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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.
there is no "healing jolt" ...
You may know it better as the backhand, or the bitchslap.
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.
> 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
"So, eating ground tiger penis is better than viagra?"
No, that's pure bullshit, rhino horn is the only thing that works.