowing air through pipes is an organ.
Qi Gong is right up there with homeopathy, anti-vaccination, and is often literal bedfellows with traditional medicine made up of ground endangered species penises to make the Qi Gong practitioners more virile.
Needling has been shown to help some chronic pain, most probably through release of endorphins and similar.
Isn't this the point though? Medicine is all about curing and treating medical conditions. Whether or not it is wrapped up in some pseudo-scientific BS if the process actually works and relieves a medical condition without causing harm then surely it is good medicine even though it may be appalling science.
Either when Emacs won Best Editor award, or when Duke Nukem revision finally came out.
Table-ized A.I.
Because everything ELSE has evolved, and everything ELSE in our lives has been created based on solid scientific evidence, statistics, causality, and logic.
With acupuncture people pulled an idea out of their hat and tried to shoehorn it under a microscope looking for evidence that it may have some logic or causality other than the placebo effect, selection bias and sampling errors etc.
So weâ(TM)re basically little air bags all surrounded by bubble wrap..
From which some people gain inner peace by popping bits of the bubble wrap with pins. THIS is what explains acupuncture.
Chi Gong is good as an exercise form because exercise is good for you. That Chi Gong is good because it "cultivates and balances your qi (life energy)" is nonsense .
The problem is that acupuncture rarely has effects either. In every test it has shown to only be as effective as a placebo. Even in China it was recognized as quackery and outlawed.
> You can not really test acupuncture with double blind studies, or how should the one poking you not know, kr know if he is really poking you?
It's testable by "poking" somewhere else than where the practitioner would plan. As I understand it, Different practitioners have different patterns for what disorders or issues are treated by different acupuncture points. If there is no verifiable association between the acupuncture points and the disorders, if it doesn't matter which acupuncture points are used, then that indicates it's a placebo effect.
And accupuncture works quite fine, no idea why americans are so anti to thousands of years old proven working technologies, that basically cost nothing und rarely have side effects.
Replace "americans" with "rational people" and you will get an answer.
For example, you will learn that the whole
"thousands of years" is bullshit.
Oops.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
You can not really test accupuncture with double blind studies, or how should the one poking you not know, kr know if he is really poking you? And how can you mot know if you get poked or not?
There where attempts with double blind studies, where they used kind of electrodes to cause a fake sensation: turned out that electric stimulation had the same effect as a real needle. Hence we have since 30 years electronic and even laser based self accupuncture aparatus.
And accupuncture works quite fine, no idea why americans are so anti to thousands of years old proven working technologies, that basically cost nothing und rarely have side effects.
They've proven through experiment that acupuncture is worthless. It doesn't matter at all whether the acupuncturist uses the "correct" points or if they make up locations to stick in the needle, or whether they pierce the skin or just poke you with a pointy tool.
The double blind is that the person recording the experiment and tallying results, and the patient, doesn't know if the "professional" used the right point or not. Or if the skin was pierced. They just confirm the report from the patient on their symptom relief and how long it allegedly lasts, with no chance of introducing bias due to knowing whether the patient was properly acupunctured or was a control.
The benefit of acupuncture has been proven to be 100% placebo effect. It's true the placebo effect is cheap and has no side effects. It even works. That's why it's the placebo effect. The problem is using it in place of actual real effective proven medicine. Go ahead and use it for pain relief or to stop smoking; it's just as effective as pills. Just don't use it to treat cancer.
Acupuncture is not based on 'points' on meridians.
Acupuncture is pretty much not based on anything at all. Certainly not based on scientific evidence. The evidence regarding its efficacy is thin and it clearly is being used to "treat" far too many conditions for which there is no evidence that it has any effect. There appears to be some evidence that it can help certain pain conditions (though this is still being evaluated) but the mechanism of action is unclear and the clinical practice guidelines are inconsistent to put it mildly. The NIH has been researching acupuncture and until they can show with appropriate studies evidence of effectiveness beyond placebo and a mechanism of action acupuncture should be regarded with skepticism.
If layman do a 'double blind' study it is most likely that both needles are at the wrong point :)
Most double blind studies of acupuncture to date show that it is nothing but a placebo under most circumstances and for most conditions.
"So, eating ground tiger penis is better than viagra?"
No, that's pure bullshit, rhino horn is the only thing that works.
As I understand it, Different practitioners have different patterns for what disorders or issues are treated by different acupuncture points.
Actually they don't have.
If there is no verifiable association between the acupuncture points and the disorders, if it doesn't matter which acupuncture points are used, then that indicates it's a placebo effect. :D
Yes, but first of all: that is not a double blind study
Secondly: there is no such study, but if you know one, a link would be interesting. To see what they actually tried to do.
Anyway, kinda funny that adults dismiss simple stuff, that they could have tested themselves, because of magazine articles.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
A quick google. Maybe you should do some more reading
Subject could be just poked, without actually being stuck with a needle.
Does not really work, as poking is enough in most cases.
Acupuncture Just As Effective Without Needle Puncture
Subject could be given acupuncture without knowing which kind is it ("right", "wrong", "fake") - while being informed that the choice will be random.
That is not what a double blind study is about. The subject has to be convinced that it gets the real thing.
Sham acupuncture may be as efficacious as true acupuncture: a systematic review of clinical trials