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We are bombarded daily with environmental pollutants, which enter our bodies through the air we breathe, and chemical additives in the food we eat.

Free radicals (off-balance molecules from which oxygen has taken an electron) scavenge our system, contributing to tissue degeneration. Hydrogenated and processed foods, vitamin- and mineral-deficient diets, hormone-injected beef and poultry, antibiotic-resistant bacteria and genetically-engineered foods–it’s a wonder the natural healing capacity of our bodies can keep up with the challenge. More and more of us are finding that our bodies cannot.

Many factors contribute to a sluggish or stagnant lymph flow. Common to many of us are a lack of adequate exercise, fatigue, a stressful lifestyle and age. Who can boast of a lifestyle unaffected by these conditions? Even emotional shock, the physical shock of a minor car accident, the stress on one’s system from cold temperatures and, of course, infections can cause swelling from slight to significant–an indication that the lymph is not properly moving.

Decide to Drain

There is help to meet these challenges and many other challenges created by a modern lifestyle. That help is a technique called lymphatic drainage. A trained practitioner with a gentle, light touch of a flat hand or fingertips on the skin can stimulate the stagnant or sluggish flow of lymph within the body to up to 20 times its natural capacity, thereby aiding in the detoxification and rejuvenation of the tissues of the body!

The client usually lies unclothed and professionally draped on a massage table, (although the therapy can be administered to a seated or standing client as well.) The practitioner uses a variety of repetitive circular, straight and vibrational strokes (depending on which method they use). The practitioner follows the anatomy of the lymphatic system. She will start by opening the flow at the collar bone, close to where the lymph joins venous circulation into the heart. One can then proceed to the neck, face and head; the chest and arms; or the deep abdominal flow to the nodes in the groin, legs, feet, back and buttocks. The practitioner will then work her way back up the body, to make sure pathways stay clear as sluggish lymph is pushed up and through the system, ending at the collar bone.

Health benefits can include reduced tissue swelling caused by soft tissue damage (for example, sprained or swollen ankles), sports injury, car accidents (like whiplash), reactions to medications, some headaches, radiation and surgery.

Lymphatic work has been, for many women instrumental for their proper breast care. It may work as a cancer preventative; clearing stagnation and increasing lymph flow; reducing cysts and swelling caused by biopsy, node removal and mastectomy.

Lymphatic work can stimulate the immune system by increasing the production of antibodies, thereby increasing cellular and humoral immunity. Cellular immunity lasts from 30 minutes to 20 hours. Humoral immunity can last six to 20 years. This helps with a decreased sensitivity to allergies, more rapid recovery and prevention of colds and the flu, sinusitis and ear and eye problems.

Because the autonomic nervous system is affected, lymphatic work has an anti-spasmodic effect on stressed musculature, reducing chronic pain and increasing range of motion. Constipation, insomnia, lethargy, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue symptoms can also be improved. Cosmetically, lymphatic work helps alleviate scars, burns, stretch marks, wrinkles, cellulitis and adipose tissue.

Lymphing Along

Valerie Kemp is a teacher and healer with a full-time practice in bodywork, offering LDT in Vancouver, BC.

Source: alive #210, April 2000