Scars

Well, the title says it all. Scars are meant to be fine lines that are hardly visible. If you have scars that are red, raised or tender, it means that the scar is posing problems.

 

It works like this: the body is held together by a fine mesh, called “fascia”, that goes through cells, around groups of cells, around organs, through bones and muscle, and it holds everything in place. (When you prepare a  roast chicken and you have to run your finger between the skin and the meat to put the garlic in, you are poking your finger through fascia). This web is so fine and so dense that if you took everything else away, we’d still recognize you (the only other two systems that that is true of is the nerve supply and the blood supply)! In other places it makes up big, fat tendons like the ones on the outside of your thigh and knee.

 

So whenever there is cutting through the fascia, this fine mesh is disturbed, and because it’s the structural foundation of the body, everything else has to somehow make itself fit in. So if the fit doesn’t, you get the red, raised or tender situation. Furthermore, the fascia has electric properties, so areas very remote from the scar may be affected – in fact it has been shown that the acupuncture meridians are areas of extra high speed electrical conductivity (the Chinese worked this out 5000 years ago – how??).

 

And no, it makes no difference whatsoever how old the scar is – I have worked on scars that were decades old that suddenly became more user-friendly!
I use a simple and painless (yes!) technique that allows the fascia to line up again. Acupuncture is also particularly good. If you have a recent scar or know that you are about to acquire one (eg. through surgery – the only people who consistently do good scars are plastic surgeons…) use homoeopathic Arnica and Hypericum to speed the healing and use Vitamin E and/or rosehip oil to gently massage it. And if you have any old scars, draw them to my attention if you haven’t already.