Move the Lymph to help improve Immune Function
🎵 Lymph There it is (sounds like Whoop there it is to me). 🎶 Tag team back again (thats the Cardiovascular Circulatory System and the Lymphatic Circulatory System). Check it to wreck it, let's begin;
Party On, Party People let me hear some noise, when you think of healthy circulation do you think of sweat and snot? Probably not but its within these two systems that work in tandem and harmony that allow us to have a healthy body and thriving immune system.
How does it work:
When we think Circulatory, I like to imagine a highway. Our veins and arteries are the major roadways that connect the map of our body. These road systems are where oxygen, nutrients, metabolites, hormones, neurotransmitters, proteins, blood cells, and waste matter all travel. There are many exits off the roadway and that are controlled by toll-booths to ensure traffic stays at a reasonable pace and that the “right” nutrients get to where they need to quickly and the wrong or anti-nutrients get attacked and eliminated and the lymphatic system is kinda like those toll booths. It is an intricate web of nodes and vessels that spans throughout our body with the primary function of transporting lymph fluids containing toxins, biological waste, different types of proteins and fats throughout the body.
The Red is blood that is moving from the heart, the blue is blood vessels going to the heart.
To begin we needs to follow the path of oxygen-rich blood flowing away from the heart. The arteries (red) are where oxygen and nutrients flow away from your heart, to your body's tissues. Veins (blue) take oxygen-poor blood back to the heart. The in-between (green) that is the role of the lymphatic system, it regulates fluid homeostasis, assists immune surveillance and transporting dietary lipids.
As rich red blood cells traveling down our artery highway on its way to be delivered to various body parts it does so happily until it comes to an exit or intersections to get out. When it does, the blood has to pass through blood capillaries (toll-booths) before its allowed to travel into town (interstitial (target) spaces) to bring supplies to the community members. These capillaries are very efficient and only allow what is need to pass. It’s kinda like having an easy pass on the window of your car. With it, your car can quickly whizz thought the gate, barely slowing down (which, who are those people that try to stop or go 5mph in those lanes? Come on that defeats the who purpose). Anyway, the capillary’s keep the flow of blood and nutrients running really smoothly but there are times when traffic builds up, there is fluid excess, and there are times when metabolites are circulating that aren’t suppose to be there, where we’ve got an unregistered vehicles trying to get into our towns. Or maybe there is a Foreign Van that looks like trouble, maybe its a mack truck that has too much freight that has to pay an additional fee to cross. This excess fluid and questionable contents are taken up by lymph capillaries (the vehicles go into custody with border patrol) to be dealt with in our bodies processing centers called Lymph nodes.
Now this is where the real lymphatic action starts happening. So these excess fluids (and unwantables) combine with preexisting lymph (a combination of water and dissolved proteins) to travel escorted along lymphatic venules with the goal of returns to the heart (yes the movement of flow is switching directions, kinda like in a roundabout). As this fluid or traffic flows along the lymph back roads it encounters processing centers called Nodes (they are the red dots on the image shown). Nodes contain various guard that perform the inspection and shakedowns, these guards cells called Lymphocytes. Lymphocytes search thought the fluid looking for bad guy cells (invading bacteria or viruses) and unwanted products (damaged or cancerous cells). They are our bodies protectors and determine how to handle the incoming cargo. There are many forms of Lymphocytes but the most important are T Cells, B Cells and mature B cells. These cells filter, neutralized and destroy. The lymph fluid flows slowly thought each node to allow adequate time for phagocytosis (destruction) of foreign substances within the nodes and prevents them from re-entering the blood stream. I like to think of these cells as our immune fighters!! Or our special op forces! Gosh I’m so thankful we have them to work for us. How do we make them and how the lymphocytes get there? That’s for another discussion.
For now, let’s keep following the flow. Once the lymphocytes have done their work, bad guys extradited, foreign invades destroyed, the lymph fluid continues to move along vessels in a closed loop towards the heart. If you wanna get technical, for the below heart lymphatic regions lymph join into the Thoracic Duct highway (which then runs up towards the left subclavian veins and into the heart where it rejoins the blood stream. The lymph above the heart, they run from the right arm, the right side of the head and above the thorax to be drained into the right lymphatic duct which drains into the right subclavian vein then into the heart. To me it seems weird that it just goes back into the heart but it does. I would think there would be another organ or master waste removal zone but no. I think that the broken down particles are so small and neutralized that when they flow thought the heart they can make their way to the spleen for blood filtration for supreme removal.
“To achieve a continuous local lymph output, external intermittent compression of the lymphatics is essential from: (i) contraction of muscles; (ii) movement of body parts; (iii) arterial pulsations; and (iv) compression of the tissues by forces outside the body.[14]”
This is how the lymphatic system plays a big part of immune health, it’s one of our front line destroyers keeping what isn’t necessary in our blood out all thanks to the bean-shaped lymph nodes that house lymphocytes. Wanna keep your lymph node lymphocyte supply optimal? Then important to keep your lymphatic fluid flowing.
How does Lymphatic Fluid Flow:
Well, our lymphatic system doesn’t have a government to keep in working, there is no commanding organ or central pump. Movement of lymphatic fluid more is depended on valves and muscle stimulation. As capillary pressure rises (an increase of 2 mm Hg or greater), this causes an intrinsic contraction for the lymph vessels to take up this excess fluid and close the valve to keep it in. This provides a sort of pumping action in and of itself which promotes an increase lymph flow. The other way via muscle stimulation happens in part to increased intestinal activity. There are tiny smooth muscles that run along the sides of lymph vessels, called lymphangion, and these muscles contracts when it is stretched with lymph (when the there gets too much fluid in the pipes). They also contract in response to outside stimuli via body’s movement and breathing, this skeletal muscle action help to create flow and push the toxins out of the body. Which this is the Good news it, You have the power to create more flow in your lymphatic system by some simple actions.
How You can Stimulate Lymph Movement and Drainage
1) Movement of Skeletal Muscles. Lymphatic vessels are compressed and contracted by skeletal muscles. When your muscles are moving and heart is pumping this allows for more movement of lymph along the channels. One especially fun and easy way is thought Bouncing! You could use a little trampoline or just bounce where where-ever you’re standing by gently bending the knees and spring back up. Another way that is especially beneficial for our upper region lymph system is waving your arms over your head. I recently herd that orchestra conductors are the lowest incident of heart disease among professions and it’s likely due to all the arm waving.
Kundalini for Lymph Nodes Or this video Kundalini Yoga for Lymphatics
Here is a nice gentle Yoga for Immune System and Lymphatics
Here are some suggested yoga poses for Lymphatic love
2) Massage - This is a supportive and gently activating of skeletal muscles to accelerate and promote the movement of stagnant lymph between the cells to the nodes for any catabolic reactions to take place. This can be especially beneficial for people who have apparent swelling (lymphedema) or for when lymph channels have been blocked or obstructed like after an injury or illness. You know how during illness your glands get swollen? This helps to after infections There are specialist that perform specific massage along the lymphatic lines to help lymph move within working lymph vessels. Seek a specialist or you could even perform massage for yourself.
How to do Lower Lymphatic Massage
Lovely facial massage (which is also good for lifting)
notes on doing it yourself - Always be moving in the direction lymph travels which is toward your heart with upward motions, and then downward motions on your belly toward your groin
3) Dry Brushing - this is very similar to massage except you are using a soft bristle brush like this one. Dry brushing is especially beneficial as it has it has been show to also stimulates the release of toxins from the skin thought its exfoliating action, it’s easier for the body to sweat and eliminate toxins. The bristles scrape the skin surface and brush away dry skin and help unclog pores, which also helps make your skin smoother and softer. It can even give your skin a brighter appearance if only temporarily.. The touch enhances blood circulation which then promotes lymph flow/drainage.
notes on dry brushing - do not brush on skin that’s broken. This includes cuts, scrapes, lesions, sores or burned skin, including sunburns and use extreme caution over areas that are prone redness or general irritation, inflammation, cellulitis or skin cancer. Stop dry brushing if skin becomes irritated or inflamed.
Use the same start at the bottom and work you way up in circular motion method.
4) Deep Breathing - Breathing is an essential part of our bodies internal working. When the body encounters stress or is activated during the day and deep breathing allows our bodies to rest and destress. Also our lungs are a prime expeller of toxins so the more we exhale, the more we remove waste, the more our lymph system is free’d up for more filtering.
Diaphragmatic breathing also creates a pressure variation between the thoracic and abdominal cavities, which works as a pump to favors movement towards the heart. This is a helpful video explaining and demonstrating it.
5) Drinking Water - Since lymph is primarily made of water, replenishing your bodies supply of clean water is imperative to a high functioning lymphatic system.
6) Support our bodies natural process though optimal nutrition to include a diet that is low in toxic ingredients/components to decrease a total body toxic load. Of course there are foods that help support a healthy immune system (green leafy veggies, berries, garlic, avocados nuts and seeds) and many foods that can hinder it
Foods That Cause Blockages To The Lymphatic System
Processed foods (loaded with toxic ingredients and chemicals - if your body doesn’t recognize it via DNA, then its a toxins which then produce endotoxins our body needs to remove. A high intestinal contents of endotoxins means more enter the blood system most often by damages caused by these foods to our mucus lining of the small intestine.
Conventionally raised meat/poultry/fish (which have proven to contain a higher toxic load via Endotoxins present after digestion)
Sugar AND Artificial sweeteners - (sweeteners have a negative effect on gut dysbiosis promoting the proliferation of bad bacteria)
Conventional dairy - The protein in conventional dairy is called casein, which can stimulate the production of histamine and mucus in sensitive individuals. This can then clogs up the lymphatic system.
Drink or consume Herbs That Stimulates Lymph Flow
Echinacea
Astragalus
Wild indigo root
Goldenseal
Cilantro
Poke root
Parsley
7) Hot and Cold Showers - More than just a fun way to get the body clean. Hot water helps dilate the blood vessels and allow circulation increase. Then when you switch the water to cold, the shock stimulates our nervous system to release of ephinepherin and norenephrine. Both of these internal chemicals have been shown to increase in circulation and thus lymphatic movement. Also the cold water causes our blood vessels to shriver or contract. This creates a “pump” action that forces out the toxic fluids that have remained in the body.
This is not recommended for pregnant women or for those who suffer from cardiovascular disease.
The Take Aways:
The Lymphatic system is important to our immune function, regulation of fluid balance and lipid absorption. The immune reactions are performed by lymphocytes that reside within lymph nodes. To keep lymph fluid and the filtering process running smoothly its important to activate skeletal muscles to stimulate the vessels to pump lymph towards and into the heart.
Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14]