Be Good To Your Lymphs

If you aren’t lucky enough to have a Korean spa in your town, you can still experience the health benefits and wonderful soft skin that a technique called “dry brushing” will give you.  Variations of this treatment can be found at every fancy spa around the world in their efforts to pamper and rejuvenate their clients, but it’s something so deceptively simple that you can do it yourself at home.

Why Dry Brush?

Dry skin brushing increases circulation to skin, encouraging the body’s discharge of metabolic wastes, which greatly aids the lymphatic drainage of the entire body.  As previously discussed, when the body rids itself of toxins, it is able to run more efficiently in all areas. Dry skin brushing rejuvenates the nervous system by stimulating nerve endings in the skin, and helps the skin to absorb nutrients by eliminating clogged pores. Healthy, breathing skin contributes to overall body health.

How To Dry Brush:

Select a long handled, natural bristle brush or loofah. Begin brushing your skin in long sweeping strokes starting from the bottom of your feet upwards, and from the hands towards the shoulders, and on the torso in an upward direction. Always brush towards the heart. Try and brush several times in each area, over-lapping as you go.  Focus on the armpit area and sides of the neck, as both those places contain a large grouping of lymph nodes.  Focus on the lower belly, (colon area) and lower back (kidneys) as those are the other key components in your body’s elimination system.  Avoid tender or sensitive areas (nipples; cuts, bruises, etc.).  Start out with gentle brushing energy, and work up to a more vigorous one, after your skin becomes used to it.  Each session shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes if you are in a hurry; longer if you have the time to luxuriate in it.

Lymphatic Massage

A customized form of bodywork, Lymphatic Massage may help the lymphs do their job better.  This type of massage can help your body in clearing sluggish tissues of waste and swelling, and is an excellent adjunct to the rest of your springtime cleaning and detoxing efforts.

Lymph vessels are found throughout the body, most of them–about 70 percent–are located just below the skin. These fragile vessels work to pick up fluids between the cell spaces when gentle pressure is applied to them from increased fluid build-up, muscle contractions, or the pressure of a therapist’s hands.  By using very light pressures in a rhythmic, circular motion, a massage therapist can stimulate the lymph system to work more efficiently and help it move the lymph fluids back to the heart.

Furthermore, by freeing vessel pathways, lymphatic massage can help retrain the lymph system to work better for more long-term health benefits.

Massage therapists versed in Lymphatic Drainage Therapy (LDT), an advanced form of lymphatic massage, can identify the rhythm, direction, and quality of the lymphatic flow and remap drainage pathways.  The functioning of the immune system is stimulated through increased lymph flow.  The additional flow carries more antigens to the lymph nodes, thereby increasing antibody/antigen contact.  This has been found to help with chronic or subacute inflammatory conditions — chronic fatigue syndrome, autoimmune disease, bronchitis, sinusitis, tonsillitis, laryngitis, arthritis, acne and eczema.