The Lymphatic System is an organ system that is comprised of lymphoid organs and lymphatic vessels and is a part of the immune system which helps to clear toxins and waste from our tissues.
They (being Scientists) have found that the lymphatic system, our nerves, and our circulatory system work more in conjunction with one another than once thought. If you look at a picture of where the lymphatic system lies in our body it runs parallel to the circulatory system with two valves draining right below the collarbone into our circulatory system to then move through the organs and out of the body.
Some of the largest areas of lymph nodes are clustered in the armpit, the groin, and the neck with everything coming back towards the heart. Unlike the heart, the lymphatic system does not pump like the heart, therefore it relies on the squeezing movement of our muscles to move the lymph through our system along with the involuntary movement of our smooth muscles when we breathe. The lymphatic pump becomes very active during exercise and can increase lymph flow 10 to 30 fold, while it becomes sluggish when we are at rest.
The lymphatic system is our major detoxification system which collects excess toxins, bacteria, and extra fluid and proteins; provides fluid homeostasis (not collecting to much fluid in any one area), it also is one of the main routes for nutrient absorption.
Signs you may have lymphatic congestion: -rings get tight on fingers or puffy fingers and toes -stiff sore and achy in the morning -lethargic, lack of energy -bloating -itchy skin, dry skin -chronic headaches -breast tenderness
How can we support our Lymphatic System: 1. Move more-stagnant areas of the body from to much sitting around, so we need to get up and move as much as possible.
2. Nutrient dense foods & plenty of water with electrolytes
2. Foam roll-helps to push the fluids through the lymphatic system for you
Welcome to raising healthy humans, where you as a busy mom can come each week to find information on health and wellness for your family. Enjoy experts discussing tips to help raise children through each phase of life. Gather current information on nutrition and wellness. And listen to Courtney, a personal trainer, health coach, movement specialist and founder of form fit a community where she helps busy moms move more. Here she provides you with movement and posture tips, while sharing information you need to help raise healthy humans. Today, I have another solo episode coming to you. And this is in regards to the lymphatic system. So have you been noticing maybe online, you're starting to see a lot more on people doing dry brushing or using a guasha stone some sort of jadestone rubbing it on their face, or people big. There's lots of people talking about saunas or hot and cold therapies. And there's a lot of information out there on these different techniques that you can do to help with your health. It's kind of like biohacking your health. And what these things are doing what many of them are doing, are working with the lymphatic system. And the lymphatic system is an organ system that is comprised of lymphoid organs and lymphatic vessels, and is part of our immune system, which helps to clear toxins and waste from our tissues. So we want to make sure that our lymphatic system is working properly, so that we are getting rid of the toxins in our body. So that's why you're seeing a lot of this stuff. And there are different things that we can start to do in our everyday life that is going to help our lymphatic system work properly and get rid of these toxins. And I'm going to kind of dive in with this information today give you a little bit more information as to what exactly is going on some things that you might look into doing, why we might be needing to do this when you've never heard about this stuff in the past. And you know a couple of ideas of what you can do to help your lymphatic system. So there has been a lot of information on the lymphatic system and our circulatory system. years ago, when they would look into this information, they didn't think that these two were really interconnected. And over time, they have started to realize that the lymphatic system is very much a part of the circulatory system. And they work in conjunction with one another. If you were to look at a picture of where the lymphatic system lies in our body, it runs parallel to the circulatory system with two valves draining right below the collarbone into our circulatory system, which then moves those toxins and sometimes the nutrients and everything moves through to the organs and out of the body. So if you've ever noticed, I have a friend who will use a guasha stone. And then she always tap slightly with her fingertips right there and her collarbone. And I never really understood what she was doing. Well, that's exactly what's happening is there are these two valves right there that drain into the heart at that point, and then move through. So some of the largest areas of our lymph nodes are clustered in the armpit, the growing and the neck, and everything comes back towards the heart. So if you were to do something like dry brushing, which I'll talk a little bit more about, you want to make sure that you are pumping everything or bringing everything up so that it can go towards the heart. Same thing with if you were to use a guasha stone, one of those Jade stones where you see people doing things on their face. They're bringing everything down to the heart again. So everything's always trying to move towards the heart. Unlike the heart, the lymphatic system, it doesn't pump like the heart does. It's not pumping, but it does have some valves that help kind of move the fluids along. It relies also a lot on the squeezing movement of arms. muscles to move the lymph through our system, along with the involuntary movement of our smooth muscles when we breathe, the lymphatic pump becomes very active during exercise, and can increase the limb flow lymph being fluids 10 to 30 fold, while it becomes sluggish when we rest ha. So why are we seeing so much of this information out now ways to get that lymphatic system moving, because how many of us and maybe this isn't the group that I need to talk to. But, you know, hopefully you're active, you're realizing that movement is really key to so much more than just what you look like in the mirror, right? This has a lot to do with everything. We talked about lymphatic system being imperative to our immune system. And here is one reason one reason just one there's so many other reasons. But here is one reason why we need to make sure we are moving for our health, because it helps push the lymph, the lymph through our lymphatic system to help get the nutrients where they need to go, and to help to get the toxins out of our body. So our lymphatic system is a major detoxification system, which collects excess toxins bacteria, an extra fluid and proteins, it provides fluid homeostasis, not to be able to collect too much in one area, too much fluid in one area. So like if you think of a Deema that would be a lack of the lymphatic system working properly. It is also one of the main routes for nutrient absorption. Because there is a lymphatic there's a lymphatic area, right within our gut that pulls the nutrients out, brings everything up through the lymphatic system drains threat down right at our heart. And then those nutrients then get pushed through our circulatory system to the organs that they need to get to with the nutrients. So how would you know, if you have this lymphatic congestion? What are some signs that your lymphatic system may not be working to the best of its ability, okay, one thing you may notice is your rings get tight on your fingers, or you have puffy fingers and toes. And one thing that I noticed like when I'm out walking, my hands get very, they'll get a little puffy, they'll get a little swollen. And then one thing I have read that you can do, if you think about how our circulation is working, it's you know is bringing it down. And if your arms are just kind of down at your side, it makes it harder for the blood to pump back up. So you're moving your fingers to kind of help create that. So if you're out for a walk and you're get puffy fingers, that's one thing you can do are swollen fingers, you can start to kind of pump your fingers like into a fist and then release them. And that's going to help get that blood flow pumping back up. But this is a sign that you may have some lymphatic congestion, and I can talk into this with you in regards to what you can do. Okay, so that's one thing. The other thing is stiff, sore and achy in the morning. If you wake up and you're really stiff and tight and achy, that's not just age, that might be a sign that you have some lymphatic congestion. If you're lethargic and you lack the energy that you need lymphatic congestion, if you're bloating, especially in your you know your bellies, bloating, lymphatic congestion, itchy dry skin, chronic headaches, breast tenderness, breast tenderness is going back to if you've listened to the understanding your hormones episode that is going back to estrogen, too much estrogen in your system. How do you get that estrogen out of your system that is through the lymphatic system. So we need to make sure that we are working our lymphatic system, the way that it is designed to get the excess hormones, excess toxins and the nutrients to where they need to get. So how can we do this one thing move more. I've already said sitting around that is just collecting in those stagnant lymph node areas. Remember how I mentioned your groin is a an area that is has a cluster of lymph nodes So if you're sitting around a lot, that that whole area is not getting the movement that it needs. So we need to make sure we're moving within our groin, we also need to make sure that we're moving think about those armpit areas, what have I spoken about in the past in regards to our arms, they're always down by our sides, we do not lift them up over our head often enough, the more we can get them lifting up over our head, and doing things like hanging from bars, walking with proper form, which I'll talk to you a little bit more in a moment. But those types of things are going to help get this lymphatic system moving in these areas. So you need to make sure you're moving more. Now I mentioned the pussy fingers and how you can do a little cyst and then release. So one of the main areas of the lymph nodes is right under the armpits. And if you are a person who stands with rounded shoulders, when you walk, you will not get a lot of movement in your arms. So you're not creating this natural, almost like a massage of that armpit. So what you need to do is you need to think about standing taller. And when I think about standing taller, I'm not trying to pull my shoulders back, because that creates another problem within our posture. What I want you to think about is think about expanding through your chest. So like someone's pressing your chest open out to the shoulder. So if they were to place their hands on your chest, and then move out to your shoulders, that's how you want your body expanding open. And then think about creating space within your shoulder blades. So usually, when we think open up through the chest, we end up squeezing our shoulder blades together, and we get some flared shoulder blades, you know, where you can see those shoulder blades. So what we want to do is also think about creating length within that area. So expanding the area between those shoulder blades in the spine. So that would get you more in an upright position without your shoulders being so rounded. And then when you start to walk, focus on bringing your arm back behind you, not not back behind you, across your body. But if my thumb's were facing forward and I'm swinging my arm back, when I let it swing naturally forward, what does it do it massages that armpit area. So that is something that you can be doing naturally, when you go for a walk, that's going to help get that area though those lymph nodes activated, and working on pushing that length out of that system, so kind of decreasing the congestion there. The other thing is making sure that you are eating nutrient dense foods, and plenty of water with electrolytes. So we want to make sure that we're drinking plenty of water, because this is going to help keep everything moving through our system more efficiently. The other thing is foam roll, you can foam rolling. If you do this, it will help push the fluids through the lymphatic system for you. So that's a great thing that you can do as well. Dry brushing is another thing that you can do to help stimulate the lymphatic system. Dry brushing is basically what it sounds like you grab a brush, there are certain brushes that you'll want to use for this and you brush your skin in a circular motion moving up towards the heart. Before you take a shower. I'm going to see hopefully, I have a friend who might be able to show this for you in our community. If she can't do it, I will do it for you. But join us over in the forum fit mom community if you're interested in seeing a video on dry brushing. The other thing is guasha stones. Now my friend she has done a video in my foreign fit community on the guasha stones how you want to go about using it. So it's like a jade stone it kind of looks like a heart and you're using it on your neck and your face. And there is a certain pattern that you want to move through to ensure that you're releasing the lymphatic system properly. So that it like I've mentioned it's going down through to the valves right where the heart is. But that's another one that's really good. rebounding on a trampoline is another thing, if you have a trampoline or you know, I have a little, they're called rebounders. They're a smaller trampoline. And you get on that for 30 seconds, jump around, and then get off moving on with your day. That is a another great way to get the lymphatic system moving. So hopefully all of this information, provide you some ideas of things you might want to try to help ensure that you are keeping that system working properly and not creating too much congestion and why it matters. Now, you will hopefully if you didn't already know this information, now you will hopefully understand why you're seeing so much of that information out there. Right now. People aren't moving like they used to. People aren't eating like they're supposed to. And therefore and drinking. I mean, how many times have I heard that you're not getting not you but you know, people aren't getting enough water in in their day. And maybe it is you I know some of you have spoken to me directly, saying I can't get the recommended amount of water in in a day. There are reasons that we want to ensure we're doing this stuff. Those of us in this fitness health industry, there's reasons that we recommend it. And so hopefully this information helps provide you a little bit more knowledge. So you kind of understand why we're recommending certain things. And this will open that avenue and provide you with an opportunity to start working your lymphatic system. So I'd love to hear from you in our forum fitmom community, what do you practice? Do you practice any of these? I did not go into saunas, red lights or hot and cold therapy. So if that's something you're interested, join me over in the forum fitmom community we can talk about this a little bit more. But I'd love to know how are you ensuring that your lymphatic system is not getting congested and you're moving everything properly. I hope you all have a wonderful day and talk to you soon. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to listen to our podcast. I hope you found this information valuable and hope that you're able to immediately use some of the information that was provided today. Make sure to check out the show notes for all the links that we discussed. If you are a busy mom who is looking for community where you can practice living a healthier life. I would love for you to join us over on our form fit community on Facebook. 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