The Living Wetsuit

By Sue Adstrum

Dive into the fascinating world of human anatomy with Sue Adstrum's ground-breaking book, The Living Wetsuit: Demystifying anatomy for everyday use. This compelling read offers a fresh perspective on our bodies' anatomical structure, blending historical insights, scientific exploration, and the untapped wisdom of fascia – the body's connective tissue that intertwines and supports every aspect of our physical being.

 

This book demystifies the complex world of anatomy with a captivating blend of scientific insights, historical narratives, and practical wisdom. Crafted for a diverse audience, from healthcare professionals and students to everyday readers seeking to enhance their health and wellbeing. The Living Wetsuit educates and empowers, encouraging a holistic approach to understanding the body's interconnected systems and the pivotal role of fascia in health, healing, and physical vitality.

 

The Living Wetsuit inspires, propelling a comprehensive understanding of our living, dynamic anatomy. Discover the following benefits:

• Mastery over your body's fascial system, the key to a harmonious, pain-free existence.
• Strategies to harness fascia's potential, elevating your movement and holistic health.
• Insights into fascia's evolution and its pivotal role in modern therapy and wellness.

Sue Adstrum, PhD, draws on her extensive background in anatomy, anthropology, medical history, and public health to present a multidisciplinary approach that challenges and enlightens. Her work invites readers to explore the body's structural form, understand its function, and embrace new ways of healing and caring for the Living Wetsuit we all wear.

 

Discover the science and mystery of the human body like never before. The Living Wetsuit is not just a book; it's an invitation to see ourselves – and our potential for healing – in a new light.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sue Adstrum
• Release date: Nov 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9780473585686

Book preview

The Living Wetsuit title page image

First published 2021 by Integrative Anatomy Solutions

Produced by Indie Experts P/L, Australasia

indieexperts.com.au

Copyright © Sue Adstrum 2021

The moral right of the author to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted.

Except for the purposes of reviewing, no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without the written permission of the author. Infringers of copyright render themselves viable for prosecution.

Cover design and internal illustrations by Daniela Catucci @ Catucci Design

Edited by Anne-Marie Tripp

Internal design by Indie Experts

Typesetby Post Pre-press Group, Brisbane

The author would like to thank the copyright holder for their permission to reprint an excerpt from the following material: MORTAL LESSONS: NOTES ON THE ART OF SURGERY by Richard Selzer. Copyright © 1974, 1975, 1976, 1987 by Richard Selzer. Reprinted by permission of Georges Borchardt, Inc., on behalf of the author.

ISBN 978-0-473-58567-9 (paperback)

ISBN 978-0-473-58568-6 (epub)

Disclaimer: The information contained in this book is for educational purposes only, and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any condition or disease. This book does not substitute professional medical advice. Please consult with your physician or healthcare provider for individually tailored medical advice, diagnoses, or treatment. The author, publishers, and their respective employees and agents are not responsible or liable for any injuries or damage occasioned to any person as a result of reading or following the information contained in this book. The use of this book implies your acceptance of this disclaimer.

Contents

Preface

1: Anatomy Matters

2: Anatomies

3: Anatomised Bodies

4: Fascia

5: Fascial Anatomy

6: The Living Wetsuit

7: The Body’s Fabric of Life

8: When Things Start to Go Wrong with the Living Wetsuit

9: Healing the Living Wetsuit

10: The Living Wetsuit in the 21st Century

Further Information

Glossary

References

Acknowledgements

About Sue Adstrum

In loving memory of Keith Walter Hubbard (1926–1967) who taught me about the importance of questioning the things we presume to be true.

Preface

Setting the scene

Outside, the university area of Dunedin hummed with the start of the 1972 academic year. The clock at the front of the room silently informed us, the year’s new physiotherapy class, that it was now just past 2 pm. A slim, white coat clad young doctor introduced himself as our first-year anatomy instructor. He would be teaching us about the body’s physical structure. Anatomy is important, he said, because anatomy acts as the platform of facts that would support everything else we were going to learn about physiotherapy and medicine.

Until then I didn’t know what anatomy was (remember, one couldn’t ask Google in those days), only that it must be a really big subject, as it took up lots of space in our course timetable. Studying anatomy, he told us, was going to occupy a huge amount of our time and energy for the next three years. Failing any of our frequent anatomy exams was not an option if we wished to continue our training. If we couldn’t master anatomy, we would be expelled.

Next, he asked for someone, a volunteer, to tell him what the body is. We were going to be studying them, so what are they? The room’s silence instantly deepened a couple more notches. Not daring to look around to see what anyone else was doing, I held my breath, and studiously stared down at my notepad. In truth, I felt stupid, and uncomfortable. His question sounded so easy, yet, to my surprise, I was unable to answer it. So, right then and there (still avoiding his gaze), I promised myself that I’d study this subject as hard as I possibly could. I wanted to make sure I would pass all of those now-dreaded anatomy exams – which may well have been the point of his asking that question.

Winning the student anatomy prize three years later was a happy graduation day surprise. Yet there were some even better rewards in store. Somewhere along the way, those days and nights of hard work had dissolved my fear of this subject and ignited my brand-new passion for it. Anatomy plays some enormously helpful roles in the world, and I wanted in on them. Even though I was just a beginner, I now knew the basic rules of the game … and willingly signed on as a player. And, best of all, the overcoming-the-fear side of things had revealed the value of being kind to one’s students when, many years later, it was my turn to teach others – some of whom were as, if not more, frightened than I had been that 1972 afternoon. Sharing their joy as they came to grips with their studies, and then nailed their exams, was priceless. And now, being able to help people from many different walks of life discover that anatomy is really interesting, really important … and that it is possible for them all to learn about these things in an easy and fun manner.

Bodies and anatomy

Anatomy. The science of bodily structure. Structure as discovered by dissection. The body of facts and deductions as to the structure of organised beings, animal or vegetable, ascertained by dissection. The doctrine or science of structure. From the French ‘anatomie’. From the Latin ‘anatomia’. From the Greek ‘anatomia’ [ἀνατομία]. ‘Ana’ [ἀνά], up. ‘Toma’ [τομ-], cut. (Roberts, 2021)

So, how would you fare if someone asked you the same question? How easily could you explain what your body is to a stranger wearing a white coat? Don’t worry, you are definitely not alone if you think you might have some difficulty doing this.

Strange as it might seem, many health professionals, scientists, university scholars, educators, and health system administrators would also have difficulty with this task. Large parts of their work involve directly and indirectly caring for, studying, writing and or teaching about people’s bodies – which means that they all need to know something about the body’s structural makeup. They know what they were once taught, as were their teachers before them. The validity of their ideas about this subject is generally taken for granted, but it has rarely, if ever, been formally examined (Birke, 1999). This almost universal lack of critical attention to so important a subject ought to be a matter of serious concern – especially when there are some significant shortcomings in what we have traditionally been taught.

Health professionals – acupuncturists, bodywork and movement therapists, chiropractors, dentists, dieticians, doctors, massage therapists, midwives, naturopaths, nurses, occupational therapists, optometrists, osteopaths, paramedics, podiatrists, pharmacists, physiotherapists, and surgeons, to name but a few of many – clearly need to learn about anatomy in great (and, for some, very great) detail. Yet, if you were to ask them to define what the body means to them, they could well look at you sideways, as if you’d asked them a trick question (Nicholls, 2018). These people work with bodies so much, and so often, that the human body has become something quite ordinary. So ordinary that their particular knowledge of it is frequently hidden from view.

Before going any further, please realise it’s easy to feel confused by the word anatomy. A lot of this can be blamed on it being a multiuse word that variably refers to several quite different things (see Table 0.1), all of which have something to do with describing the body’s structure with a certain sort of meaning in mind. The problem is that people tend to assume that everyone else instinctively knows which meaning they are referring to when they use this word. As this assumption is not always correct, the different meanings have sometimes gotten a bit mixed up and muddled.

Table 0.1: Meanings of the word anatomy

Several related-but-different meanings presently ascribed to the word anatomy.

Book purpose and book structure

Our bodies are a big and important part of who we are. They are always with us while we’re alive. They are involved in and affect everything we can and cannot do. Everyone – not just university educated ‘experts’ and health professionals – can benefit from learning more about their body’s structure, because it relates to the ways we care for it and, when needs be, help it to heal. If we understand the basics, we are well positioned to apply this knowledge to improving our own – as well as our patients’, employees’, and families’ – everyday health and wellbeing. It is therefore really helpful that our knowledge of our body is as accurate and up to date as possible. This book shows that obtaining this knowledge need not be a difficult task – it actually can be quite easy and enjoyable.

In today’s Western medical system, the body is widely construed as a machine-like assemblage of supposedly separate biological body parts – such as muscles and bones, visceral organs, and fluid transporting vessels (Nicholls, 2018). From this way of looking at things, the fascia (the body’s soft connective tissue) that links everything together and makes the body whole – as Nature intended it to be – is generally overlooked and forgotten about. This conventional way of thinking – i.e., where body