Healing the Divide
- Dr. Lauren Haythe
- Feb 13
- 5 min read
We as humans generally like to categorize things. I do it and can understand why: when we separate things into compartments, we can better understand what we are faced with. A grocery store is a perfect example. Meat section, vegetable section, dairy and eggs… all laid out for us to know what section we’re in and what we might find on our grocery list where. The same holds true in Eastern medicine, Western medicine, as well as in dissection. Muscles, tendons, viscera, fascia; all separated neatly with a scalpel. In our textbooks, the nervous system has been eloquently separated from the digestive system for decades. The assumption is that we will better understand each system as a stand alone. We even require people to become experts in these different sections of us.
Of course by doing so, we lose track of the connections. I will toot the horn of Eastern medicine here and suggest it more gracefully makes those connections than the Western medical path. Yet, we cannot survive without Western medicine. If I need a knee replacement, I would like my surgeon to be completely and 100% an expert in the knee joint itself. Dare I also suggest, we would not be as advanced in the Eastern approach without the baseline knowledge we obtain about the body through our education in the Western world.
The authors of the article, Hiding in Plain Sight- Ancient Chinese Anatomy, have proposed that the dissected meridians of thousands of years ago were what we in the west consider the neuromuscular bundles (Shaw et al 1204). Of course neuromuscular bundles are gift wrapped in a fascial sheath and hopefully glide throughout our body without adhesions or stagnation. If these neuromuscular bundles, or meridians, are gliding through our body, can we actually separate fascial connections in the body from meridians?
More recently than 5,000 years ago, Tom Myers broadened our understanding of anatomy through the Anatomy Trains myofascial meridians, as he calls them. Some of these Anatomy Trains truly do mirror some of the meridians. However, as we zoom in we discover they are not always perfectly aligned.
Take for example the Deep Front Line and the Kidney Meridian. From a birds eye view they look pretty similar! However, after we zoom in, some differences reveal themselves. For example, if we examine the Leg Shao Yin Kidney Channel in Wang Ju Yi’s Applied Channel Theory text, we can see how the meridian covers a generous amount of square footage, especially if you include the internal-external pathways, the divergent and the collateral pathways (Ju-Yi p.g 598). Beginning on the sole of the foot traveling up the inner leg line through the perineum, bladder, kidney, liver, spine, heart, lung, throat, tongue and final the ears (phew!). The myofascial connection of the Deep Front Line does cover a lot of the same territory, however it does not reach out to the ear and there is no mention of this fascial connection reaching the Liver or Bladder organs. According to Tom Myers, the Deep Front Line travels from the Tibialis Posterior up the inner leg line of the adductors, through the pelvic floor, anterior sacrum, psoas, iliacus, anterior longitudinal ligament, diaphragm, hyoid muscles and the tongue (Myers p.g 181).
We can absolutely get out our magnifying glasses and deep dive into the specifics of the Chinese Meridians as described in various texts and compare them to the Myofascial Connections a la Tom Myers. However, do we need to? In the Houses of Parliament some would stand up and yell "“yes, yes, yes we absolutely DO need to compare these and come to a resolution!” While others will sit quietly and ponder over a cup of tea.
I would propose that we think of these connections in our body as the same concept, merely presented in a different language. Do we need to separate the Deep Front Line from the Kidney Meridian? Probably not. Do we need to marry them perfectly? I
would also venture to say probably not. Whether or not we are practicing shiatsu, acupuncture or myofascial bodywork, the importance is to know these connections and to use that knowledge for our intention of treatment. Keep in mind they may also provide possible clues as to where the root cause is lingering: somewhere along a given fascial plane or meridian often far away from where you are actually ‘working’.
When a person is in the ICU with systems failing, the powers at be call in a team of doctors. The neurology specialist, the cardio specialist, so on and so forth. It is immediately clear that separation may not help the patient and we need all hands on deck. While a given doctor may specialize in something particular, they need to partner with other specialists to treat the body as a whole. When looking at the Deep Front Line and the Kidney Meridian, rather than becoming fixated over whether or not these two connections are indeed the same, I propose that we use the Western Deep Front Line and the Eastern Kidney Meridian together or even consider them a kind of singular concept. Make them teammates, but not identical twins, and never consider them opposing team members. If we take that approach, we can then observe a medial arch that is stuck in a collapsed position and align it with not only the Deep Front Line and not only the Kidney meridian, but both. The result is a more whole form of treatment where we treat the organs as well as the myofascial structures. Shall we heal a divide instead of creating one? I would say a worthwhile endeavor.
Myers, Tom. Anatomy Trains: Myofascial Meridians for Movement Therapists. 2009. Churchill Livingstone.
Shaw, Vivien., Diogo, Rui., Winder, Isabelle Catherine. 21 January 2020. Hiding in Plain Sight-ancient Chinese anatomy. The Anatomical Record. 10.1002/ar.24503
Dr. Lauren Haythe is both a trained Kinesis Myofascial Integration (KMI) bodyworker and has a Doctorate of Acupuncture (DAc., L.Ac., LMT). She graduated with honors while obtaining her Masters of Sciences in Acupuncture from Tristate College of Acupuncture (TSCA) and has graduated from Nigel Dawes’s Kampo program for studies in Japanese herbs. Lauren obtained her doctorate of acupuncture from Pacific College of Acupuncture in New York City. She also certified in Traditional Japanese Acupuncture through the TJA Institute.
Lauren works with a desire to merge the practical knowledge of western anatomy with the eastern principles of medicine in order to treat patients under a plan that best serves their unique and individual needs.
You can reach Lauren through her website:
Yes yes yes, ready for more of this line of thinking and practice.
Excellent read, especially at this time in our world.