Are you ready for an amazing journey inside your body, going places you have never traveled to before. This is going to be an adventure you will not want to miss.
The Lymphatic System is an extremely complicated network of capillaries, ducts, nodes, organs and cells that we are still trying to map out. It is as mysterious as the deepest parts of the ocean or the farthest reaches of the galaxy. Even with all scientific advances and powerful microscopes there is still so much that escapes us.
Right away we begin life as 90% water! Imagine your body as a very thin membrane. Even this membrane is mostly water but has enough density to contain and hold water as if it were a balloon. That is us! Now imagine this very thin membrane bouncing around in a huge container of water. This also is us! We are literally balloons of water bouncing around in a really large balloon of water. A bit extreme of an image but you get my point. Without adequate water both in our body, in our skin, or in our atmosphere we do not survive.
I want to begin by giving you the big picture first. Soon we will see individual cells bathed in interstitial fluid. In fact the analogy I just gave is a perfect picture of what our body cells look like. Small enclosed membranes bouncing around within a much larger membrane, the human skin. The word bouncing is an interesting choice of words to use and may prove to be more accurate as we delve deeper.
The Lymphatic System is made up of:
- Lymph
- Lymphatic capillaries
- Lymphatic vessels
- Lymph nodes or glands
- Lymph trunks
- Collecting Ducts: the Thoracic Duct & the Right Lymphatic Duct
- Tonsils
- The Adenoids
- The Thymus Gland
- The Spleen
- Red Bone Marrow
This is the accepted listing of what constitutes The Lymphatic System. But keep in mind that the Lymphatic System goes to nearly every cell in the human body. As such we also find lymphatic tissue in the heart, lungs, intestines, liver, and yes the skin. It was recently discovered in 2012 a sort of lymphatic system in the brain being called the Glymphatic System. Something until now western medicine did not know existed. I have always included brain lymphatic stimulation in my own work without thinking that it did not exist. But it is nice to get the science to back up my own intuitive sense.
Now The Journey Begins:
The Lymphatic System begins with the interstitial fluid that the cells bathe in. It is here that an exchange begins between the lymph fluid and the body cells. In fact lymph fluid is derived from this interstitial fluid which was derived from water. Nourishment is dropped off and excess fluid and toxins are picked up to be carried away. The blood and circulatory system plays an important role along with the lymphatic system. They are each players in the human puzzle dependent on one another for the overall functioning and health of the body. If either lags in performance we feel it health wise!
As a Dr. Lemole says, “The Lymphatic System is as essential to bodily function as the bloodstream it complements. To keep it clear you need to increase its drainage capacity or reduce its intake of toxins.” Usually both are needing to occur simultaneously.
The word lymph is derived from the Roman deity of fresh water, Lympha. It is described as being either clear or a pale straw color while the lymph formed in the digestive tract is milky white. The lymph in the digestive tract is rich in triglycerides (fat). Generally though lymph contains white blood cells, lymphocytes and proteins.
In the most basic of terms what we are seeing is that the blood carries vital body supplies in its circulatory path. It releases these various compositions (oxygen and sugars) to the lymph fluid which in turn transports it to the interstitial fluid that then feeds the cells. Any waste (carbon dioxide, lactic acid, metabolites) are returned back through the interstitial fluid to the lymph fluid and carried away eventually dumping back into the blood supply to be filtered and released out of the body.
I want you to know I have just put into a few sentences what has taken us hundreds of years to figure out and what fills a countless number of science and medical text books.
The lymph nodes are collection sites where white blood cells attack bacteria, viruses, cancer cells that have broken off of a tumor and other foreign particles. Most people are aware of the nodes under their arms pits, in the groin area and women in their breasts. We feel them in our throats when our tonsils become inflamed. Generally when we feel these swollen lumps they usually stimulate a fight or flight panic attack. Most of the time the swelling comes and goes without our even being aware. The body’s own defense system is at work and the job is being taking care of in the background. But as we know these lumps can become what we know as tumors (term first used in the 15th. century).
It is the responsibility of the nodes to “kill” before we are “killed”. It is war in there! The Lymphatic System versus the Dark Forces Of Evil (bacteria, viruses, cancer, germs and infections). Our first line of defense is a strong immune system and with that an arsenal of specific “good” cells such as lymphocytes, T-cells, B cells etc. that nature has created to help us defend ourselves against the mutations created by well that is another whole page! You get the idea though. Nature is trying to help us stay alive. And what an incredible job She is doing considering how much we fight against the flow of life. Again another page!
So the lymph fluid has dropped off its goodies to the interstitial fluid that it got from the blood and has picked up the trash. It then begins its journey first with the lymphatic capillaries. These capillaries are slightly larger than blood capillaries and allow excess interstitial fluid to flow into them when fluid pressure builds. This is a one way flow. When the pressure inside the capillary is greater than that outside in the interstitial fluid the one way valves close keeping the lymph fluid in the capillary. Edema occurs at this level when conditions force the tissues to expand to hold excess fluid within the capillaries. (We use ice packs right away to help contract the tissue to help the fluid move away from the afflicted area as well as to soothe the inflamed tissues.*)
From here the capillaries merge to form lymphatic vessels. Lymphatic Vessels are similar to veins but have thinner walls and valves to control the flow of the lymph fluid. Lymph capillaries and vessels generally flow along side the circulatory system of arteries and veins.
Lymphatic Vessels flow into the nodes, where as mentioned the Lymphatic System has the task of destroying foreign toxic bodies. A problem can arise here if the nodes become overtaxed and can not “kill” off the dangerous cells fast enough. This is when those cells began to take over and the real problems begin. It is like having a parasite on a plant. Left unattended the parasites begin to feed off the plant, multiply and then kill the plant all together. Discover the infestation in time, administer the right procedure and if the plant’s health is in tact we have a better chance of victory. In our body the same holds true. If our immune system is weak, if our general life force is weak, if our bodies are malnourished lacking wholesome nutrients our chances of overcoming the invasion are diminished. Plants are stressed by their environment the same way we humans can be with the same detrimental results.
Modern medicine uses the nodes to check for cancerous cells that have detached from a tumor to check for malignancy. Cancer uses the lymphatic system as a gateway to spread. One of the responsibilities of the Lymphatic System is to destroy these cells before they have a chance to spread and take over in any part of the body. But as we can clearly see the Lymphatic System can only do so much with what it has to work with. Not all cancers are a result of our lifestyles, like the foods we eat or stress levels. Environmental factors and genetics also play a part here.
The lymph vessels may carry lymph from one node to another node before moving on to the next part of its journey. From the nodes the Lymph flows into what are called Lymph Trunks that then form two large collecting ducts called the Thoracic Duct and the Right Lymphatic Duct. it is from here that the lymph fluid then flows into the blood stream**. 75% of the bodies lymph drains into the Thoracic Duct with the remaining 25% (mostly right arm, right side of head and neck, and upper torso) draining into the Right Lymphatic Duct.
Once in the blood stream the body then circulates the blood to the Spleen to be filtered, cleansed, and replenished to be recirculated and the whole procedure begins again. Our bodies are natural recycling plants!
Well I hope you have enjoyed this mini journey we have taken. I really should say micro mini in that there is so much I just skimmed over. Right now it is more important that you get a feel for the Lymphatic System and then we can go even deeper later. It is like visiting San Francisco. You can get a sense of the city in a day or a week but to really know the city you have to live there for awhile. I am hoping that from this site you will want to “live” in your body for a long time and really get to know it intimately.
Thanks for visiting….
Together Our Hands Are Joined To Heal One Another
Alexander Gardener The Lymph Guy Lymphatic Massage Specialist
thelymphguy@gmail.com
Note: I tried to get permission to use the above diagrams from Cancer Research UK but never heard back. I am hoping they will permit this for they are the best visuals I have found.
*this is a generalize explanation as there are different forms and reasons for edema in various parts of our bodies.
**It is a lot more complicated than I am describing here and there are many online resources that will break this down much more than I am doing here.
