Key To Wellness: Top 4 Ways A Strong Lymphatic System Makes You Healthier & How To Achieve That
August 25th, 2021
(7 Minute Read)
There are many things that we can do to help promote a better level of health. Most are familiar with the concepts of strengthening the immune system, detoxing the many toxins we come across daily and eliminating chronic inflammation. They are all broad goals which can contribute to a better overall physical wellness.
But what if there was a natural pathway that accomplished all of these things at the same time?
Enter the Lymphatic system. If you didn’t know, your body is already equipped to do all of these things naturally. We are biologically designed to achieve these goals. What a great ability to have, right?!
One of the many benefits of a well flowing lymphatic system is healthy, glowing skin
Top 4 Reasons You Need To prioritize Your lymphatic system
1. Fights Illness and Infection - Boost Your Immune System
The lymphatic system is also connected to your gut (intestinal tract) and does many things that help your intestinal tract stay healthy. It helps to deliver nutrients and maintain fluid homeostasis1, both of which are vital to a well-functioning immunity. Additionally, the lymphatic system also creates white blood cells (lymphocytes) which produce antibodies. This is, of course, the natural way to defend the body against disease, viruses and fungi.
2. Reduce Swelling and inflammation - Help Avoid Chronic Illness and Pain
A well-functioning lymphatic system will collect excess fluid and return it to your bloodstream. Specifically, it will regulate the inflammatory response by influencing fluid drainage, inflammatory mediators and leukocytes (white blood cells)2. Healthy lymph circulation prevents counterproductive inflammation and can even reduce pain in certain chronic conditions.
3. Filters Your Blood - Maintains Energy Levels
Did you know your spleen is part of your lymphatic system? Many think that the spleen is not all that important (since you can have it removed if necessary), however, it does play a beneficial role to your body. The spleen removes old blood cells and then places new red blood cells into circulation via creation from bone marrow. Red blood cells are important to your wellness because they carry needed oxygen to parts of your body, and harmful CO2 away from them. This means more energy for you and your muscular system.
4. Detox - Gets Rid of Harmful toxins
The lymphatic system is part of your natural detox system! Along with your liver and kidneys, it plays a vital role in removing toxins and waste from your body. When your lymphatic system is functioning well, it moves both environmental toxins and cellular waste to be excreted through perspiration, urine, and waste.
Top 4 Reasons You Need To prioritize Your lymphatic system
1. Fights Illness and Infection - Boost Your Immune System
The lymphatic system is also connected to your gut (intestinal tract) and does many things that help your intestinal tract stay healthy. It helps to deliver nutrients and maintain fluid homeostasis1, both of which are vital to a well-functioning immunity. Additionally, the lymphatic system also creates white blood cells (lymphocytes) which produce antibodies. This is, of course, the natural way to defend the body against disease, viruses and fungi.
2. Reduce Swelling and inflammation - Help Avoid Chronic Illness and Pain
A well-functioning lymphatic system will collect excess fluid and return it to your bloodstream. Specifically, it will regulate the inflammatory response by influencing fluid drainage, inflammatory mediators and leukocytes (white blood cells)2. Healthy lymph circulation prevents counterproductive inflammation and can even reduce pain in certain chronic conditions.
3. Filters Your Blood - Maintains Energy Levels
Did you know your spleen is part of your lymphatic system? Many think that the spleen is not all that important (since you can have it removed if necessary), however, it does play a beneficial role to your body. The spleen removes old blood cells and then places new red blood cells into circulation via creation from bone marrow. Red blood cells are important to your wellness because they carry needed oxygen to parts of your body, and harmful CO2 away from them. This means more energy for you and your muscular system.
4. Detox - Gets Rid of Harmful toxins
The lymphatic system is part of your natural detox system! Along with your liver and kidneys, it plays a vital role in removing toxins and waste from your body. When your lymphatic system is functioning well, it moves both environmental toxins and cellular waste to be excreted through perspiration, urine, and waste.
What Is Throwing Off Your System?
A wide variety of things can be throwing off the efficiency of your lymphatic system. Anything from emotional stress to lack of sleep might have your system slacking off. We want to highlight two: Weight Gain and Environmental Toxins.
Weight Gain
Studies have shown that being overweight can have a pretty drastic and harmful impact on your lymphatic system3. If you have ever experienced weight gain, you probably noticed the effects, even if you didn’t know it. Considering the symptoms of a poorly functioning lymphatic system, you would have noticed having less energy, poor focus and inability to lose weight after an extended time.
So we urge you, be aware of your calorie consumption and activity levels.
Toxins & Heavy Metals
Heavy Metals and other environmental toxins are something you are constantly exposed to in our modern world, and they can have a significant impact. Some have estimated that you encounter as many as 2.1 million toxins daily. That sounds like a lot, (it is just an estimate) but it becomes a lot more realistic when you think about it. Almost everything we use in modern day life contains unnatural toxins. From the more obvious cleaning chemicals, to the less obvious materials that make up your mattress, they are always around you.
The consensus of which metals and toxins are most harmful might not be decided, but a few pieces of research have shown that Chromium and Lead should catch your attention. Chromium has been shown to accumulate in lymph4, while at only low-to-moderate levels of lead can cause ‘functional alterations’ to your lymphocytes5.
Finding ways to purge the body of heavy metals is something to prioritize, as the more they build up, the worse the effects can become.
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How Can You Get Better Lymphatic Flow?
Good news: There are simple ways that you can boost the function of your lymphatic system. Even better news? They’re fairly simple! These are a few things that we recommend working into daily habits in order to help yourself:
1. Drink water - No, You're Not Drinking Enough
Well, we don’t know that for sure, but in our experience working with clients, nearly all of them claim to drink “plenty of water”. BUT… When we give them the goal and they start tracking water intake, 95% of them were not consuming enough. A rough goal for all people is 1 gallon of water per day, and you should set that goal by finding a measured container and knowing how many you need to consumer daily. You’ll probably be surprised at how far off you were after tracking for a day or two.
2. Work Healthy fats into Your diet
Along with high alkaline foods, we recommend healthy fats be in everyone’s daily diet. They serve many important roles outside of the health of your lymphatic system. Options that are best for lymphatic health include: seeds, nuts, avocados, olive oil and whole eggs.
3. Seek Out High alkaline foods
This is where mom and dad were right about the need to eat your veggies. Green veggies are going to be some of the best options to help this goal. Other options that are high alkaline include fruits (even citrus), root vegetables and nuts.
4. Manage Stress With Healthy Coping Skills
We hope that most have found their healthy way to cope with stress. We always highlight our preferences from experience: yoga, meditation, mindfulness, and exercise. Click on this link to read more on stress management and cortisol control.
5. Exercise - The Triple Threat
Why? Because it’s great for stress management, avoiding weight gain, and increasing heartrate all at once. This stimulates your lymphatic system to increase flow rate. Want to take it up another notch? Try exercise under water, as doctors say that the pressure from the water will increase flow rate even more6.
Send Flow Into Hyperdrive
So we don’t always add in how infrared sauna treatments can boost these types of goals, but it is so relevant to lymphatic flow, we had to here. Really, it helps in two main ways:
Sweat– Sweat is one of the ways that your lymphatic system actually exits toxins from your body. Increasing perspiration and sweating more often will allow your lymphatic system to cleanse more frequently, forcing an increase in flow rate as well as higher rate of detoxification. Follow this link to read more on sauna, sweating and detox.
Heartrate – So exercise is king when it comes to heartrate, but infrared sauna can help give you an entire extra session post exercise, or help hit your heartrate goal if getting to the gym isn’t an option. One of the ways that infrared gets you sweating at a higher rate than most other methods is it’s impact on heartrate. A single session can burn 100’s of calories, all because you have that heartrate up.
1. Miller, Mark J et al. “Microanatomy of the intestinal lymphatic system.” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences vol. 1207 Suppl 1,Suppl 1 (2010): E21-8. doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.2010.05708.x
2. Schwager, Simon, and Michael Detmar. “Inflammation and Lymphatic Function.” Frontiers in immunology vol. 10 308. 26 Feb. 2019, doi:10.3389/fimmu.2019.00308
3. Hespe, Geoffrey E et al. “Exercise training improves obesity-related lymphatic dysfunction.” The Journal of physiology vol. 594,15 (2016): 4267-82. doi:10.1113/JP271757
4. Briffa, Jessica et al. “Heavy metal pollution in the environment and their toxicological effects on humans.” Heliyon vol. 6,9 e04691. 8 Sep. 2020, doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04691
5. Napier, Melanie D et al. “Heavy metals, organic solvents, and multiple sclerosis: An exploratory look at gene-environment interactions.” Archives of environmental & occupational health vol. 71,1 (2016): 26-34. doi:10.1080/19338244.2014.937381
6. Heather Alexander. “Exercise and the Lymphatic System.” MD Anderson Cancer Center, MD Anderson Cancer Center, 4 Feb. 2020, https://www.mdanderson.org/publications/focused-on-health/exercise-and-the-lymphatic-system.h20-1592991.html.