Charlie, Interesting post under the Barry Ross section. It prompted me to post something I’ve been researching. I read a book recently called The Body Electric which discusses using electric field impulses to spawn regeneration in various animals. To make a long story short, the physician proved that by switching the polarities of the body’s EMF, partial regeneration was possible in most all cases of amputation.
This type of therapy was making big waves in healing bone fractures from what I understand. Most people don’t know that the sheer forces directed at a bone determine how the bone reconstructs itself to be thicker for a new task.
What is even more amazing, is that the bone has a Piezoelectric activity, meaning, bone itself can literally restructure itself according to mechanical stress. Most of us with physiology backgrounds know this. But, what I discovered was that the bone restructures itself because when it is bent from it’s original position, with any type of sheer or compressional forces, the bone sends an electrical impulse within itself. This electrical signal is then characterized as a message which the body can use to alter growth.
Think about this, the intensity of the force put on the bone, and it’s direction, can be transformed into an electrical signal that the bone understands. Yes, I said bone, not nerve…lol.
So, here is yet more more aspect of intensity we must look at in terms of how the body interprets high tensions within the structural tissues and cells. This makes me think…higher tension=more electromagnetic signals= more adaptation. Im not talking solely about nerve tissue either, we are talking a whole different beast here encompasing all tissues, which most scientists believe is not possible. We are talking about electromagnetic fields.
I included this link from Wiki to give some of the readers a better background if they are having difficulty following along: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piezoelectric
There is a relationship between electrical activity and growth hormone release. it is known that limbs may be stunted after a serious fracture BUT sometimes the affected bone grows longer than its unaffected counterpart. It would be extremely interesting to know what conditions created such profound differences in results.
While new in North America, the Karolinska Institute in Sweden has been studying these effects since they first noticed an electrical aura on the chest X-rays of individuals with Lung Cancer in the late 1940s.
Interesting, have you read anything speculating what causes the electrical aura? My guess would be something having to do with cell damage. If it showed up on an X-Ray…something dense enough to reflect the rays must be involved. I would have to do more research on this aspect.
Prob a disruption in the normal balance of + and- across the cell membranes. It is speculated that cancer cells convert to a more primitive, anaerobic state.
So would this partially explain the already acknowledged observations that plyometrics, done in sufficient quantities, have a positive effect on bone density and overall bone-health? Would this also explain why deep knee-squats have a good effect on knee-health, since there is vertical compression together with mechanical stress directed to the whole knee joint – not partial as is the case with half and high squats?
ALL activity has a positive effect on bone density via several mechanisms, including response within the bone itself. This would lead to the conclusion that full squats would stimulate a favourable response to knee health but it would not rule out the positive effects of partials as well.
I’ve spent a lot of time in various complimentary fields. First, I was involed in Reinsurance underwriting of high risk individuals and later I worked with spinal chord injuries and CP patients. Thee is a continuum that runs from on end of physicality to the other. All very interesting!
Yes, I must say that I came across some pretty interesting things while reserching this topic. When I was reading the book, I initially thought I bought it to learn more about neurophysiology since it was written by a doctor. Halfway through the book I realize that partial regeneration is possible not only in frogs, but also in some human studies.
Not only that, but I learned how salamanders regenerate limbs, and then hydras, and then learning about Low EMF grids that the military uses to communicate, and on and on. And all this because I wanted to know more on how to incorporate neurophysiology into sprinting and become the fastest man in the world…lol.