How MSTR® Scar Work Can Bring The Hidden To The Surface

“The body never forgets… but it also never stops trying to resolve.”

For years, scars were treated as cosmetic end points, closed wounds, finished stories. But clinically, and repeatedly, we are seeing something very different.

Old scars…decades-old caesarean sections…surgical wounds long “healed”…

…are not always finished.

Through MSTR® (McLoughlin Scar Tissue Release) work, we are witnessing something extraordinary:

• Foreign materials surfacing

• Pus and inflammatory exudate re-appearing

• Splinters and debris migrating upward

• Deep scar adhesions reorganising visibly through the skin

And in rare but powerful cases, like the one shown on the left, retained surgical material left after a liver transplant 22 years ago (e.g., gauze) becoming visible enough to bring it to the awareness of the practitioner, the client, and then the medical system for planned removal

This isn’t magic. This is biology finally being allowed to complete a process it never finished.

The Body Is Not Static – It Is a Fluid, Living System

At the core of this phenomenon is one simple truth:

The human body is not solid—it is fluid-based, pressure-regulated, and constantly adapting.

Thinking of the body as:

1. A hydraulic system (interstitial fluid and lymph)

2. An organised structure (fascia)

3. A neuro-responsive network (sensory and autonomic regulation)

When trauma occurs (surgery, injury, implantation). The body will

1. Stabilise

2. "Wall off areas"

3. Adapt under load

4. But it does not always resolve.

   
   

Scar Tissue: A Protective but Imperfect Solution

Scar tissue is: Rapidly laid down with less organised than normal tissue, mechanically dense and often poorly vascularised , Its job being to survive, not a cosmetically perfect result as though the incident had never happened. Scar tissue can: Trap foreign material and disrupt fluid flow, altering pressure gradients and reducing immune access.

So instead of clearing debris fully, the body may encapsualte it and entrap it.

What Happens Over Time?

Over months and years the fascia stiffens and fluid movement reduces lymphatic capability and as a result the neural signalling is dampened.

“Biologically quiet… but mechanically unresolved.”

And anything trapped within that system? It stays there.

MSTR®: Reintroducing Movement, Fluid, and Awareness using gentle fascial shear

MSTR® is deceptively gentle—but biologically significant.

It works through small oscillatory inputs beginning to, rehydrate tissue, reduce cross-linking of collagen and restore glide. The ensuing fluid re-organisation regulates the interstitial pressure and improves lymphatic flow alongside micro-circulation at a capillary level.

The resulting neurological re-awakening means mechanoreceptors activate, nociceptive (pain response) thresholds shift and down-regulate and finally the brain “re-maps” the area.

The Potential Key Mechanism: Pressure Gradients

This is where clinically, it gets exciting. The body operates on pressure differentials.

When scar tissue is dense It can create localised pressure pocket that blocks fluid exchange trapping materials in low-mobility zones. When MSTR® is applied the tissue compliance potentially increases and fluid begins to move again, pressure gradients shift and suddenly… and fascinatingly for the client and practitioner.

The body has a pathway or "exit route" again.

Why Do Foreign Objects Move Toward the Surface?

This is not random, it follows basic biological principles: "Better out than in".

The Body Clears Toward the Surface.

Skin is an elimination organ, the safest exit is outwards. There are numeorus clinical explanations, these are a few of the processes that take place to prevent a foreign body becoming more than an irritation or a threat to the biological processes within the body.

Immune System Recognition and Reaction.

When an object penetrates the skin, it introduces microbes or simply constitutes "non-self" matter. Immune cells (macrophages and neutrophils) immediately surround the object and release chemicals that cause inflammation.

Encapsulation and "Frustrated Phagocytosis".

If the object is too large for the macrophages to digest (phagocytose), they congregate around it, often forming a foreign body granuloma (a small inflamed nodule) to wall off the object. Immune cells may undergo "frustrated phagocytosis,"

Releasing degradative enzymes and acids to try and dissolve the object, which can create a pathway toward the surface.

Epidermal Cell Renewal (Skin Conveyor Belt).

The skin is constantly regenerating, with new dermal layers formed from the inside out, while the outer, dead skin layers (epidermis) are shed. If a foreign object is lodged above the growing layer of skin, it can ride this upward cellular flow to the surface and be expelled. MSTR®️potentially assists with commencing this process for the client where it has become stalled in the healing process.

Abscess Formation and Pushing:

If an infection develops around the object, the body creates an abscess—a pocket of pus composed of dead white blood cells and debris. Pressure from the developing abscess and the body's inflammatory swelling often pushes the object toward the surface, a process sometimes called "spitting"

Pus and Blood Spots?

This is often misunderstood. These are not “new problems.” They are:

• Old, unresolved processes completing

• Delayed inflammatory clearance

• Reactivation of local healing cycles

"Micro-vascular re-opening and the immune system

finally finishing the job"

Paula Esson 2026

Across years of practice I have witnessed :

• Gravel fragments emerging from old trauma scars

• Splinters surfacing years later following scrapes, falls and accidents.

• C-section scars expressing fluid, blood dots, or debris decades on after surgery.

• Encapsulated infections draining after release work producing pus, blood and plasma,

• Surgical remnants (rare but real) becoming visible or exiting through an orifice - like the nose. Gauze, stitches, padding, staples, thread, plastic.

These are often followed by symptom relief.

The Fascia–Fluid–Immune Triangle.

When scars disrupt this triangle: The system stalls

When MSTR® restores it: The system resumes.

Symptomatically this might not at first be connected, often it is only when the foreign object has exited that subtle changes in energy levels, clarity, frequency of low grade infections, irritations or skin disturbances in the region with no clear definition.

Lymphatic impairment and resistance in the tissue can also be noted.

Foreign Objects: Why the Body Doesn’t Always Reject Immediately.

The body is intelligent—but also strategic. If something cannot be safely removed..

It encapsulates it (fibrosis).

This helps prevents systemic infection and ongoing inflammation however it can reduce mobility, create chronic tension and assist towards developing latent dysfunction over years.

From our clinical observations and client experiences MSTR® may :

Reduce the “containment need”,allowing reprocessing and restoring clearance pathways

The Gauze Case: A Powerful Reminder

A retained foreign object, Deep within tissue and likely encapsulated, clinically silent for years,until…

• Tissue mobility changed

• Fluid dynamics improved

• The object became visible

And was then safely removed surgically in a timely and organised manner;

As a pracitioner treating the client there are still important considerations:

• Not all foreign material should be mobilised without awareness

• Signs of infection must be respected

• Referral pathways are essential

• Scope of practice must be clear

MSTR® is not removing objects…

It is restoring the body’s ability to decide what to do next.

Why This Matters for Modern Practice

This challenges a very linear model of healing. The traditional model refers to an intervention such as surgery followed by a re-modelling and healing process in a linear fashion over time. In reality there is an injury or accident and adaptation followed directly by a compensation with a very delayed resolution if any resolution at all and the foreign object stays lodged.

Healing can happen decades later—when the system is given the opportunity and chance.

“Progress, Not Perfection”

We are not forcing change we are listening to tissue, respecting timing and allowing biology to unfold. An invitation back to movement, fluid, and completion if you will.

The body wants to finish what it started

What we are seeing is not unusual. It’s just rarely facilitated to restore movement improve fluid dynamics and reduce fascial restriction

“The scar is not the end of the story… it’s often where the body has paused. MSTR® simply helps it press play again.”

Paula Esson Sport Scientist 2026

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