Uncovering Fascia Decompression Improves Circulation

Deanna Hansen

Thank you so much. Dr. Yates. It’s an absolute pleasure to be here.

Beverly Yates, ND

Oh, you’re most welcome and glad you’re here. Hey, would you please share with our audience a brief background on yourself?

Deanna Hansen

Absolutely. I was trained as an athletic therapist certifying back in 1995, and I had a really successful practice focusing on in deep tissue work as much as my practice was successful, my own personal health was eluding me. I was doing everything that I was trained to do. But the harder that I was working, the bigger I was getting, the more compressed my body, the more constipation, anxiety, depression. It was all tied into this, trying to figure out how to be healthy. I was applying what I was taught to be healthy. Yet that wasn’t my scenario. When I was 30 years old, I made some big changes in my life, and these changes ultimately allowed me to tap into my body in a very different way. What I really found through that process was the fascia system in a different way than people understand it and how adhesions layered throughout the fascia really are the issue for pretty much anything, whether it be disease issues with our size and shape, chronic pain or mental health. Because adhesions block proper amounts of blood and oxygen flow to cells as well as they keep that tissue acidic from a lack of proper cleaning. Through this process, I’ve learned how to very effectively release those adhesions, pump blood and oxygen flow into cells previously blocks and create an entirely different pathway to how we age and to be healthy.

Beverly Yates, ND

Oh, that’s great. That’s something that everyone can benefit from. I think that people will be nodding your head going, “Hey, I recognize these issues for myself. Like, what can I do about it, How can I help myself or find others who can help me, who have the skills and background to do that assessment and then be effective with that treatment option?” Would you explain for our audience, because we always have a mix of people come to an online summit, some of the general public and some are other health professionals. What exactly is fascia?

Deanna Hansen

I feel I have a very unique perspective on fascia, like the skin is to the body. Fascia is the skin to the cell connecting all of the trillions of cells together, almost like the cell membrane of each cell, interconnecting every cell. It becomes the communication system. It creates both stability and mobility in the body. The ultimate goal is to ensure that all of our trillions of cells are positioned in their rightful home. What happens, though, is under the force of gravity, unconscious posture and incorrect breathing, we start to collapse and those cells start to get drawn away from where they’re supposed to be positioned. The fascia in its ingenious design, it hooks onto anything in its path, including bone, to stop us from basically tipping over these hooks are adhesions and adhesions like scar tissue, block that blood and oxygen flow to cells and create the aging process that we know today.

Beverly Yates, ND

This is an important thing for everyone to know. Certainly when it comes to diabetes and all of its various complications and risk factors, people know about cardiovascular disease, cancer risks, other things that go with that, unfortunately, part and parcel. When we think about the flow of oxygen, the flow of nutrients, the excretion of waste products, all of the things that has to happen with all kinds of circulation of the body, we know that Type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes are a real problem. In thinking about this, there’s one aspect we can dive into just to make this even more compelling, which is to talk about peripheral artery disease and how that can produce deposits, especially fatty deposits that will narrow or constrict those blood vessels so that I have a nice wide open blood vessel, nice pipe with easy blood flow. You get something that’s all constricted and blood flow can’t get through here quite so readily. Mainly this can happen and gravity is part of this factor in the feet, in the legs. How can we work on this situation with the fascia to improve and get more circulation? Specifically to our legs?

Deanna Hansen

There’s three parts to fascia decompression. We compress under the influence of gravity over a lifetime. We basically get shorter and wider, and as we get shorter and wider, we become more congested. Those adhesions block that flow without flow tissue becomes cold. The first part is we want to understand how to release those adhesions and we go through a process of melting. We never force the body, we persuade the body. With the tool that we use or your hands, you compress in a certain area for a minimum of 3 minutes because pressure over time creates heat combining with the second pillar of fascia decompression, which is understanding proper diaphragmatic breathing. This, in my opinion, is actually really the most important and significant thing to understand. I’m just going to tip my camera here for a moment. The diaphragm is a plate of muscle supporting the rib cage. When we inhale, it moves down. When we exhale, it moves up. If this muscle is working properly, it’s giving everything in this space a continual massage to keep the body heated. It’s the furnace of the body. Now the challenge comes from pain, fear and stress. When we encounter pain, fear and stress. I mean, in reality, I think it’s pretty much 24 seven these days. We reactively hold the breath. When we learn that as our habit now that foundation supporting all of the weight above the rib cage becomes weak. What happens is we instead of having this alignment, we fall in to this internal space, we compress and we balloon and this compression over a lifetime. It basically strangles the blood flow to the organs. 

Of course, the pancreas is right in through here. If we’re getting this freezing and displacement of the organs with all of these adhesions developing through the tissue, then we’re not allowing these organs to function properly. When we hold the breath or we change the breath because of pain, fear and stress, we’re still going to be breathing. Our body is meant to survive, so we’re going to start breathing through the muscles of the upper chest. But that’s like having a space heater in one room when we want to be able to heat the entire body effectively. The issue with peripheral arterial disease regarding the feet and the legs is that area is the furthest from the engine. That’s the first area that we’re going to start to see tissue freeze, tissue, death, whatever you want to call it. That’s the area, though, that’s going to be the most frozen. Even if somebody has, say, a frozen shoulder and you go and you have your shoulder worked on, as soon as you start walking, the pattern of how the fascia is holding us out of alignment is going to continue to pull us back because it literally is magnetically sealed onto bone with a force of up to 2,000 pounds per square inch. That’s what we’re fighting. We’re fighting these adhesions that are literally locking us out of alignment. Strangling the flow of blood and oxygen to the cells and ultimately that’s in the area start to become solid. That’s where those plaques build up and create the narrowing and all of the problems that we’re seeing.

Beverly Yates, ND

Okay, that makes total sense. We know that people really struggle with issues, particularly with their legs and feet with diabetes. That’s absolutely no secret. That’s one of the complications. Often wind up with such compromised circulation and issues where they are at risk of losing toes and feet and or limbs, the lower leg or the whole leg. Like, it’s just so sad when that process unfurls because there’s so many things that could have been helpful before it got to that situation. This is one important, very important piece of that puzzle. How can working with the fascia particularly help, let’s say specifically with foot pain, many diabetics have problems with their feet, all sorts of problems, including foot pain, and in particular, we could also talk about plantar fasciitis.

Deanna Hansen

The three pillars, again, creating that space that we’ve lost over time that melts those adhesions, that starts to open up tissue previously blocked so that through the instruction we can then pump that blood and oxygen flow into that space. If you think of a balloon when it’s fully blown up, it’s round, it glows, it almost defies gravity. Take half of the air out of the balloon, it becomes wrinkled, it accumulates dust, and it becomes sticky and heavy and it falls to the ground when we’re not breathing properly. That’s ultimately what’s happening to the cells as we age. The third pillar, which is so incredibly important, is understanding how posture affects this, because we have all these channels for flow and we’re like a building. Again, our cells should be positioned in their rightful place. But if we aren’t conscious of posture and we collapse, people that are right handed, for example, will often shift their body weight over to one side to the left. The fascia is always responding to the forces of life in order to keep us upright, to keep us stable. But that stability is in lieu of mobility and it decreases flow. When we can understand how to support proper alignment, then we can keep those channels for flow open when we know how to really connect to that proper diaphragmatic breath. That’s what’s really driving the movement of fluids through the entire body. Again, that’s that engine. When we know how to melt the adhesions that have already formed in the body, we can really turn back what time has done to us and pull those cells back to their proper alignment so they have optimal space. As long as they’re space, there’s ease of absorption as well as ease of the removal of byproducts and waste that the body will release through the exhalation. I found this to be fabulous information. 

In 2014, they did a study proving 84% of weight loss comes through proper exhalation. I absolutely love that because back in my early years when I was working out like a fiend that I was dieting and I was getting bigger, I’m thinking the rules of weight loss don’t apply to me. But I recognized my breath was frozen. I would come back from a run after five miles dripping wet with sweat, but my belly would still be cold because there was no flow getting to this tissue to metabolize it. When I read that study, I thought, Wow, like, that’s amazing that they’ve actually shown this. It’s not just about weight loss, it’s about detoxification and keeping the body clean through that breathing process.

Beverly Yates, ND

That makes total sense. Thank you for sharing that research in your own personal lived experience. I’ve observed that as well too. I think sometimes when it comes to releasing excess pounds, releasing stress, releasing anxiety, releasing anything that doesn’t match us in the moment, that it’s important we have ways to recover. It seems to me that breath is just so very central in having your diaphragm work for you and just being aware of what is going on in your belly. Literally, like your root source, like you were connected there to your umbilicus your belly button with your mom and just all of the power that comes from that. Some of the healing traditions talk about the solar plexus from the point of view of it being energy center or chakra, and there’s all this autonomic nervous system. I mean, there’s so many ways that science and the healing arts come together when we’re talking about this specifically.

Deanna Hansen

Absolutely. The very first position we ever teach people to do is right on the bellybutton. You lie on the tool, right on the belly button. You engage proper diaphragmatic breathing. That is how we spark that engine to be turned on so that we can really optimize our ultimate healing opportunity within ourselves.

Beverly Yates, ND

Okay. Now, if someone has had, let’s say, abdominal surgery, maybe they had an abdominal hernia repaired, something like that to their umbilicus might not be their original belly button, Are there any points of caution or concern with that or is it just fine?

Deanna Hansen

We teach you that your breath is your guide as long as you’re breathing in a relaxed way, you’re going to be heating, feeding and healing that tissue. If something hurts so much that it takes that relaxed breath away, that’s your body saying we need to back off and do this less intensely. We have a lot of variations that we teach people. If that’s the case, until they can become comfortable with this. What’s lovely is pressure overrides pain.We teach you to actually become a pain seeker. As you are in position and you’re connecting with the pain because pain essentially equals adhesion, we want to find those adhesions, we want to go after them and we want to persuade them to melt. We don’t force the body, we persuade it. We put the control in the hands of the individual and through their breath they learn what’s appropriate for their body or not. This is a wonderful journey as well outside to teach you how to move safely. People often injure themselves when they bend over, pick up something heavy and hold their breath doing that, because now they’re asking their cells to work really hard, but they’re starving them by holding the breath. Through this process, we teach people to breathe through movement. Outside of being in the practice, you can also bring this information into your life when you move all the time.

Beverly Yates, ND

Makes total sense. Thank you for clarifying that. Now you’ve touched on this point a little bit, but let’s peel back the layers some more here. When you’re talking about posture and as it relates to Type 2, diabetes, prediabetes, blood sugar, concerns in general. What can we do to make positive changes?

Deanna Hansen

The first thing we ever teach people is how to release the adhesions from the rib cage. Because again, if we are in this negative alignment for decades, it’s like we have a frozen shoulder, but we have a frozen diaphragm.When we work through the core, through faster decompression, we release those adhesions allowing the rib cage to lift. Then we have a deeper access to the diaphragm. The reason the diaphragm is such an important muscle is because at the base of the lungs is where the majority of the oxygen receptor sites reside. If we’re breathing through the muscles of the upper chest, which is the following breath that most people are using, then we’re not pulling the air deeply enough into the lungs for optimal absorption six times the oxygen. Each cell, first and foremost, requires oxygen to thrive. It’s the fuel of every single cell. When we are diminishing that ability to feed the body, the body is built to survive. It’s going to feed the organs to sustain us for life, but it’s not going to allow us to thrive. When we really connect to that diaphragmatic breath after releasing those adhesions, it’s a very quick response where we feel we’re lifting more. As we start breathing more deeply, we’re pumping more oxygen in and those cells are becoming inflated and lighter.It’s a process from there. That’s the first and most important thing when it comes down to understanding proper alignment is how to engage this powerful muscle and then also understanding the foundation. We call it rooting. We are like a building, so we have two feet that should literally be positioned right under the hip joints. But most people, again, we fall away. We look at how an ankle can pronation draw the body away. 

Because the body is designed to stay upright, if we’ve got one foot drawing away, the other one’s going to anchor and this becomes the problem because now this creates all of this tension, all of these adhesions, because the body is unconsciously responding to all these external stresses. When we do that again, we start to freeze up. By understanding how to position the feet correctly, how to increase the strength of the feet, the feet are really misunderstood. We don’t use them properly. We don’t even really consider them unless we’re getting a manicure or unless they hurt where they carry us through life. These little things that have 26 bones, they are literally adapting through every single movement. Yet we don’t really pay attention to them. We teach you how to strengthen the feet. It’s really quite simple. Just having your feet underneath your hips with your knees slightly bent and gripping the toes. If you hold that for ten breaths and you do that throughout the day a few times, very quickly, you realize how much strength your feet have and then you start walking differently and you start to pump up that flat tire that’s been pulling the body out of alignment so that we can support everything up the chain. 

The third foundation is the tongue muscle. People don’t realize that the tongue is more than just a muscle designed for chewing and talking. It’s also here to support the weight of the head. Yet if we don’t use it and strengthen it in that proper alignment, it becomes a hindrance. It actually pulls the body forward. It slows down the blood flow to the brain, to the face, to everything in this region, as well as it keeps everything congested up through here. It strangles the major lymphatic drainage sites, the thyroid. All of these things become impacted when we have that negative alignment. Basically, as if we’re not aligned, our body slowly becomes colder and colder and colder, and the more frozen it is, the less flow it has, the more plaque builds up, the more challenges we have.

Beverly Yates, ND

We’ve got a great, great overview. Thank you for that. It’s to me really compelling because I’m thinking of different things. Either I’ve experienced or the people that I’ve worked with over the years as patients and clients or family members, friends, different struggles, people maybe who have sleep apnea, the sleep disorders, perhaps the tongue dysregulation, whether or not someone was breastfed or not, where they bottle fed and just the term development and what is its role. Your feet like what are they like? They do so much for us. They I mean, feet are pretty amazing. I think they’re an important part. You’re right. They do get overlooked unless they’re screaming for help with pain kind of thing.

Deanna Hansen

Absolutely. Coming back to your question about plantar fasciitis, when we have that flat tire, we have this ligament connected from the heel to the ball of the foot to support the arch. But if that foot protects and collapses now we’re putting all of the success of stress on that ligament which can start tearing away at the heel. Then we can develop a heel spur, which can feel like you’re standing on a nail, which is incredibly painful. To understand how to again, pull everything back into alignment, we take off the stresses, causing the tearing which creates that inflammation and the inflammation. This is something that I love talking about because people often say that inflammation is the problem. Inflammation is the response to the problem. The problem are the adhesions and the scar tissue. The inflammation sends all that’s necessary for rebuilding, but we need to support the inflammation. If we ice it or try to slow it down, we’re just freezing our body even faster. We want to support inflammation by adding energy into this through proper breathing, through keeping these channels open, through heating the area. I have a very different take on that. But we have this potential, even with chronic stagnant inflammation, to heat it and to awaken those healing potential, healing the healing potential that it had initially sent before it became problematic.

Beverly Yates, ND

Absolutely. I agree with you. Inflammation is the response and it’s not the cause. Okay, great. Thank you, Deanna. What do you find working with people are the common mistakes that they will make when they’re working on their fascia?

Deanna Hansen

Common mistakes? Our understanding that we are persuading, not forcing the body. There’s a lot of different modalities out there for self care, like fascia rollers, for example, where you’re rolling on the surface. When we roll on the surface, we stay on the surface. What we need to do is we need to get to the root of the problem and the fascia ball grip and adhere to bone. I see that as the real issue because it’s deep through the layers. If we just stay on the surface, we’re going to get a little bit of surface improvement and flow is temporary. As soon as we get back to that negative pattern, it’s just going to get frozen up again and it’s not going to feel very good. What we do with our processes, we stay in a position for a minimum of three minutes and we slowly guide you with your breath to search through pain. You’re moving very slowly. It’s very restorative. That creates a melting effect, though, and that’s what’s really required. Also, the tool. Maybe I should show you the tool.

Beverly Yates, ND

Sure. Absolutely. Please do.

Deanna Hansen

Okay. This is the block buddy. This is the block baby. They’re very specifically shaped and they’ve been made of either wood, this is elmwood or bamboo. The reason we use this material is because it’s similar in density to bone. If we use something porous, it’s not going to be able to drive through those layers to get to that root of the issue where when we have something with that density, now you get this lovely little equidistant compression squeezing. It heats throughout the layers. That’s where the real magic lies when you’re compressing with this tool, with that slow guidance and you’re breathing, you’re getting this beautiful, magical melting. It’s fascinating how it changes everything.

Beverly Yates, ND

That’s the brilliant way to approach it. I appreciate you pointing out the need to use the materials that are close to our own bones. Because I’m guessing the body is going, ooh, I recognize this and responding because it’s not something that’s so dissimilar that the body’s like, what the heck is that?

Deanna Hansen

That’s right. It’s like they’re friends and they love each other. Once you’re in it position and you’re connecting to that breath, you’re connecting to the parasympathetic nervous system. It becomes very calming. You take all of the thoughts out of the mind and you’re really just focused on the sensations and the breath and you get lost in time. People love this practice. It’s simple to do. You lie on the floor or the bed doing it. It’s a persuasion versus force scenario. We never want to force the body. When I forced my body to try to change for the better, I kept changing for the worse. Once I realized that the body doesn’t want to be forced, it wants to be loved. It wants to be cared for in a kind but disciplined way. That’s what this process is all about.

Beverly Yates, ND

Great. That makes total sense. Let’s come back to the topic directly of blood sugar and glycemic control. When somebody has Type 2 diabetes pre-diabetes, they’re somewhere on that glycemic dysregulation spectrum. Why is it that training, that beautiful diaphragm diaphragmatic breathing, why is that so crucial to manage blood sugar levels?

Deanna Hansen

Because we want to support the pancreas. The islets of Langerhans, like every everything requires that flow. When we were going to do this one more time, so if my pancreas is somewhere right in here and I have correct alignment and I’m breathing properly, I’m giving this organ a massage, that massage, stimulating energy into that space, so everything’s going to function well. But again, if I’m positioned like this, I’ve got the weight of everything above coming and crashing down right on top of that organ. It’s basically being strangled. It can’t function. When we are holding our breath, it becomes frozen. Another thing when we’re eating, part of the process of digestion comes from the diaphragm moving up and down and giving the stomach organ that massage. If we’re not doing that properly and we’re again collapsing into the core, everything is just getting squished into the corner, displaced, riddled with adhesion, lacking flow. Like anything, if it doesn’t have the energy it requires to function, it’s not going to function on our behalf.

Beverly Yates, ND

That’s clear. I think for a lot of people in today’s world cortisol, people are distressed, stressed, stressed and not always having good resources are good tools to be able to manage that and to just have that awareness of what’s working for them and what’s not right. Will you share with us that House Guard tissue that is in the gut as it specifically, how could it have be released in order to support optimal circulation to the pancreas? Because when it comes to blood sugar, the pancreas is key organ.

Deanna Hansen

That’s a great question. Dr. Yates, thank you so much for asking that. This takes me right back to when I was in the beginning of my massive struggles and I was 50 pounds overweight and the majority of my weight was stored right in my abdomen. I never touched this area because I hated it and it just was uncomfortable. I’m amidst this anxiety attack and I go and I dive my hand deep into my abdomen. I lit up that gasp. But the pain also brought me back from my crazy thinking. It brought me to the ground and then I was connecting to my breast. For the first evening I was working, I was just intuitively exploring my belly with my hands and it was very calming and I was recognizing that I was creating some real change in here. The next day I woke up when I stood up, the next day after work, after I did the work for a second evening, when I stood up, I felt taller and I went and I looked at myself in the mirror and my belly was flatter than it had looked in years because what I was recognizing I was doing was I was putting energy into this space. I was melting these adhesions, and I was also connecting to my breath in a very different way. With the process, when we’re putting pressure into the abdomen and we’re connecting to that breath, we start heating up all of that chronic, stagnant inflammation that is blocking proper flow. It’s blocking our ability to absorb, digest or even eliminate. The more we become bloated, the more other things we attract. It’s all held in, locked in by those adhesions. When we take that time and we melt through those adhesions in the abdomen, we start to clean out that space. We start to allow our lymphatic system to ramp up and start working on our behalf. There’s a gut brain connection. I struggled with massive anxiety and I used to say I have anxiety. What I recognize now is if I’m feeling anxious, it’s not because I have anxieties, because my cells aren’t getting what they need to function fully and optimally, and they’re just giving you a signal, just like pain. Pain is the language that the cell lets us know that it needs a little bit of attention. It’s like the baby crying. If we ignore that or mask it or possibly avoid it, it’s going to get louder until it’s so far away from our understanding that now it’s shut off. That’s when I really see disease becoming problematic, is when we’ve really disassociated from so many parts of our body and we’re simply just feeding what we need to survive and not thrive.

Beverly Yates, ND

Great distinction. Thank you. It’s one of the things that I found that can be this vicious cycle, particularly when it comes with chronic conditions. This would include diabetes. This would include other conditions as well in the body where things are out of balance. Sometimes there’s this downward spiral, this cascade of events, and things just get worse and worse and worse. Sometimes the key to making things and making improvements and being able to maintain and build on your improvements and not feel like they’re being constantly washed away from the shore is being able to have those foundational supports and certainly breathing and fascia release are a key element here in order to feel well in your own body, your own spirit.

Deanna Hansen

You made such a great point about the spiraling down. I always say that there’s a pain, fear cycle that we get trapped in when we have pain that we don’t understand. Immediately we reactively hold the breath. That holding of the breath decreases oxygen even more, that breathes fear that causes us to hold the breath even more. We get caught in this spiral. By choosing to move into your body and find your pain on purpose, we take the fear out of the equation. There’s just pain as a sensation. When we really understand the value of this message and we have a specific approach so that we can actually move through those layers, it’s incredibly empowering and pain ultimately becomes a friend.

Beverly Yates, ND

It is a warning sign for sure. Something’s not right. It’s definitely there for a reason. Great. Are there any parting tips or insights you’d like to share with our audience and any key takeaways you want to make sure that people get from our session here?

Deanna Hansen

Well, most importantly, if to access proper diaphragmatic breathing, if you haven’t been breathing correctly for decades, to just suddenly do that, just like if you’ve been literally magnetically sealed for decades, you can’t just sit up and start breathing. It’s a process. But because this is the natural way the body wants to use the diaphragm and live, when you start putting a little bit of attention, it’s really, really quick. We have a gift where we can allow you to dive into this right away using a rolled up towel. It’s a nine part instructional video series, so you can experience fascia decompression immediately and you’re going to understand and even from those first couple of classes, how impactful it is to just really dive in to your fascia and give yourself a moment to breathe. The changes that can happen. Secondly, the self-talk we we can beat ourselves up. Again, pain, fear and stress cause us to reactively hold the breath. If we’re beating up ourselves, that’s going to be impacting how we breathe and it’s also going to be impacting the nature of the cell. We want to start to love ourselves and like everything else, that can be a little bit of a journey as well. I remember one of the very first times I was going through this journey. I said, okay, I’m going to look at myself naked in the mirror. I wasn’t happy with myself and I said, I love you. I literally blushed because I knew I was lying. But I did it every day and it became easier. Before I knew it, I actually believed it. Positive changes started to happen.

Beverly Yates, ND

That make sense. That love of self, that recognition of self and accepting of self. Just as we are composed in that moment is a key part of the journey. Thank you for pointing that out. That’s helpful. Okay, great. After this wonderful session that people would like to connect with you, where can we find more information on you and your work.

Deanna Hansen

blocktherapy.com

Beverly Yates, ND

Okay. Spell just like it sounds right. B L O C K T H E R A P Y.com. blocktherapy.com. Okay, great. Thank you so much. It’s been wonderful to interview. I appreciate your work and the difference you make here on the planet. People are suffering in pain and having a hard time and this is one way for them to help unwind what can sometimes be decades of struggle. I appreciate you.

Deanna Hansen

Thank you so much. Dr. Yates. It’s been a pleasure.