Unlocking the Power of Fascia for Fertility: Improve Blood Flow & Heal Blockages with Deanna Hansen

 Hey, it's Dr. Abatma, host of Egg MeatSperm, and this is the best podcast to get all of the vital information that you need to support your fertility journey holistically for you and your partner. Because fertility takes two.

Thank you so much for being here today, Deanna. I am so excited to dive into this amazing topic because it's so unique. What is it? is the fascia. What is, why do we care about this? Oh, thank you so much, Dr. Omatmus for having me here. Um, first of all, and, uh, for this wonderful question, especially as it relates to fertility, this is such a fascinating conversation.

So fascia is like skin to the body fascia is skin to the cell. So every single one of our trillions of cells in our body is interconnected through this beautiful system of communication. It provides both stability and And mobility for the body. And in my view, the real goal of it is to really maintain proper cell alignment.

The beauty of if our cells are positioned exactly where they're supposed to be is that there's going to be optimal space in and around every single cell. And what space does, it, Allows for ease of absorption of nutrients into the cell, as well as ease of the removal of toxins away from the cell. And as long as cells are properly fed and clean lifelong, there really isn't any struggles or dis ease.

In the body. So from the fascia perspective, that's ultimately the goal of what this beautiful system is designed to do. And from the perspective of fertility that ultimately allows again, like ease of flow. So every single system in the body can work optimally when the fascia is doing its job. Amazing.

So am I correct in, in remembering that the fascia is like one, one unit throughout our entire body? It's not like, Oh, this has its own fascia and this has its own fascia, but it's all connected. Absolutely. And there's different layers to the fascia. However, it is this beautiful system that does connect everything.

So whether we're talking bone Organ, muscle, ligament, skin, all of it is interconnected through this beautiful extracellular matrix. Yeah, so then to me, it's almost like this magnificent system that is the reason why something that's happening on this side of our body is affecting something way down the line related to fertility, for example.

Yes, absolutely. And we, we discuss all the time that there's cause sites and pain or issue sites. So that's exactly it. What it sounds like and what's so fascinating to me is just like how if everything is interconnected, which we often say, but we don't realize that truly everything is interconnected.

And that's how like something happening over here that Can trigger a domino effect or have a reaction over here? That's more related directly to fertility. Yes. And whenever we're looking at the body as a whole, we always look at what is an anchor or causing that area of concern to be under tension because.

Those cause sites act like anchors in the body, drawing the body away from proper alignment. And then the fascia in its beautiful attempt to keep us upright and maintain our stability, it develops adhesions throughout. So adhesions riddle throughout and adhesions kind of act like concrete blocks in the fascia.

It's the moving of the collagen away from the balance into space. Specific spaces to create platforms to prevent the body from tipping, but this is at the expense of flow. So, wherever in the body, this is happening, it's going to create blockage and, um, cells not being able to be properly fed and clean.

And I, I feel like with fertility. Um, we often see these like blockages or adhesions or things specifically like postpartum. So a lot of times women will come in, they've already had one birth and or had had a C section, which is like, maybe we can get into what that does to the fascia. Uh, but then also, um, it will then.

affect future fertility. So it's like their body may have had some significant level of dysfunction to begin with. They got pregnant, had a baby, and now they're like dealing with secondary infertility, which, um, I think often has to do with these blockages that weren't cleared. Um, maybe should have been cleared the first time around, but now they're more prominent.

And then the second piece is that someone that's new on the fertility journey could even be experiencing these blockages. Cause at least to me, I'm like, we spend so much of our day sitting and it's essentially like the L shaped sit. is affecting our pelvic bowl. So I'm curious what your thoughts are on those things.

So to, to the second question, uh, people struggling in the beginning stages. So really it, it comes down to posture and breath because we have foundations in the body that are designed To support proper cell alignment. So, especially with the youth today, they grew up in front of technology. We do live in a very different world.

I'm 54 than when I was a kid, where we were hanging from trees and we were playing outside in our bodies. We're moving in a very different way than what's typical today. So by the time the young mother is ready to have her first child, already her body is in a very different state. Different cellular alignment due to a whole bunch of reasons.

But I, I do see technology and just the world we live in today as being so very different. Whenever I'm looking at a body as a whole, I always first focus on the foundation because The fascia will grip and adhere to bone with a force of up to 2, 000 pounds per square inch. So I mean, that in itself is a really hard number to even grasp that we have this kind of pressure inside the body, but it is the most significant at the extremities.

So the calves and the feet, they're furthest from the engine in the body, which we'll talk about, um, soon as it relates to proper diaphragmatic breathing. But because the calves and the feet are the furthest from the engine. This is how the fascia will manipulate the legs and hold us in this holding pattern.

So, can you see my arms and my forearms here? Okay, so if this represents the feet, and this is correct alignment, then we have the hip joints positioned in the pelvis. Where they should be, but what happens is we always have one foot that acts like a flat tire. So, if my right foot is that flat tire, often it's pronating and it's pulling away from the body.

It starts dragging over here as the fascia is designed to support our uprightedness. That left side of the body will then become an anchor. So now we have the left side getting manipulated and anchoring. So now inside the pelvis, we have these hip joints that aren't positioned where they should be. So they They move inside there and they become very compressed and dense, and this is going to manipulate the organs inside the pelvis.

And then all these adhesions are being created because again, the body is saying like, wait a sec. I don't want to fall away. So adhesions get built up and, and it's like concrete. So this is happening inside the pelvis. So whether you are somebody that has had a child and attempting to get pregnant again, or it's your new or your first time, um, essentially what is going on in that lower body is going to be extremely impactful in your ability to conceive, whether it is the first, second or third or fourth time.

So. Is there a way to tell if we have these adhesions, like, would we have some symptoms or signs or something that can be like a little blink blinking light to be like, oh, maybe I should pay attention to this. Absolutely. And that's such a great question because pain in general, you know, the cell has a language, it has a number of different sensations that it will share with us to let us know that it needs attention.

So pain is a great 1, right? So, um. Pain is like the baby crying. It's, it's the cell saying, Hey, mom or dad, you're not giving me the space that I need to perform my job fully and completely. So I'm letting you know, I need a little bit of energy or attention. So that pain could be anywhere in the pelvis. It can be in the legs, the knees, the feet, all of this is the system that is going to be impacting what's happening in the pelvis.

So pain is a great one as well. Painful periods. If we're having painful periods, when we are properly aligned, gravity assists us. So every month when we're sloughing off that lining, it should be full and complete with the removal. And it shouldn't be painful. If we're having cramping, it's because the body's saying, okay, We're having a little bit of trouble getting all of this out of the way to prepare for the next round.

So the body is having to work harder. So that cramping is an indicator as well that we've got adhesions happening in this space. So those are two examples of symptoms that you may feel. And then there's a whole raft of other things, like if we have cysts, fibroids, all of those things also are indicators that the body doesn't have Optimal space for ease of flow that covers a lot of ground because that's so many women are struggling with these symptoms.

And, of course, are like, as a doctor, my brain goes to, like, hormones and what are the other things and what's your diet and what's your lifestyle? So I think it's, it's really important to realize that it could be a physical alignment issue that. Is contributing or is that the seed of some of these other downstream effects?

Absolutely. And they all work together. So, if let's just say we're eating a really unhealthy diet. So, if our, if we're eating an unhealthy diet, then all of those toxins in the food are going to get trapped In the layers of the adhesion to create more problems, but those adhesions can be there, even if we have a really clean, healthy diet.

And that's the thing about the mechanical aspect of our body, no matter what we're doing. And of course, all those other things matter immensely, but no matter what, if we have incorrect alignment and, um, a breath that is really weak, that is going to create the scenario for collapse. Into the space in our body, as well as the building of those adhesions, which are going to wrap a whole bunch of stuff inside even cells.

Um, even if you're, um, eating this perfect organic, clean diet, you're still, your cells like exhaust in a car are still going to eliminate waste from cellular function. So if that doesn't get taken away through the process of low, then that also gets trapped and can become a problem down the road. If it's been trapped for years.

Decades, which is the case for the majority of people because we all have adhesions. None of us have perfect cellular alignment. None of us are breathing completely and fully as we should be to keep the body properly fed and clean. Okay. So let's move to like, what can we do? And I know you're like amazing at teaching how we can get some of this.

Um, so if you would like, share with us some tips and, and I know you've mentioned breathing, proper breathing a few times. So I'm curious how we know if we're breathing properly or not. And then what are some ways to do that? So, when it comes to the fascia, what we have to understand is gravity is this constant force, Pulling us down and we're dominant on one side of the body.

So we don't just collapse in a linear fashion. We literally spiral down one direction or the other. And then over life, I mean, our body is constantly going through these counterbalancing efforts to maintain us for being upright because we have injuries, surgeries, toxic relationships. fascia, but gravity is the driver.

So essentially we compress. So the system that we have. decompresses the fascia. And there's three pillars to that. The first pillar is creating space. So if I've, for example, been sitting in front of my computer for a couple of decades and I'm collapsed in this, you know, forward slump, as we tend to see in most people, I've developed a whole bunch of adhesions in my body, again, from that buildup of collagen to create stability in the body.

So This is where the tissue will feel dense. It will feel cold because it lacks flow. So what we want to do is we want to put pressure into this area. Conscious pressure. So we use tools, but you can also use your hands. Where when you apply pressure over time, that in, that creates heat. It increases blood and oxygen flow to an area.

they grip onto bone with that: 2000

So the seal is magnetic though. So how do we release? Magnets if you had 2 magnets far enough apart, they have no attraction toward each other. Get them close enough together. They seal with the force. If I wanted to pull these magnets apart. I can't just pull them apart because of that force, but I can turn and I can slide them apart.

So when we're working through the layers of fascia, we actually follow. The spiral pattern in the way that we teach you. So you're basically laying on a tool or using hands, but we use a tool called the block buddy. We lay on this for a minimum of 3 minutes and then we guide you to search for pain because pain equals adhesion and it's not negative pain.

It's pain that's already existing in your body because again, that cell is going to give you that signal. I don't have enough space to do the job you're wanting me to do. So I'm going to give you a little bit of pain to let you know that it's there. So it's riddled throughout the body. So we teach you to tap into the fascia to search for pain.

And then the second pillar is teaching you proper diaphragmatic breathing. And this is really where the magic happens. This is really exciting because we have this beautiful muscle, the diaphragm that is the foundation of the rib cage. And It is designed for us to breathe. The challenge with this breath though is pain, fear and stress cause us to reactively hold the breath.

So if we're not conscious diaphragmatic breathers, over time we become an upper chest breather and this creates an incredibly different dynamic in the body than if we're diaphragmatic breathers. So when we breathe diaphragmatically, which is that belly breath, we feed the body up to six times the oxygen.

And this is really important to kind of pull in and understand 600 percent more oxygen. Basically, dis ease or disease is present in de oxygenated areas. So when we have oxygen rich blood and our body is, you know, working as it should be, we have optimal function. So when that breath becomes weak, as it does for the majority of us, I just want to pull my computer down for a second here, because I want to show you when we're breathing diaphragmatically, it's a plate.

When we move, when we inhale, this plate moves down. When we exhale, it moves up. And if it's working properly, it's moving like this, keeping this whole area beautifully heated and warm. If this becomes weak, because we're breathing through the muscles of the upper chest, this is what happens. We fall in. So we fall into this core space and we balloon outward.

And then all of the organs in through here, they become colder because they don't have that mechanical aspect of the diaphragm. So the diaphragm is like the body's furnace. When we're breathing through the muscles of the upper chest, it's like a space heater. I 30 story building. In winter here, it can be minus 35 Celsius, which is absolutely freezing.

If my window breaks and I don't have an ability to heat myself, I'm going to die. So the container, which is the fascia, is really the key to understand we want to maintain this integrity. If we're breathing through the muscles of the upper chest, like a space heater in my apartment, I can only heat one of two rooms in my apartment, where if I turn on the building's furnace, I can heat the entire building.

So whenever we're talking about tissue temperature. It's all about flow. We want to make sure that that flow from the top of the head to the tip of the toes. Um, we want to make sure that blood is getting to all of those cells in the body. And that's one of the functions of the diaphragm is to move the fluids to all of those cells.

etoxify the body. In fact, in: 2014

So we become toxic like fibroids, cysts, like all of that is because we've got this dirt trapped in the body. So if we've turned on this beautiful system and now we're feeding those cells properly and we're keeping them clean. Now we have a system that has optimal flow. So that's the second pillar. I just want to even like show you one more analogy.

Think of blowing up a balloon. When a balloon is fully blown up, it almost defies gravity. It's round, it glows, but take out half the air of the balloon. Now it becomes denser. It's wrinkly. It attracts dirt and dust in the creases. That's what happens to cells that aren't receiving optimal amounts of oxygen.

So the first two pillars are amazing because we create the space that's been lost over time. We pump that blood and oxygen into that space. So that space becomes filled with life. And then the third pillar is maintaining that space through understanding proper postural foundations. And when we're discussing the lower body, we teach you how to sit properly, how to stand properly to support that cell alignment so that we can keep those cells positioned where they're supposed to be.

And then if that's the case, there's an ease of flow and the body's happy. And so I just want to go back to number two. You said something that triggered or an aha for me, which was there's a Chinese medicine thing that's called cold womb or cold uterus. And a lot of Um, couples that are struggling with fertility will get this diagnosis from their acupuncturist.

And it's essentially from, it sounds like what you're saying is because they're not breathing deeply enough, there's not enough blood flow to that area, the uterus, and hence it's going to be colder in, in essence. Exactly. Yes. Okay. That's, that's awesome. I'm so happy. I didn't know that. So now that's another thing that I can share as well.

Yes. Yeah. It's it's literally the the Chinese medicine diagnosis is called cold uterus. And the idea is essentially that I mean, blood flow and circulation and there's some like, even in our practice, we we don't do acupuncture, but we'll do like moxa, which really helps to circulate the blood better.

Things like that, that little tools that people can have in their home. But to me, it's, this is like dial it back even more, like you could just breathe better. And that will help support the blood flow. Absolutely. And I mean, that just made me think about, you know, in Winnipeg, when it's minus 30 and your car is sitting outside, you can't just go and start it and drive away.

You have to keep your car. You know, with the electricity going so that it's warm enough and then you have to let it run for probably 20 or 30 minutes before you can drive it. So that's the same thing. If you have anything cold, everything slows down and doesn't function as it should. Yeah. Yeah. That makes so much sense.

I'm curious. I know we've talked a lot about women and I want to try and balance this with things for men as well. So do you, I mean, obviously our systems are the same. The fascia is the same. All of the downstream effects are going to be similar. Do you find that there's an equal amount of impact for women as there is for men?

Is it more? Is it less? That's such a great question. And I would say that women are actually more impacted because of our cue angle. So, you know, men are more linear. They're, they're, they're faster. I mean, this is generally speaking, of course, but they're faster runners because they are a more efficient machine where we have this greater Q angle.

So we can, you know, have give birth, which is this beautiful thing. But because of that, we have more space to fall into. So, you know, you see, I mean, yes, women also have more fat tissue, but that's why I would say that women have more issues with cellulite because of this angling. It's again, it's that mechanical collapsing that occurs.

So we're not as stable in our lower body for that purpose. Having said that though, absolutely this impacts men. And of course, to have a really good erection, it all comes down to blood flow. So if you have adhesions riddled throughout as well, similar things are going to happen. You're going to have that.

Inability to perform your, your sperm count may be a lot less. It may be slower and all of these things can impact conception. We talked about creating space breathing and maintaining postural alignment. Yes, it's relying on it. Are there any, uh, any ways that we can incorporate some of this into our lives today?

Yes, absolutely. So the first thing that we can do is understanding where the breath should come from. So just when you're lying on your back, placing your hands on your belly, when you inhale, Your belly should become big. I was a dancer and when I was young, I was told, hold your belly in. So if you're holding your belly in all the time, you're going to force this upper chest breath, which is not the goal.

We want there to be that ability to move those muscles in and out through the abdominal wall. So when we're lying on our back, placing your hands there, you want to think pregnant belly, make your belly nice and big. And then with the exhale, that's when we want to squeeze the belly small. Now this isn't forceful, but it's full and complete.

So that's the key. The first thing is, is we really want to learn where the breath should come from. And a really easy thing to do too, is if you happen to have a hardcover book, you can place that book, Right on your belly button, lie on it. That gives you a little bit of a prompt, just like our tool would.

And then that's also going to create a little bit more space in through there. So you're going to have a longer abdominal area because again, we compress, we get all congested and everything inside of us gets all congested. Mangled and chaotic. We want everything to be positioned where it should be. So we always teach people that we're going to be in a position for a minimum of 3 minutes because we're melting through adhesion.

So simply doing that as an exercise will be very, very helpful at creating that. And we also have a free gift where we teach people to do this. So you can use a rolled up towel and we have a whole system for you. So you can. Dive into that right away and experience the amazing benefits. But when you're standing, what you can do is you want to look at where your feet are.

We're like a building. So we want our feet to be positioned underneath the hip joints and the hips aren't the outside of the pelvis. They're inside the pelvis. So most people are standing with one foot splayed away, um, and, and, or standing with their feet too wide. So simply understanding where things should be positioned and making that your habit is a huge thing to do.

The majority of all people, when I see them standing, hyperextend at their knees. And in my view, this is one of the worst things to manipulate our overall alignment. The knees are the levers of the body. So when we hyperextend, we're not using our muscles to support our body, which is what we're supposed to do.

So we give in and we start twisting. Um, I call it the lock and talk, especially when people are talking to each other, they forget about their body and then we fall into these habits of whatever we're doing because again, we're dominant on one side. So we shift our body from center. We do all these interesting things, but just becoming aware of how you stand is 1 thing as well as how you sit, because when you're sitting, same thing can happen.

We want to have the knees 90 degrees. We want to have the feet planted on the ground. I often see people will hook their feet under their chair. And that again, it's manipulating their entire body. When you're sitting, you want to feel equal pressure on both of those sit bones. And if everybody listening just takes a moment to say, okay.

Where is that extra pressure? You'll probably feel that there's more pressure on one sit bone than the other. And the goal is balance and symmetry. We should have, when we're standing, 60 percent of our body weight on our heels. The average person has about 80 percent of their body weight on the balls of their feet.

And that's before a high heel shoot. Comes into the equation. I don't even own heels. So there's a number of things we can do immediately to make some just simple changes that will be super impactful because it's what we do all the time that matters most and adds up to create the situation that we have tomorrow.

So it's the habits, the breathing habit and the posture habit. Those, in my opinion, are the two most important things that we can do. And you can start in this very moment to make positive changes for your life. Love it. I'm already feeling a shift in my pelvis. Awesome. Love it. Um, cool. So I think, uh, we will link in our, under our video here, uh, where they can get your free gift.

Because I think like, I I'm like, ah, can I get this now? I really, I need to do this. Um, because I, I find all the time, like I sit all day, I'm at my computer, right? Like worst posture ever. And then like, Oh, my back hurts. I should sit up straighter, you know, um, but like that conscious awareness of breath at all times, I think is, is a challenge even for me.

So, well, and, and if I may just quickly add, it's, it's a challenge partly because even the rib cage, like, so again, we've got this plate of muscle that supports everything up the chain. If we've been upper chest breathers for a long time, that foundation has become. Really weak. And that's really what manipulates and pulls us in.

rib cage is sealed up to that: 2000

You're going to feel a lift of the rib cage, a greater ease of breath. That alone is going to start to oxygenate you more, more effectively. It's going to make you feel lighter and you're going to be also detoxing that much more effectively. So every step of the way, you're going to start to say, Oh, okay.

I'm feeling some change. I'm feeling some change and it doesn't take much. And that's the beautiful thing. And it's also done lying down on the floor. So it's not like you're working out and sweating and having to work hard. This is much more of a restorative practice, but then ultimately becomes an exercise, a therapy and a meditation all built into this one simple system.

Amazing. Yes. Sign me up. Give me whatever this is. Absolutely. I think, you know, I am partly joking, partly not because I am seeing what you're saying and, and just thinking like, oh, all of our clients need this, right? Like, we need to build this into some practice that they're doing regularly because it's not something that's focused on very often.

And yet it's something so vital to how our body. Heals how our body has circulation or not, how it has the space to make a baby or not. Um, and for, and for all of those people that have been trying for so long, I mean, it's, it's, it's defeating, right? Like you're, you're trying and trying and that in itself is going to create more problems in the body because again, pain, fear, and stress cause us to reactively hold the breath.

The more we limit that breath, the less oxygen. The less health in the body. So even the efforts can cause you to spiral into a less positive scenario. So that's just it. I mean, it, it helps to move the trauma out of the body because emotions are stuck and stored in the tissue as well. So, by opening things up and exhaling all of the past out, we have this fresh start in our body and it's a game changer and what's really lovely.

It doesn't matter. what other. Modalities or treatments you are utilizing. This is a compliment to all of them. Yeah, I love it. Thank you so much for being with us. Thank you for sharing all of your amazing tips and wonderful insights into how people can improve their fertility. I appreciate you being here.

Thank you so much. It's been an absolute pleasure to be here. If you love this episode, show us some love. And if you would love to leave me a voice memo, tell me what you love, what you hate, and what questions you have that you would like me to answer. On egg meets sperm. We're doing that all season long.

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