È tutta una questione di fascia!

It’s all about fascia!

Elke is the mother of Senn, a cute little boy with CP.
This text is a part of Elke’s blogpost “It’s all about fascia” on her website “Everything for Senn”
Click here to read the full blogpost (only in Dutch)

My son Senn

Every week, I can see how my son Senn can move a little more freely.
Sometimes I see it in small things, sometimes in big things. His legs, that fall open nicely and relaxed and that he starts to pull more and more towards him, his knees that he can touch when he lies on his back, his hands that are more open, his arms that he can move more freely, his torso that became much more firm and not because of spasticity but because he nicely got it under control because we gave him back the correct structure of his body and because we stimulate him in the right way.

How do we do that?

Everything starts with ABR fascia therapy, and I’m convinced of that from the bottom of my heart.
And this for the following simple reason: why is it that adults who sustain a brain injury can recover afterwards without their body being completely distorted, and so that they can still live their lives functionally? Isn’t it true that the younger you are when you sustain the brain injury, the better? Your brain is still growing, you can make much more use of brain plasticity and the damage suffered is only getting smaller as a percentage. Adults with a non-congenital brain injury do not have this at all and yet they do not have all those burdens in many areas.
In addition, you also read everywhere that cerebral palsy is not a progressive disorder, however, many children also get worse as they get older and indeed, this is not because the damage in their brains increases, on the contrary. So how is that possible?

The solution is the fascia, the connective tissue

In itself, the word says it all. The tissue that connects everything, literally everything in our body. In recent years, it turned out that the connective tissue is much more important than previously thought. Look at a skeleton that you see in a doctor’s office sometimes. Does this just stay upright without the rest of our body? No… if it was not supported, it would fall on the ground.
Then I can hear you thinking, but that’s what the muscles are for. Yes, but imagine that when you are sitting in the sofa, you only have muscles to keep you sitting upright. How exhausting would that be? Constant tense muscles to just keep you upright. Not to do sit ups, but just to stay put. How tiring would that be…
Well, that’s why we have fascia or connective tissue. This ensures that you can just sit calmly. Fascia connects the muscles with the skeleton and so much more. The reason why a healthy person can sit relaxed is because we have fascia that ensures that. As soon as we want to get up, the muscles take over from a certain point and that’s how it works with everything.

How about CP and fascia?

For children with cerebral palsy, this connective tissue is not well developed. It has become stiff and sticky and no longer fluid and resilient, like it should be. The result is that the muscles are no longer properly attached to the bones, that the muscle tone is either too high or too low and that in the long term this will cause children to grow incorrectly.

ABR Therapy

We have been doing this therapy for just 8 months and I feel and see Senn’s body change a little more every time. First the torso and breathing, then the head and neck, which gave him much more control over it, and his legs and shoulders also began to change. On top, we almost completely reduced the dose of baclofen, a muscle relaxant.

In this picture you see the difference in Senn’s head controle after six months of ABR therapy:

I know an adult woman who also recently started the ABR ​​therapy. She is wheelchair-bound and has spastic quadriplegia. I have heard from her that she can breathe better now, that she is raising her arms higher, that for the first time in years she knows how warm feet feel, that she can sit more stable, …

But then, I wonder why this is not picked up and recommended to all children with CP?

Why do people not listen to this? We clearly see the difference and we are not alone. In so many places I read lately that standing still and mobilizing will not help to prevent the problems and yet they continue to prescribe this stubbornly.

I sincerely hope that this will change sooner or later. ABR Belgium exists since 2001 and they continue to deepen and specialize every year. I am very happy and grateful that we found them. Without the right structure in the body you can give as much input to the brain as you want, that structure is your basis and indispensable.

Elke,
mother of Senn

Website about Senn’s story: https://allesvoorsenn.com/ 
Website about CuPerHeroes, a non-profit organisation: https://www.cuperheroes.be/