What is the Lymphatic System?
Your lymphatic system is a one way system that removes excess fluid, toxins and debris from your tissues. It does not have its own pump, like your heart or lungs. The Lymph system is draining 24/7, every day, every time you move your skin or muscles.
It's main job is to remove cellular debris and produce T cells, a type of white blood cell responsible for repairing tissue and support the immune system by fighting infection. The lymph system is designed to filter toxins, excess fluid( swelling), viruses and bacteria out of the body by dumping it into blood stream to be processed through the body, and excreted out as urine.
The lymph system is made up of lymph nodes which filter the fluid, lymph vessels and lymph capillaries that are responsible for the transport of lymph fluid (swelling). This fluid is made up of fats, proteins, T cells and most importantly water. When this fluid becomes stuck in your tissues or builds up, it becomes known as swelling.
Lymph flows from as deep as the bones to the lining of the organs, through the tissues and muscles, and just beneath the skin, a hair deep. Your lymph system covers the entire body from arms and legs to smaller areas like the sinus cavity, beneath the scalp, behind the eyes and even your fingers and toes.
Unlike the circulatory system, this system doesn’t have a central pump, so the only way to move the fluid is by stimulating your lymph vessels which live hair deep and are a hair thin, beneath your skin. Lymph fluid moves very slow( 10 beats per minute) and without this movement, your body would become a breeding ground for toxins and bacteria.
How does MLD massage feel?
MLD is extremely gentle and relaxing. The technique feels like a massage due to it's soft, delicate pumping motion.
Th strokes used during an MLD massage are gentle, skin stretching movements. They should never be painful, deep, use oil, machines or anything that you would usually use in a regular massage. These skin pumping techniques were developed by Dr. Emil Vodder in the 1930s to work specifically with the lymphatic vessels.
Men and women who seek MLD treatment are sore, in pain and have sensitive skin due to the volume of swelling (edema) and pressure under the skin. MLD is gentle enough to be used on Post-op, cancer recovery patients and autoimmune disease patients who are very delicate. Our sessions can be done over the compression garment, fully clothed or undressed to your comfort level.
How MLD Works
Manual Lymphatic Drainage is a gentle rhythmic pumping motion directly on dry skin to dilate the vessels, pumping the lymph fluid through the system.
These strokes are specific and designed to work with the lymphatic mapping (photo above) to stimulate and opening the vessels, triggering them to absorb fluid from your tissues.
This dilation increases the fluid movement rate by 10 times its normal rate. MLD is designed to use very light pressure because the lymph vessels lie just beneath the skin and are only as big as a strand of hair. Deeper pressure crush the tiny vessels, preventing them from absorbing fluid.
By speeding up the absorption of lymph fluid (swelling) with Manual Lymphatic Drainage, we also increase production of T cells to boost immunity, speed up healing, cleanse the tissues of all debris, and flush out any excess fluid (swelling) the body is holding to create a full body detox.
Swelling (Edema) and MLD
When lymph system is damaged or overwhelmed, the body can't absorbed swelling and it stays beneath the skin, in the tissues causing pain, tenderness, soreness, heaviness to the skin and tissue. Damage can occur as a result of cancer, plastic surgery, kidney/ heart failure, Autoimmune conditions, any incident where lymph vessels/nodes/system is damaged/removed, or tissue injury such as surgery, that results in major swelling or edema.
Manual Lymphatic Drainage takes the fluid that has leaked out into the tissue and redirects it to the lymph vessels and nodes to be cleansed, carried back to the blood stream, and removed, reducing overall swelling in these areas.