Your lymph system is basically one of your body's most important detox systems. Lymph is a fluid that collects toxins and helps your body expel them. Sometimes lymph gets over saturated with toxiny gloop (don't you love how I just fling those scientific terms around?) and becomes thick and sludgy, then you end up with swollen glands, or, on the extreme end, lymphoma.Many things we do that are healthy in general not coincidentally keep the ol' lymph flowing. Exercise, for one thing--lymph doesn't circulate around continuously like blood, it is propelled around the body by these one-way valves and so movement help squish it along not unlike mooshing toothpaste out of the tube.
Massage is another way to squish it along. A few ladies have told me they have done abdominal massages that they think that helped them become pregnant. Again, not coincidentally there are also tons of lymph nodes in the groin area, and men and women can benefit from an easy massage: just lie down and massage first the insides of your thighs basically as far down as you can reach without curling up, and then with a soft feathery touch (i.e., not shiatsu, not Swedish massage, and please, no accupressure type poking) use all your fingers to sweep-massage the glands in the lines around your pelvis where your legs are attached to your torso (think of your naked Barbie doll--that line). The glands should be soft lumps, and a feathery sweepy touch should feel great.
The organic/wildcrafted/pure and loooove-infused infused lymph massage creme from Simply Divine Botanicals will add to the relaxing experience that'll give your body the signal it's being cared for.
(NOTE: DO NOT massage hard, inflamed lumps! See your healthcare practitioner for those and anything else that might seem unusual.)
We also pay extra attention to our son's back (spinal cord tumor!) and do a simple lymph massage by gently doing a circular rub in the spaces between the knobs of the vertebrae (he is missing a bunch of those knobs--sniff! sob!--in the t7-t9 vertebrae, so I just do that whole area). Start at the neck and go down. This one give you lots of bang for the buck--some people swear it can stop a cold in its tracks--but obviously, you can't do it on yourself.
Oh, and wearing a BRA can constrict lymph drainage, and some health practitioners at turning to a possible UNDERWIRE bra connection to breast cancer because tight underwire bras and constrict lymph drainage from that area (you have a HUGE concentration of lymph nodes there). My idea: free-range lymph!
Other posts:
Why Your Bra Can Kill You
Founder of Olga Bras Died of Breast Cancer and Her Daughter Creates Lymph-massaging Bra
HowStuffWorks.com has a good, detailed explanation of the lymph system.
1 comment:
Good post. Lymph massages can be really beneficial to the body. Its a lot more helpful than most people would think.
Post a Comment