Why the Fascia System has Been Overlooked in Medicine

Recently, I spent a fascinating weekend studying anatomy, with Dr. Rebecca Pratt (she, her), president of the Fascia Research Society. Dr. Pratt is an anatomy professor who has fought uphill battles to teach about fascia in medical school. 

The tides are turning, though. Doctors are starting to listen: a few anatomy books now include (scant) information about the fascia. And there is a huge uptick in research about the fascial system. Dr. Pratt insists it’s time for the “medical model” to give way to a “healthcare model.”(Dr. Pratt lecture, April, 2026)

Fascia and Whole-Person Healthcare

In other words, medicine has to serve the needs of people, not just institutions. And medicine needs to treat the whole person, including the sensory-rich fascial matrix that holds us together. According to Dr. Pratt, “fascia is the bridge” to the healthcare model: understanding and treating fascia enables us to more effectively treat the whole person (Pratt lecture, April 2026).

Since fascia is everywhere and entwines with everything, you can’t reduce fascia to parts in the way a mechanical clock can be deconstructed. Last time I checked, we aren’t mechanical clocks or any kind of machine, for that matter. We are entangled, alive, always changing, always moving.

The effects of POTS, fibromyalgia, and hypermobility are also global, affecting every system. Since the medical model often ignores what it can’t understand, people with these conditions are often gaslit and told they are “just stressed,” or worse, that they are “making up” their symptoms(!)

Neurodivergence, Hypermobility, and Chronic Pain

You may already know of the intersection of neurodivergence with connective tissue variance. (Csecs et all., 2022) Neurodivergent people often have connective tissue variance and chronic pain, and their symptoms are often misunderstood. For example, hypermobility and anxiety are strongly linked. (British Journal of Medicine, 2025)

So, maybe it’s time to stop tossing the fascia in the waste bucket.