Scar Integration Technique: the overlooked key to resolving chronic or recurrent pain.

If you are looking for natural relief from chronic, recurrent pain and tension, or want to improve function of your organs, a key treatment to consider is Scar Integration Technique, which addresses the significant impact that scars can have on your discomfort and general health.

Scars, both recent and decades old, from injuries, or common surgeries, such as having your appendix removed (appendectomy), Caesarian section, facelift or dental implant, can all cause not only pain in the surrounding area, but also tension throughout the whole body and changes in organ function. This article will provide you with keys to understanding scarring, its impact on your body, and explain how Scar Integration Technique can help decrease your pain and improve movement, as well as organ function.

What are scars?

Scars are the body’s natural way of repairing wounds to the skin and other tissues in the body, caused by accidents, burns, surgery or disease. When a tissue is wounded, as for instance when the skin is cut, a scar must form as part of the healing process. Initially scarring stops the bleeding and creates a seal, preventing infection by blocking bacteria from getting into the wound.

Following this, the body works to repair the wound and pull it closed. It secretes a protein called collagen, which is found in normal skin, but during the scarring process, collagen is laid down in a way that causes the scarring to be less elastic. As a result, scar tissue has a different texture and quality to surrounding, undamaged tissue. It is drier and not as stretchy.

Scars inside the body

The scarring that we see on the surface of the body also occurs inside the body, and can form what are called adhesions. These are bands of scar tissue that bind organs and other tissues together. Our organs are anchored to our muscles and bones. Normally, as we move, the organs should glide freely over one another. When they are bound together by adhesions, there is a change in movement in the area surrounding the organs, which can include muscles, ligaments and joints. This can block movement, and result in muscle tension, as well as pain.

As with scars on the outside of the body, adhesions can develop after any damage to tissues including: surgery, infection, accidents, or radiation. They are most often found in the abdomen, pelvis or around the heart.

Scarring and body movement

As mentioned earlier, areas of the body that have scarring will be less flexible. This lack of flexibility will not only affect the local area, but can have an effect on movement throughout the body.

In order to understand this, it is helpful to look at how the body is built. The entire body is connected and supported by one continuous fabric called fascia. It covers, surrounds, separates and organizes all the major structures of the body, including bones, muscles, ligaments, organs, nerves and blood vessels. In fact, there are no two bones in the body that touch one another; there is always fascia in between.

Fascia allows parts of the body to glide over one another. When it is cut, such as with surgery, this gliding capacity is reduced, resulting in a stickiness between body parts. This makes movement more difficult, lessens blood flow and hampers nerves from properly sending their signals, all of which add to pain and tension in the body. As fascia is one uninterrupted fabric in the body, running from the head, down to the toes, change in tension anywhere in the fascia, such as from scarring, will have an effect not only locally, but in areas far removed from the actual adhesion or scar.

To help understand the idea of this global tension, you can imagine the following: if you were to stand with three other people, each holding one corner of a bed sheet, and then a weight was placed in the middle of the sheet, all four people would feel a change in tension on their corner of the sheet. In other words, a change in local tension with the weight in the centre of the sheet is felt globally throughout the sheet, right out to the corners of the sheet.

As an example of this idea in the body, scars from surgeries such as a Caesarian section or appendix removal can result in forward, downward and inward pulling forces on the joints of the low back and pelvis, which can appear as back and hip pain. In addition, the scarring from a Caesarian can affect bladder function and incontinence. If you were to treat only the muscles and joints of the hip and back, or work only on strengthening the pelvic floor muscles, you may not resolve the back and hip pain, or the incontinence. Scarring from facelifts, dental implants, or gallbladder removal can also create a forward, inward and downward pulling through the head, neck and upper back, resulting in neck, shoulder, pain, jaw pain, tension and headaches. Again, if the scarring is not addressed, you may not have relief from your discomforts.

Treatment

To help your body heal well from scarring, you can speak with your doctor or other health care specialist about taking vitamins, such as vitamin C or B complex, applying lavender or vitamin E oil, and using homeopathic remedies such as Traumeel or arnica.

You might also learn about doing self-massage for the scar. For scars that have closed and healed, Scar Integration Technique (S.I.T.) can help your body to adapt to the local and global changes in tension from the scarring.

S.I.T. is a gentle, yet effective hands-on treatment that frees up tension in scars, as well as areas of the body that have become less flexible due to the scarring. As a result, muscle tension decreases, joints move more freely, and organs can function optimally, leading to better health achieved naturally.

For more information about S.I.T., contact Katrine Cakuls, katrine@kcmt.co.uk