Lymph - Your Cellular Waste Disposal

The Lymphatic system is the body’s sewage system. It consists of a colourless fluid made up of water, oxygen, proteins, glucose and white blood cells of which we have approximately 15L in the body, as well as billions of lymph capillaries and over 700 lymph nodes. 

According to Dr Perry Nickelston, if we placed all of the lymph vessels of the body, end to end in a straight line, they would cover a distance in excess of 100K miles, circling the globe 4 times.

As a species that has evolved over time, it makes sense to me that the body would only spare the nutrients to grow a system this big and widespread if it were of utmost importance.

The job of the lymphatic system is to clear away debris such as viruses, bacteria, fungi, parasites, used up enzymes, hormones, proteins and other cellular waste. It operates in every part of the body but is particularly concentrated in the neck, intestines and dermis of the skin and works very closely with our circulatory system, the organs of the detox system and the immune system in order to keep our internal environment healthy.

The Lymphatic system is often neglected, people tend to focus on bringing more nutrients in to the body while forgetting that we can only absorb nutrients into a healthy cell once we have removed the waste.

Dr Perry Nickelston is an authority on hands-on Lymphatic stimulation and when asked by anyone if they should be working on their lymphatics, he is known to answer in the same way every time with “Are you a human being? Are you alive today? If the answer is yes, then yes”.

He describes some of the symptoms associated with poor lymphatic health as: 

  • Morning stiffness/tightness/soreness/itchiness 

  • Bloating or swelling (face, belly, extremities)

  • Bad Breath

  • Slow capillary refill  

  • Skin appearance (varicose veins, spider veins, acne, color, temperature, blotching) 

  • Painful or tender on palpating lymph nodes 

  • Chronic pain and chronic fatigue 

  • Poor sleep 

  • Inability to lose weight 

  • Brain fog 

  • Slow recovery /training plateau 

  • Easy bruising 

  • Delayed onset allergies

  • Red eyes/grey eyes

Research also shows that chronic constipation, water retention, repeated viruses and infections and allergies can also have a strong correlation with poor lymphatic health.

Although the lymphatic system works closely with the circulatory system, it works in a very different way. We don’t have valves within the lymphatic vessels that pump the fluid, instead the only ways that we can stimulate the lymphatic fluid to move are by moving our body and by breathing diaphragmatically. In fact, JW Shields states that “Diaphragmatic breathing creates a vacuum effect that increases the rate of toxic elimination through the lymph as much as 15X the normal rate”.

When we are stuck in a state of sympathetic dominance within our autonomic nervous system, we can find ourselves using our diaphragm less and taking shorter, shallower breaths instead. We can also find that the stress and fatigue causes us to not want to move our bodies. These two factors can clearly have a negative impact on our ability to stimulate the lymphatic system and clear out waste, making us more tired, more inflamed, less able to recover and can send us into a cycle of poor health symptoms and chronic stress. 

Some methods of stimulating our lymph could be walking, running, skimping, jumping (or any other way of moving the body), rebounding, lymphatic massage, using a chi machine or a vibration plate, inversions or using inversion tables and, lymphatic stimulation machines and breathwork practices. All of these help to pump the fluid around the body in order to collect and remove waste. 

We include a workshop on Lymph on our 15 Day Rēset Programs as well daily movement classes, a Breathwork session, Temazcal ceremony to detox through sweat and a session in our compression suit, which boots circulation and lymphatic drainage.

At Rē Precision Health we teach tools to regulate the nervous system through education and immersive experiences online and in our bubbles of paradise in Mexico and Portugal. Our programs have positively impacted (and even saved) hundreds of lives. 

Guest stories here: https://www.reprecisionhealth.com/reviews

All information provided in our resources in for informational purposes only. It is not intended to replace a medical/mental health professional.

Rē Precision Health