Fasciopathy, Viscoelasticity Of Connective Tissues, The Aortically-Challenged Endurance Athlete, And FitOldDog Banned By SlowTwitch

This didn't strike me as an extremely viscous inelastic response by the SlowTwitch computer or person, which I consider to be bad manners. I apologize for my infractions, whatever they were, but thanks for getting my mind wandering - it may change my diet.

This didn’t strike me as an extremely elastic response by the SlowTwitch computer or person, which I consider to be bad manners. I apologize for any unintended infractions, whatever they were (the road to hell is paved with good intentions), but thanks for getting my mind wandering – it may change my diet for the even better.

Hi folks, welcome to my rambling thoughts on life, and it’s improvement by the efforts of oneself!!

WARNING: this post contains food for thought, not some potted wisdom statement, so if you don’t want to think about it move on and enjoy this lovely day, but try to stay flexible in the process.

If you want to understand viscoelasticity, a property that is essential for your continued existence, just go study your car suspension - classic example.

If you want to understand viscoelasticity, a property that is essential for your continued existence, just go study your car suspension – classic example.

This really is what went on in my brain over a period of a minute or so after being summarily banned in mid-conversations by SlowTwitch – guess I’m weird (happy weird):

I was recently banned by a great triathlon forum at the SlowTwitch site (which was disappointing, as I was having fun), with no warning or explanation. This caused my mind to drift along the following train of thought – suspension? The suspension system of my car. The role of viscoelasticity (energy storage and loss systems or moduli in Biological fluids), which took my mind on a trip to consideration of the underlying cause of my life-threatening abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA – second repair surgery pending). Which component of my aortic wall had failed, I wondered?

I couldn't find a decent legend for this figure on WikiPedia-circulation, but I assume the collagen outer layer of this artery (not a as big as but the same idea as the aorta for this demo) is stained blue and the internal and external elastic laminae are red. Think about the strain on the collagen layer if the elastic layers fail - gradual stretching and destruction, and pop! Dead! Now translate that to your car suspension, but it is usually the reverse as the shocks generally fail first.

I couldn’t find a decent legend for this figure on WikiPedia-circulation, but I assume the collagen outer layer of this artery (not as big as but the same idea as the aorta for this demo) is stained blue and the internal and external elastic laminae are red. Think about the strain on the collagen layer if the elastic layers fail – gradual stretching, destruction, and pop! Dead! Now translate that to your car suspension, but it is usually the reverse as the shocks generally fail first. You have to think about the dynamics.

I concluded based on a brief gedankenexperiment (brain fart) that it must be the elastic laminae, failing to store and return the forces induced by those systolic pressure waves, thus straining the energy dissipating collagen-based outer back up layers, which took my mind to a cure, and that led to food, and thoughts of life-saving supplements, such as vitamin-C or some odd amino acid. Then I thought, I have a fasciopathy,  which is expressed as AAA, dyslipidemia (fixed by exercise and diet), diverticulitis, and Raynaud’s syndrome. I wondered if I’d invented a new word, but no, it’s been around for a while.

Then I wondered:

Which foods should I eat to slow the progression of my aortic aneurysm and other aspects of my fasciopathic state, so I can continue to compete in Ironman races until I’m 100 years old?

It also contemplated the peremptory banning of FitOldDog on SlowTwitch, and I decided that (a) I had probably broken some cardinal rule, as I never read the fine print closely enough; for instance I did use F**k in a title due an emotional response to an undeserved rebuke (maybe it was a joke), but you know how the limbic system/reptilian brain overreacts with emotion, and (b) that the person or computer who banned me without warning, explanation, or road to recourse, is extremely inelastic. If you want to see something really viscoelastic, look at this very brief clip from our old (yes, Rory, old) mucus movie, showing mucus flowing across a frog palate – still takes my breath away, thirty years later.

Given the sea of information and misinformation out there, what is the best food  for strengthening the aortic elastic laminae, as such data should help some of us AAA people stay alive longer (too late for Albert, I’m afraid). Fish oil is a good start, I suspect. Any ideas?

Happy trails!

-k @FitOldDog

 

Comments

  1. When I asked about which foods are best for heart problem I got the usual oil fish plus a lot of what turned out to be snake oil.
    There is a confusion of messages for the laity and general advise cannot always be right in every individual case.
    Q? Is all inelasticity resulting from the same causal linkages in every case?

    • Nope! Inelasticity is as complex and as simple an issue as the set of ‘things’ called elasticity, of which it is a member with elasticity = 0 (probably a rare thing in this universe). Let me think about that, though at the molecular and conversational levels there are many causes of reduced or impaired elasticity, I’m sure.

  2. Interesting, the need to find the science behind the structural defect and fix it. Restoring elasticity to the vascular system. I’ll be interested in the science you dig up that links improved elasticity to fish oil. I found it increased my bad cholesterol some 30+ points, so I quit taking it. I’m going to suggest you contact Happy Healthy Librarian (where I originally ran into FOD), and post the question to her. The ‘sun’ is out so I’m taking my inelasticity outside for some yard work! Odd that you got summarily banned. Poor sports.

  3. No idea. It’s oil and, per Dr. Esselstyne, NO oil is good. I sparingly use olive oil to saute things. Otherwise, I have fish from time to time, wild caught salmon or halibut only. Maybe your inquiry should look at extremely long-lived people, and what are they doing to have healthy veins & arteries, besides lifelong exercise, spare eating and what they eat. A beautiful day!

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Disclaimer: As a veterinarian, I do not provide medical advice for human animals. If you undertake or modify an exercise program, consult your medical advisors before doing so. Undertaking activities pursued by the author does not mean that he endorses your undertaking such activities, which is clearly your decision and responsibility. Be careful and sensible, please.