The body can make a variety of building materials by altering the proportion and make-up of the fibers, ground substance, and water in the tissue. Bone, for instance, has a very high-density, leather-like fascial matrix, but the water is all pushed out and the ground substance has been replaced by the mineral salts we all think of as bone.

Cartilage is similar, except that all the ground substance has been ‘gelled’ into chondroitin.

The lens of your eye, the plantar fascia, all your ligaments, all your tendons, the dentin in your teeth, your fat, and the white matter in your brain are all made up by connective tissues – it’s quite a versatile tissue.