These electric fields are one of the factors that influence the gel-to-solvent (melting) transition. The colloidal gel component of soft tissue, which makes up the ground substance that embeds all of the connective tissue/collagen in the body, is influenced by electrical fields. When a bone or cartilage is compressed, or a tendon or ligament stretched, or when skin is stretched, electric pulsations are created. These crystals are piezoelectric, meaning they generate electric fields when compressed or stretched. Piezoelectricity literally means, "pressure electricity." Crystalline arrangements are the rule in living tissue, 2 not the exception. ![]() The Curie brothers discovered the piezoelectric effect in crystals in 1880. An often-overlooked benefit of soft tissue loading is the piezoelectric effect. Past soft tissue articles in this journal have given evidence of pressure on tendons causing a proliferation of fibroblasts and initiation of an inflammatory cascade, resulting in the laying down of new collagen along the normal lines of stress. 1 Receptors are able to convert mechanical energy into chemical stimuli that can be conducted inside the cell. There are receptor connections between the outside and inside of the cell, linking to signaling pathways that convey mechanical stimuli information to the nucleus. Most of the literature on mechanical load demonstrates that cells detect mechanical deformation as tension, compression, shear or fluid flow. Hands-on loading of soft tissue has proven to be much more than just increasing circulation or relaxing tense muscles, as important as those benefits are.
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