This article looks at the compression of neural space and how that effects the flow of CSF. It is reprinted on this site here: Theoretics 1, Section D Summary: Interruptions to the flow of Cerebrospinal fluid have been shown to have serious implications in brain health and function. Interruptions in flow will occur due to skeletal structural distortion (such as excessive curvature or traumatic injury which alters the neural space through the skeleton. Flow may also be altered due to other factors including neural tumors or degraded cilia function. CSF fluid pressure, viscosity (concentration), and velocity are are all elements which are altered as CSF flow is altered. CSF also flows everywhere the nervous system does, which is to say, everywhere in the human body. It is chiefly compressed in the human body between bone ("interosseous") at the spine and ribcage. The implications of decreasing CSF flow to organs and body systems other than the brain is unknown and virtually un-investigated in medicine today. It is suggested here that the flow of CSF is critical to all function in every system of the body. The Flow of Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF) It is far more accurate to think of the nervous system as a fluid system of tubes and hoses, not wires. Within those tubes and hoses flows Cerebrospinal Fluid ("CSF"). Our early understandings of this complex fluid were overly simplistic -- it was initially believed that the function of CSF was to provide a cushioning barrier to the cranium, and protect the brain from injury. Although a function of the fluid, it was only later in the 20th century that researchers began finding that CSF was also instrumental in waste removal from the brain as well as a pathway for nutrients to the brain. Later still, it began to be clear that CSF was also instrumental in the transmission of neural signals. Here, it may serve us well to repeat Deane Juhan, "neural activity has really as much to do with the laws of hydraulics as it does with the laws of electricity. The action potential is the movement of fluids. It is only 'like' an electrical signal in certain respects." Job's Body, (Juhan, Deane; 3rd Edition, pg. 158). A recent study on CSF and it's multitude of functions: Multiplicity of cerebrospinal fluid functions: New challenges in health and disease https://doi.org/10.1186/1743-8454-5-10 (Brown University) This highly in-depth study finds that: "CSF integrates a multiplicity of functions for the CNS. From fetal life through adulthood, and extending into terminal stages, CP-CSF actively engages in building, maintaining and repairing the brain. Efficient CSF homeostatic mechanisms are vital to neuronal networks. CSF dys-homeostasis in aging and illness, however, can compromise motor functions and cognition...." Here I will summarize the study where it specifically addresses flow of CSF: CSF Flow "CSF flow pathways need elucidation for both healthy and diseased brain....There is increasing appreciation that reduced CSF flow adversely affects brain metabolism and fluid balance...Evidence continues to accumulate, however, for the importance of CSF flow on cerebral metabolism...Because the CP-CSF supplies micronutrients and peptides to neuronal networks, and removes many catabolites, impeded CSF flow disturbs metabolism in early life as well as in late stages...Flow effects on fetal germinal matrixInterference with CSF flow through the ventricles and aqueduct in fetal life profoundly retards brain development...Because CP (choroid plexus) function is fundamental for CNS development, it is pertinent to assess how perturbed CSF flow and composition harm the growing brain...." Decreasing CSF flow in aging "CNS/CSF flow disruption in adult chronic hydrocephalus also devastates cerebral functions. Throughout aging, the ability of CP epithelium to manufacture CSF undergoes continual decline...As CSF formation rate dwindles by 50% or more in senescence and disease the sink action of slower-flowing CSF is attenuated. The concentration of potentially-toxic peptides and organic metabolites in CSF and brain consequently builds up due to sluggish flow. Less favorable concentration gradients for catabolites diffusing from ISF to ventricular CSF, results in reduced clearance of harmful substances from brain." Refinement of non-invasive flow measurements "Recent advances have been made in the technology and algorithms for quantifying CSF flow non-invasively. Using phase-contrast MRI to calculate CSF and CBF curves over the cardiac cycle, Stoquart-Elsankari et al. extracted data for several CSF parameters: mean and peak flows, latencies and stroke volume. They found that CSF stroke volume was reduced in the elderly, both at the aqueductal and cervical levels." (Section 4, summarized, quotations and references removed, emphasis added). I would note that this study primarily addresses flow of CSF to the brain, and its actions there. CSF, however, flows through the entirety of the nervous system. And if it is critical to the health of the brain, it is likely just as critical to other organs as well, and more than likely, every system of the body. From here we may find ourselves wondering just how CSF flow gets disrupted and the mechanisms behind it. Of course, we are arguing here that distortions within the vertebral column and ribcage close and compress the neural space, thus effecting both CSF flow and pressure. There are of course deep and valid analogies here into to the world of hydrodynamics...and plumbing. Princeton University, Canada, has published a study of interest: "Scoliosis linked to disruptions in spinal fluid flow" www.princeton.edu/news/2016/06/10/scoliosis-linked-disruptions-spinal-fluid-flow The study postulates that scoliosis may itself be caused by disruptions in CSF flow; in this case, CSF flow was disrupted in adolescent fish by impairing the motile cilia -- "which stick out from cells and make synchronous whip-like motions to push fluid through narrow passages such as the spinal column." The study hypothesizes that a particular gene linked to cilia in the spinal canal could alter the flow of CSF, and that when the gene was switched off, and cilia action ceased, scoliotic distortion would occur. In order for the gene to be "switched off" however, it required that the fish be moved from a cooler tank to a significantly warmer tank during an early stage of development. The researchers further found that "the development of spinal curves in these adolescent fish could be blocked by switching the fish back to the cooler tank...provid(ing) proof-of-principle that the development of severe idiopathic scoliosis spinal curvatures can be managed without invasive surgical manipulation”. Importantly, as the researchers changed the temperature of the water, they were also altering another significant factor -- pressure, and in particular, relative fluid pressure within the fish themselves. How is pressure related to temperature? http://littleshop.physics.colostate.edu/activities/atmos2/TempPressureRelated.pdf Temperature and pressure are directly proportional to each other. This means that as the temperature increases, the pressure also increases. The adolescent fish in this study were switched to abnormally hot (86 degrees Fahrenheit) tanks, from cooler tanks, causing rapid changes to internal fluid pressures, at a very early stage of development. The study did not address the role of changing internal fluid pressures in the CNS of the fish. Importantly as well, the study did not address whether impaired cilia motility effected the relative CSF fluid pressure within the CNS of the fish and how a drop in fluid pressure with the CNS could have resulted in skeletal structural ramifications. What is the relationship between fluid flow and pressure? Well, it's complicated, but generally, when flow drops, so does pressure. See the "Bernoulli Equation": http://kb.eng-software.com/display/ESKB/Relationship+Between+Pressure+Drop+and+Flow+Rate+in+a+Pipeline In either case, both actions - the switch to the warmer tank, and the impairment of cilia, would have created internal fluid pressure change and ultimately distortion within the central nervous system of the fish, at a time when it was immature and least able to compensate to severe internal changes. In other words, the researchers both changed the internal fluid pressures of the fish whilst handicapping their nervous system's capabilities to deal with it. The study then went on to note that "scoliosis is prevalent in humans with conditions such as tumors that obstruct cerebrospinal fluid flow."
In consideration of that, we would also note that a tumor is essentially a growth which compresses a neural pathway, causing disruption to both CSF flow and the internal pressure of CSF. ... In the next section we will begin to discuss how skeletal structural distortion creates the same type of effect; compressing neural pathways and altering both the flow and fluid pressures of CSF.
3 Comments
Jan sultan
12/4/2017 04:31:49 am
An interesting line of inquiry. I feel pulsation all over the body, but to consider them as hydraulic is original. Thanks
Reply
10/13/2022 05:02:05 am
Pattern describe resource behind Mrs. Lot section follow put member.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |