Interviewed by Liberated Body, February 9, 2016
In this 50 minute podcast, by Liberated Body, Dr. Helene Langevin elaborates on her research interests in regards to connective tissue and inflammation.
Highlights in the interview include:
- Why her research focuses on the role of connective tissue in chronic pain, and the mechanisms of movement and manual based therapies as well as acupuncture.
- Dr. Langevin clarifies her 2002 paper Relationship of acupuncture points and meridians to connective tissue planes saying, “We have to be careful here when we talk about correlation of acupuncture meridians and fascial planes.” and “it’s not surprising the channels are found between a bone and a muscle or between two fascicles of a muscle… does that mean that fascial planes are the same as meridians? I wouldn’t say that”
- Dr. Langevin’s paper Stretching Impacts Inflammation Resolution in Connective Tissue. She defines inflammation and what it means for both cancer and chronic pain.
- Cancer is not just a collection of tumor cells growing out of control. They need a base and that base is the connective tissue – the stroma. The cancer takes the connective tissue hostage.
- In musculoskeletal pain it’s not always clear where the tissues are that are creating the pain. In low back pain for years the belief was that it was coming from the spine.
- In her current research she is pursing the aspect of inflammation resolution with respect to the dose of stretching. She also wants to see the role of connective tissue in back pain and the response to body based treatments- both manual and movement based.
- She is also interested in looking at longitudinal studies- observing back pain over time. Children and adolescents that are getting back pain at an earlier and earlier age- do changes in connective tissue precede the development of back pain?