Enteric Stuctural Mechanics

Laura Hopkins is bringing a new class to the Davenport School of Yoga. “This endeavor originally began as a business project granted by the state of Iowa. I called it the Hopkins Bioengineering Research Center (HBRC). Its mission was to provide engineering resources required to institutionalize mathematics for utilization in patient care.” HBRC developed alongside chiropractic where Laura spent many years studying and/or collaborating with chiropractors including Jonathan Howat, Scott Walker, Alfred Harker and her husband Jim Countryman. “Bertrand De Jarnette (1899-1992), a chiropractor and a Mechanical Engineer, created a chiropractic specialty with perspectives on anatomy that had parallels to my own. His work provided an engineering basis I could begin from to build a peer of sorts to the chiropractic community." HBRC’s final publication completed her state project; she presented a second HBRC case study at an annual chiropractic research conference. With HBRC behind her, she has founded the Hopkins Bioengineering Research Cooperative (HBRCp) specifically for yoga students. “The HBRC project was a formidable challenge. I spent many years in academic arenas attempting to explain complex engineering principles to practitioners who could apply them to patient care. The Cooperative on the other hand, is entirely different; yoga students will be learning and applying these principles to themselves. This allows me to release us from the rigors of all academic formalities and technical challenges. So, if you made it through 8th grade, you have all the technical and math skills you need.” Laura has studied a variety of subjects outside of engineering to accomplish this; yoga, chiropractic, biology, ancient history, mathematics and architecture predominantly. “Most people have a concept of what these subjects entail but I expect few people can relate to what engineering is and why it exists separate from academia’s College of Science. The real power of engineering resides in what we call Numbers. For example, the first one we learned is the Reynolds Number. The Reynolds Number (Re) is associated with turbulence, a condition Mr. Reynolds (1842-1912) wanted to minimize. He graphed many data points related to fluid moving through a pipe, studied different relationships within it, and found an important correlation. Re = ρVD/ μ          where ρ = fluid density, kg/m3 V = fluid velocity, m/s D = pipe diameter, m μ = fluid viscosity, kg/m ⋅ s Notice that the units in the equation cancel each other out. Numbers end up having no dimension; they are simply a ratio or a proportion. Re = kg/m3 ⋅ m/s ⋅ m        becomes        Re = kg/m3 ⋅ m/s ⋅ m kg/m ⋅ s                                                      kg/m ⋅ s Numbers describe a systems relationship, in this case, between fluids and pipes. So today all engineers know that, in most cases, a Re between 2000 and 3000 minimizes turbulence while optimizing flow when transporting fluid through a pipe in any project.” Laura is a Chemical Engineer. Chemical engineering, a synergistic combination of academia’s Chemistry and Mechanical Engineering degrees, evolved through the nineteenth century to meet technical challenges that neither Chemistry nor Mechanical Engineering could handle. Laura spent many years in the glass and cement industries. “My experience made me a Pyroprocess Engineer, a specialized form of a Combustion Engineer. In my day, Combustion Engineers came out of the Mechanical Engineering field, the profession largely responsible for the industrial revolution and the engines that built it. Engines run because of combustion, but most Mechanical Engineers get little or no training about the combustion process; eventually it gets to be too much Chemistry.” Studying glass and cement reactors during her career, Laura developed a comprehensive understanding of combustion systems. Later, when she came to chiropractic and yoga, she could formally define the third pyroprocessing reactor of her career, the enteric nervous system or ENS. “From a chemical engineering perspective, the ENS, redefined for engineering, houses biology’s engine. I had to determine how and why we can’t understand humans the way mechanical engineers understand engines. To answer that question I had to solve a very old math problem; I now call this place in mathematics Civilization’s Glass Ceiling. Long before the split between Science (Medicine) and Religion (Church), even before we have integers and a number line, the discipline of mathematics splits between Architecture (Design) and Engineering (Build).” Laura has spent many years studying architecture to fill the gap left from the development of these specializations. “Mechanical engineers chart speed versus horsepower to define an engine’s Power Curve. Now chemical engineering can do the equivalent for biology’s engine housed in the ENS.” Laura’s class will consist of two 1-hour sessions. Students are welcome to attend one or both sessions in each class. Off the mat, Enteric Axial Harmonics (EAH) will present a new system of engineering measure for biological infrastructure. “I’ve nicknamed this class 'Clock Works'; every student’s ENS is different. Students will learn: where and how to collect data; ways to manage, arrange and interpret data; and use that data to create technical drawings of their own ENS structures.” Once rendered, students will learn to use these drawings like an architect or engineer would use blue prints; referring to 4-dimensional structures, these drawings will be useful throughout their lifetime. Laura calls her mat class Enteric Structural Mechanics (ESM). Major De Jarnette was an avid researcher spending much of his sixty year career studying the mechanics of respiration. His technique’s main focus is based upon correcting and maintaining a functional interrelationship between the sacrum and the skull. “Skull dysfunction can significantly limit the benefits a yoga practice can offer a student in a variety of ways: I was one of these students. I have refined pose execution to accentuate stretching and/or strengthening of tendons, ligaments, dural tissue and musculature associated with sacral-occipital relationships to help improve and correct cranio-sacral dynamics.” HBRCp will provide an informal egalitarian setting to learn, share and network allowing students to see, analyze, measure, and protect their power. “A problem correctly defined, is already half solved. Here, things accepted as unknowable are capable of being known and things accepted as known can often be defined and understood in a completely different way. About ten years ago, presenting patient case studies, I found myself with front runners in the chiropractic and dental arenas discussing epigenetics. The yoga we practice today has always been helping us manage epigenetics; it is why we have devoted our lives to it. At HBRCp, not only are we already dealing with epigenetics, we are helping students quantify, understand and manage it. ESM and EAH will help students maximize and optimize the release of epigenetic potential in their own practice.” For additional information, please contact Laura at sablesabot@gmail.com.