Today's Edition of Childer's Coffee & Covid Column is Proof of Censorship: Two Days After the Paper Dropped, I Was Already There
Eight Years Late, or Eight Years Early?
Video Overview
My first exposure to Substack came through my bro, a Kansas farmer who doubles as an ER doc - a wide awake ER doc, if you get my drift. Early in the pandemic, he sent me a column by a Florida lawyer who was making a name for himself by going up against the unconstitutional government mandates — lockdowns, vax, masking, the works — and winning. In the years since, I've become a Childers super-fan for a variety of reasons, promoting his column regularly in my email newsletters (email is how you do it when your website's been censored). Why is C&C my only daily must-read news source?
Jeff is an outspoken Christian. I love the fact that he is not ashamed of the gospel, the power of salvation to all who believe.
Jeff is the eternal optimist. The other day, Jenna McCarthy was making her feelings about my post on Substack Censorship known. I replied back, “I absolutely cringed to write it - honestly. Hopefully, Childers is correct in today's assessment of current events. His ability to put a positive spin on virtually anything is uncanny! That big pile of steaming brown in your front yard from the neighbor's Bull Mastiff / Great Dane cross? Fertilizer!”
His news is simply the best. Not sure who his sources are, but the guy is spot on. The only other news I follow that’s even remotely like his is Peggy Tierney’s Real News site.
The guy is both witty and hilarious. Between Coffee and Covid and Jenna’s Side (sorry Jeff, Jenna is still the undisputed heavyweight champion of Substack titles), I frequently start my mornings laughing out loud.
I say all that to say this. Today’s edition of Coffee & Covid dealt with a study he was making fun of because it seems that the New York Times “discovered” a “new” organ called the interstitium — a third circulatory system the body has apparently been hiding in plain sight. For the better part of a decade. I’ll let Childers himself tell you what the hubbub was about.
From today’s column, Revolution and Renewal…
In another fascinating medical story, the NYT published a bizarre article, if you can call it that, headlined “Inside the Interstitium, the Human Body’s Hidden Pathways.” I’ll file this story under the category of medical innovation of the kind we haven’t seen in the last 25 years. In short, suddenly and unexpectedly, scientists discovered a third circulatory system in the human body that they had never noticed before.
What’s most exciting, from a nerdy alt-health perspective, is that the discovery could explain most of the difference between Western and Eastern medicine. For centuries, Western medicine has recognized two major fluid-circulation systems: blood and lymphatic. Turns out they missed one. (In response, the American Medical Association issued a statement saying they are “cautiously optimistic” that the human body does not contain any more surprises, and that they are “reasonably confident” they have now found all the important parts.)
Researchers studying tattoo ink migration in the body found that fluid‑filled “interstitial spaces” throughout the body’s connective tissue were not just isolated pockets as they’d supposed, but were in fact one continuous network. They are calling it “the interstitium.”
There are pretty significant implications. The existence of this major fluid pathway could explain how cancer cells spread after they metastasize. It could explain how inflammation in one part of the body causes inflammation in another. It could explain how acupuncture works.
The story wasn’t exactly “breaking.” The lead researchers first published their findings in 2018. It has taken eight years for a major media outlet to cover the story, which is actually pretty fast by the standards of heterodox medical discoveries. By comparison, the medical establishment spent roughly forty years confidently telling patients that stomach ulcers were caused by stress before finally admitting they were actually caused by bacteria. The researcher who proved it, Barry Marshall, had to drink a beaker of the bacteria to get anyone to pay attention.
The good news is that scientists studying the interstitium have not yet been required to drink anything.
Still, one detects a lingering whiff of resentment. The Times chose to break this potentially civilization-altering medical discovery not as a written article, but as an interactive multimedia scroll that requires approximately 17 minutes of clicking to read what could have been three pages of text. This is the journalistic equivalent of announcing the discovery of fire by interpretive dance.
Anyway, the discovery of the interstitium is potentially another major challenge to orthodox medicine’s historical certainties. Welcome to 2026’s accelerating medical revolution.
Childers nailed the kicker: “The lead researchers first published their findings in 2018. It has taken eight years for a major media outlet to cover the story.” He compared it to the forty-year stall on stomach ulcers and H. pylori — the one that ended with Barry Marshall drinking a beaker of bacteria because no one would listen.
Eight years. Hold that number…
I covered the interstitium on March 29, 2018 — two days after Benias, Wells, Theise and crew published in Scientific Reports on March 27. My post is still sitting there, untouched, in the archive (right around the time Gemini said Google started censoring me).
And before anyone dismisses it as some chiropractor’s hot take, go look at the thing (I actually included it below). Every claim in that 2018 article is individually sourced and linked — PubMed citations, fascia researchers like Langevin, primary literature, the works. That’s how I’ve written for thirty-plus years and across almost 2,000 posts. Nothing floats. Everything ties to a source.
But here’s the part that actually matters — and this is the flex…
The strongest evidence isn’t that I somehow predicted the interstitium. It’s that my 2018 article already framed it in systems language: fascia, signaling, mechanotransduction, fluid dynamics, acupuncture, cancer metastasis, sensory integration. The interstitial mechanoreceptors — more sensory receptors than the eye, per Schleip — were already in there. The Langevin-style acupuncture connection was in there. The cancer-spread mechanism was in there.
The Tom Myers statement was quoted inside the post the day he wrote it. The Guimberteau, Gil Hedley, and fascia research lineage was in there. Meanwhile, eight years later, the Times framing is still mostly stuck at: Scientists may have found a new organ. That contrast — systems thinking on the chiropractor’s blog in 2018 versus “look, a new organ!” in the Times in 2026 — is the real story here, and the real flex. That’s not me being early. That’s the captured legacy press being structurally incapable of catching up.
So when Childers says it took eight years for major media to cover it, he’s being generous…
The fascia research community (including my 200+ articles on the subject) had this nailed long before Benias and Theise ever looked under the microscope. The interstitium isn’t a censorship story in the loud, demonetize-the-Substack sense — nobody got banned for talking about fascia. It’s the other censorship story: the slow kind. The kind where peer-reviewed work that doesn’t fit the prevailing model just sits there, ignored for decades, until somebody at the Times decided eight years is enough penance, turning it into a seventeen-minute interactive scroll.
It’s also the Consensus is King problem — Google’s pivot from rewarding original content to rewarding establishment talking points, which I laid out in detail across the eight-part AI Censorship series I wrote earlier this spring (DoctorSchierling.com archive) and summarized in my recent Substack post, The Language of God vs. The Language of Censorship & Propaganda. Independent voices that got the story right in real time get buried under jimmied algorithms. The legacy outlet that took eight years to show up gets the front page.
Mr. Childers — if you ever want to see what eight years early looks like, I included the article itself below. And if you ever feel you need a few days vacation, we have more than enough room. Bring your wife and family to the Ozarks. Branson’s fine, but that’s not the real Ozarks. We’ll spend a couple days jet boating, swimming, and snorkeling on the Current River. You mentioned in today’s column, “The good news is that scientists studying the interstitium have not yet been required to drink anything.” Not ‘required,’ but coffee or Coffee Stout - it’s on me brother!
Is Science’s Latest ‘Discovery’ — The Interstitium — Really a New Organ or is it Something the Fascia Research Community has Known About All Along?
IS THE INTERSTITIUM REALLY A NEW……ORGAN? HUH? DOES THAT ORGAN LOOK NEW TO YOU?
“We propose a revision of the anatomical concepts of the submucosa, dermis, fascia, and vascular adventitia, suggesting that, rather than being densely-packed barrier-like walls of collagen, they are fluid-filled interstitial spaces.
In sum, we describe the anatomy and histology of a previously unrecognized, though widespread, macroscopic, fluid-filled space within and between tissues, a novel expansion and specification of the concept of the human interstitium.” The research team of physicians and scientists from New York University’s Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center (quoted from Seth Augenstein’s article, Discovery of Interstitium Fluid: Does it Upend Human Biology?)
It’s been a while since I’ve seen medical research (or PRESS RELEASE as is often the case) that’s not touting some new drug, garnering as much hype in the mainstream media as Tuesday’s study, Structure and Distribution of an Unrecognized Interstitium in Human Tissues. In order to understand what this study actually says, the first thing we must do is to understand what the interstitial space and interstitial fluid are.
As you might suspect, the fluid contained in the interstitial space is the interstitial fluid. But what’s the interstitial space? The word itself means “empty” or “fragmented,” so basically it’s the ’empty’ space that lies outside the cells, between the capillary walls and CELL MEMBRANE.
Bear in mind that about 2/3 of the body’s fluid is found inside the cells (intracellular fluid), while the remaining third is found outside the cells (extracellular fluid). Most of the extracellular fluid is “interstitial,” while the remaining extracellular fluid is found as blood plasma, cerebrospinal fluid, the gel in your eyeballs, etc, etc. Why do you need to know about interstitial fluid (IF) to understand today’s study? Follow along.
INTERSTITIAL FLUID PRESSURE IS CRITICAL FOR HOMEOSTASIS: When it comes to health, HOMEOSTASIS is everything. A quick look at PubMed shows study after study intimately correlating various aspects of one’s health with IF pressure.
INTERSTITIAL FLUID IS THOUGHT TO BE THE CHI (QI) IN ACUPUNCTURE: The January issue of the Chinese Journal of Integrative Medicine (Understanding Qi Running in the Meridians as Interstitial Fluid Flowing Via Interstitial Space of Low Hydraulic Resistance) stated that, “Pathological changes of qi, blood and meridians may lead to discomfort and disease. Treatment with acupuncture or herbal medicine aims to regulate qi and blood so as to recover normal function of the meridians. This paper explores the nature of qi as well as compares and correlates them with the structures of the human body. We propose a conceptualization of qi as being similar to the interstitial fluid, and the meridians as being similar to interstitial space of low hydraulic resistance in the body. Hence, qi running in the meridians can be understood as interstitial fluid flowing via interstitial space of low hydraulic resistance.” Considering you can purchase acupuncture “point finders” for less than 100 bucks that measure electrical resistance, their conclusions make sense and should be fairly simple to prove.
INTERSTITIAL FLUID AND pH: The February 2015 issue of the World Journal of Diabetes (Roles of Interstitial Fluid pH in Diabetes Mellitus: Glycolysis and Mitochondrial Function) showed just how important MITOCHONDRIAL FUNCTION is as related to both Interstitial Fluid and YOUR BODY’S pH. “The pH of body fluids is one the most important key factors regulating various cell function such as enzyme activity and protein-protein interaction via modification of its binding affinity. Therefore, to keep cell function normal, the pH of body fluids is maintained constant by various systems. Insulin resistance is one of the most important, serious factors making the body condition worse in diabetes mellitus. I have recently found that the pH of body (interstitial) fluids is lower [acidic] in diabetes mellitus than that in non-diabetic control, and that the lowered pH is one of the causes producing insulin resistance. This review proposes perspective therapies on the basis of regulation of body fluid pH including propolis (honeybee product) diet.” Sickness and disease generally require an ACIDIC ENVIRONMENT.
INTERSTITIAL FLUID “CLEANS” THE CEREBROSPINAL FLUID: Although I found lots of studies on this topic, one from Neurologia Medico-Chirugica (Research into the Physiology of Cerebrospinal Fluid Reaches a New Horizon: Intimate Exchange between Cerebrospinal Fluid and Interstitial Fluid May Contribute to Maintenance of Homeostasis in the Central Nervous System) said it best. “Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) plays an essential role in maintaining the homeostasis of the central nervous system. The functions of CSF include: buoyancy of the brain, spinal cord, and nerves; volume adjustment in the cranial cavity; nutrient transport; protein or peptide transport; brain volume regulation through osmoregulation; buffering effect against external forces; signal transduction; drug transport; immune system control; elimination of metabolites and unnecessary substances; and finally cooling of heat generated by neural activity. Furthermore, the relationship between the behaviors of CSF and interstitial fluid in the brain and spinal cord is important. In this review, we will introduce functions that were recently discovered such as CSF production and absorption, water molecule movement in the interstitial space, exchange between interstitial fluid and CSF, and drainage of CSF and interstitial fluid into both the venous and the lymphatic systems.” A study from last month’s issue of Biological Psychiatry (The Emerging Relationship Between Interstitial Fluid-Cerebrospinal Fluid Exchange, Amyloid-β, and Sleep) showed more of this relationship as it relates to aberrant physiology and common disease processes.
INTERSTITIAL FLUID PRESSURE IS ALWAYS HIGH IN TUMORS / CANCER: Part of the hubub surrounding the Interstitium has to do with its relationship to CANCER. A 2014 issue of Cancer Management and Research said this of IF pressure in tumors. “As cancer progresses, a dynamic microenvironment develops that creates and responds to cellular and biophysical cues. Increased intratumoral pressure and corresponding increases in interstitial flow from the tumor bulk to the healthy stroma is an observational hallmark of progressing cancers.” Doctors are concerned about this because this high pressure inside of tumors not only prevents CHEMOTHERAPY DRUGS from reaching their target area, but pushes cancer-containing fluids through the interstitial fluid and lymphatics where it can metastasize and spread.
INTERSTITIAL FLUID AFFECTS FIBROBLASTIC ACTIVITY: The sac-like compartments of the Interstitium are lined with fibroblasts (cells that create collagen). Last September’s issue of Biochemica et Biophyisica Acta (Interstitial Fluid Flow-Induced Growth Potential and Hyaluronan Synthesis of Fibroblasts in a Fibroblast-Populated Stretched Collagen Gel Culture) concluded that, “Fibroblasts in tensioned collagen gels altered their phenotypes in a MF rate-dependent manner.” In other words, the pressure / flow of the Interstitial Fluid affected FIBROBLASTIC ACTIVITY (which can be either very good or very bad, depending on the situation). HERE are my articles on hyaluronan (aka hyaluronic acid) as well.
INTERSTITIAL FLUID IS LOADED WITH POTENTIAL BIOMARKERS: Study after study after study talked about using the Interstitial Fluid for its biomarkers (something that Dr. Eric mentioned on the FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE board just yesterday). Why is this such a big deal? The IF will probably present a far closer picture to what’s actually going on with one’s physiology and homeostasis than blood will. A few of these studies looked at CYTOKINES in children with skin conditions, IF tumor biomarkers, and even mRNA, although the list was almost unlimited.
Despite the fact that I could have come up with many others, should we be surprised at this last bullet point? Listen to what the study’s lead author says of this phenomenon. “This finding has potential to drive dramatic advances in medicine, including the possibility that the direct sampling of interstitial fluid may become a powerful diagnostic tool.” The truth is, we are already there, although the technology is not such that it can be accomplished quickly and inexpensively. Until that day comes, blood will continue to be the diagnostic fluid of choice.
HOW WAS THIS “NEW” ORGAN DISCOVERED?
“This tissue system was originally filmed in vivo and described in a number of papers and books by French surgeon Dr Jean-Claude Guimberteau, described on YouTube by Gil Hedley as peri-fascial membranes, and written about by me in Anatomy Trains.
This system can be dubbed a new organ system if you wish, but it is part of a continuous Biomechanical Auto-Regulatory System (which I’ve been talking about for a while) – we could call it that – that runs in a continuous mechanical linkage from the DNA through the nuclear membrane via the microtubules to the cellular membrane, out through the transmemiranous proteins to the glycocalyx (the first mucousy layer outside the cell) to this interstitium and on up to the more gross and dissectible fascial structures.” From an article that came out today after I first published this article (Interstitium: A Statement from Tom Myers)
Firstly, members of the Fascia Research Group in Ulm, have been talking about this phenomenon or something extremely similar for a very long time. Honestly, this discovery sort of reminded me of the “discovery” of the PRIMO-VASCULAR SYSTEM a number of years ago. Secondly, since tissue slides are typically dried or looked at in vitro (not in a living body or natural living conditions), the tiny sacs of fluid that make up the Interstitium were never seen because they were always collapsed and empty.
If not viewed in living conditions, the sacs that make up the Interstitium flatten out and appear as fissures or cracks. After using new techniques to view these sacs in vivo (in life), they were seen for what they really are, and are now believed to contain over 15% of one’s total body mass, 20% of one’s total body volume — between 2.5 and 3 gallons of fluid — and are being touted not only as a new organ, but as the largest organ.
The sacs themselves are made up of tissues we’ve talked about on this site many a time, COLLAGEN, and ELASTIN — tissue types that create both strength and elasticity. This allows the sacs to act as fluid reservoirs, as well as shock absorbers / cushions.
What’s doubly cool, however, is that the study’s lead author, pathologist, professor, and stem cell researcher, Neil Theise, has gone on record to state his belief the tissue structures that make up the walls of the sacs actually generate electricity as they flex, elast, bend, and move, due to the pumping action of organs and muscles move (this “pumping” will occur on some level as long as you are alive, but will function much better if you aren’t sedentary). In similar fashion to DR. LANGEVIN, Dr. Theise believes this helps provide an explanation for the reason that acupuncture works.
Where exactly is the Interstitium found? It’s just underneath the mucosal layer in tissues such as FASCIA, SKIN, and, according to a Tweet by Theise, “the submucosae of all visceral organs“. The study itself says this. “We observed similar structures in numerous tissues that are subject to intermittent or rhythmic compression, including the submucosae of the entire gastrointestinal tract and urinary bladder, the dermis, the peri-bronchial and peri-arterial soft tissues, and fascia.”
Oh, and if that isn’t enough for you, the interstitium’s fluid is also believed to be the source of LYMPH, as well as containing immune system cells that had never been seen before. Listen as the authors summarize.
“We observed similar structures in numerous tissues that are subject to intermittent or rhythmic compression, including the submucosae of the entire gastrointestinal tract and urinary bladder, the dermis, the peri-bronchial and peri-arterial soft tissues, and fascia… If there is communication between the gut lumen and the submucosal space, this raises the possibility that cell signaling (including hormonal or immunologic signals) could be regulated in a proximal-to-distal manner determined by the speed of peristalsis. Immunologic interactions in this interstitial space could also be important in inflammatory conditions…
Our findings necessitate reconsideration of many of the normal functional activities of different organs and of disordered fluid dynamics in the setting of disease, including fibrosis and metastasis. A submucosa subjected to directional, peristaltic flow is not the previously envisaged wall of dense connective tissue, but a potential conduit for movement of injurious agents, pro-fibrogenic signaling molecules, and tumor cells.
This raises the possibility that direct sampling of the interstitial fluid could be a diagnostic tool. Finally, our study demonstrates the power of in vivo microscopy to generate fresh insights into the anatomy and physiology of normal and diseased tissues.”
I’ve already shown you that diseased tissue changes its fluid dynamics, increasing it’s pressure and tending to create both swelling / edema and FIBROSIS (the medical word for SCAR TISSUE). You also know that fascia is an ORGAN OF MECHANORECEPTION & KINESTHETIC SENSE. In fact, fascia expert, Dr. Robert Schleip, has not only said that fascia probably contains more sensory receptors than the eye (the organ long believed to be the heaviest-innervated), but has shown that vast numbers of these sensory receptors are found in the interstitial space (they are called — you guessed it — “Interstitial Receptors”).
Summarizing Schleip’s work, the TENSEGRITY BLOG (Myofascial Mechanoreceptors) said this of Interstitial (interstitium’s) Mechanoreceptors.
“The Interstitial sisters. Type III and IV mechanoreceptors. The most abundant sensory receptors in the human body. More numerous than the sum of the sensory receptors in the eyes, nose, mouth, ears and skin, including all Type I and Type II fascial mechanoreceptors. Yeah, they’re kinda important! The interstitial receptors are found just about everywhere, including inside our bones! The highest concentration of these are in the periosteum, on the outer surface of bones.
They respond to rapid and sustained pressure changes. 10% are Type III, low threshold pressure units, covered in a thin myelin sheath. They respond to the lightest of feather touches. Type IV receptors are unmyelinated high threshold pressure units, making up the other 90%. Stimulating the Interstitials are known to create change in vasodilation and the autonomic functions, such as blood pressure, heart rate, respiration, salivation and perspiration.
We’re still trying to understand the full impact of these receptors in the body. Some are pain receptors and others are also thought to inform the sensations of structural positioning and movement. Acupuncture is thought to engage these receptors, snagging them in the subtle twisting of the needle.”
When you get down to brass tacks, because fascia (UNDER ITS MANY NAMES) is the tissue that creates the interstitial space, it’s important to know something about it if you want to help people with chronic dysfunctions, CHRONIC PAIN, or even chronic disease. That’s right; thanks to research like this, there is a growing body of researchers who believe that disruptions in the body’s fascial system is the cause of all disease.
That was not a misprint folks — that was all as in all. Because much fascial dysfunction is not simply due to mechanical injury, but instead due to the effects of chronic inflammation, it would behoove you to see what it might take to diminish your body’s inflammatory load (HERE).
If you found this post interesting, be sure to check out our other 160+ posts on fascia in our Fascia Super-Post (HERE), as well as our FACEBOOK PAGE to see why PEOPLE FROM AROUND THE WORLD ARE TUNING IN. If you want to reach those you love and care about most with ultra-cool, cutting-edge, and pertinent health-related information, be sure to like, share, or follow us there! And for those of you struggling with chronic illness or chronic pain, THIS POST might be just what the doctor ordered.