05/23/2026
This interactive article describes the discovery of something acupuncturists have known for a long time. It's how we can put needles in your Achilles tendon to treat other conditions, because the myofascial plane–the interconnected tissue that wraps and penetrates the muscles, bones, even organs–goes the entire way through the body, and that’s how the chemical reaction gradients transfer to send messages. The article gets deeper into how we’re all compartmentalized but there is an over lining network that communicates.
- Brian Yelverton, Licensed Acupuncturist
Excerpt:
Theise and his colleagues published their first observations of these spaces in 2018. Their findings in the 2021 tattoo-ink study implied that the body’s interstitial spaces were parts of a vast interconnected whole — what scientists now call the interstitium.
“This is clearly a third bodily system for the circulation of fluids,” in addition to the cardiovascular and lymphatic systems, says Rebecca Wells, a professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and a senior author of the study. The human body suddenly looked less like a patchwork quilt and more like a knitted blanket.
The implications of a new circulatory system — for our health, and for our understanding of our own bodies — are potentially enormous.
One of the most intriguing areas of current research is whether there is a connection between the interstitium and the ancient Chinese practice of Acupuncture.
Acupuncture is used to treat conditions as varied as chronic pain, migraines, seasonal allergies and nausea caused by chemotherapy, but some of its actions have never been completely explained. The discovery of the interstitium may help us understand in modern biomedical terms how acupuncture works.
The detection of another circulatory system in the human body could have enormous scientific implications.
