The Extracellular Matrix and Ground Regulation [antikvár]

Foreword to the 2007 English EditionExtracellular matrix (ECM) regulation presents a holistic theory of the maintenance and recovery of health, as well as the development of illnesses. Practiced by the Viermese anatomist Alfred Pischinger (1899-1982) and his colleagues, ECM regulation represents a European system of investigation originally called the study of humors in the Hippocratic tradition. Galen (129-201 AD) more accurately understood this as humoral pathology, the study of blood composition. While Rudolf Virchow (1821-1902) replaced the humoral point of view with a theory of cellular pathology, Carl von Rokitansky (1804-1878) continued to adhere to the principle of humoral pathology and went on to refine Galen's principles with new insights into microcirculation. Von Rokitansky suggested that illness originated not in the cell itself, but in damage to microcirculation.Viennese professor of internal medicine Hans Eppinger (1878-1848) further developed von Rokitansky's point of view using modern histology, experimental research, and clinical and pathological evidence. Eppinger showed that every cell requires a suitable environment called the ground substanceor the ECMfor successful microcirculation.Pischinger continued this work by defining the cormections between the ECM and both the hormonal and autonomic nervous systems. These scientific studies allowed Pischinger to draw connections between the brain and the ECM, as ex-hibited when the central nervous system registers situation-specific changes (somatopsychic information) and delivers a response to the periphery (psychosomatic information), impacting all of the connected organs, including ECM components. This communication network is now known as the system of extracellular matrix regulation.This American edition brings together all the strands of Pischinger's ECM work so that it might be more widely known. It also contains my own new research and includes contemporary discoveries regarding the ECM: its construction, relationships to cybernetic non-linear systems, and phase transitions. The contributions of Dr. Bergsmann (Part Two) and Dr. Perger (Part Three) also represent new material.The book follows in a great European medical tradition and will give physicians and therapists around the world an introduction to holistic medical thinking and treatment. It is a welcome endorsement on the part of North Atlantic Books to publish this work in the US. The volume represents an extraordinary achievement of Ingeborg Eibl, Shannon Kelly, and Lindy Hough. Susanne Seeger of Thieme Verlag, Stuttgart, Germany, repeatedly gave encouragement and facilitated communication. I thank all of them and hope this book receives the wide distribution it deserves.Professor Hartmut HeineDoctor of Natural Sciences Spring 2007