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Lymphatic Drainage Massage

Discover how lymphatic drainage massage can play an important role in keeping your lymphatic system in good working in order.

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The lymphatic system


The lymphatic system sits alongside your body's cardiovascular system, quietly helping to look after your health. Its function and the vital role it plays in preventative health is widely recognised by doctors in Europe and the Far East.
The reason the lymphatic system is so important is because it performs three critical functions:
  • It supports your immune system by removing toxins, dead blood cells, pathogens and other waste.
  • It helps your body absorb fats and fat-soluble vitamins from your digestive system, delivering these nutrients to cells where they're used as fuel.
  • It removes excess fluid - known as 'lymph' - and waste products from the spaces between the cells and organs of the body.
If a healthy lymphatic system becomes compromised due to illness or a poor lifestyle, this can lead to a range of issues, including tissue swelling, poor skin tone, excess weight, cellulite, headaches, joint pain, fatigue and greater susceptibility to illness. A lymphatic drainage massage can help to get the system moving again.

HOW DOES THE LYMPHATIC SYSTEM WORK?

Your lymphatic system is vast. Like the blood circulatory system, the network of lymph vessels serves almost every cell in your entire body.

Strung along those vessels - like pearls knotted on a string - are lymph nodes, which act as a kind of filter. You can sometimes feel the nodes under your arm or in your neck when you're feeling unwell. As lymphatic fluid percolates through the nodes it becomes 'cleaner', as toxins and other impurities are removed.

While your heart sits at the centre of your cardiovascular system, your lymphatic system has no central pump. Instead it relies on muscle movement, deep breathing and, sometimes, manual manipulation (or via a lymphatic drainage machine like Body Ballancer®) to move the fluid.

If your lymphatic system gets blocked or overrun due to illness, surgery, toxic overload or lack of activity, lymph fluid can build up. That's when you get some of the problems mentioned earlier, like swelling, cellulite, joint pain and illness.
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Lymphatic Drainage Massage

Lymphatic drainage massage benefits

Your lymphatic system supports your immune system by removing toxins, getting rid of excess fluid and helping your body absorb vitamins from your digestive system.

Unfortunately, the lymphatic system can often get blocked or overrun because of things like stress, illness and an unhealthy lifestyle.

While a good diet and regular exercise are important, lymphatic drainage massage is a proven way to give your lymphatic system a helping hand.

Because of the role the lymphatic system has, lymphatic drainage massage - or lymph drainage therapy as it's sometimes known - can help produce a wide range of health, aesthetic and fitness benefits. These include:

Reducing swelling caused by water retention
Supporting weight loss
Reducing cellulite
Improving skin tone
Improving body shape
Helping you feel lighter and less bloated
Improving digestion
Aiding sleep and relaxation
Getting rid of toxins
Boosting the immune system to help prevent illness and disease
Supporting faster muscle recovery to aid with exercise

LYMPHATIC DRAINAGE MASSAGE


Discover how lymphatic drainage massage - or lymph drainage therapy - can play an important role in keeping your lymphatic system in good working in order.

"Lymphatic drainage is sometimes termed 'massage' because it involves hand movements on the skin but it is very different from therapeutic or aromatherapy massage which can cause friction to the skin and increase the blood supply. This, in turn, causes more lymph to be produced."

Website of the Royal Marsden Hospital

"We should be clear that a poor functioning lymph circulation lowers our defence which opens the door to every infection such as catarrh, chronic colds, sinusitis, sore throat, angina etc. Unfortunately, this condition of congestion which can be traced back to a worsening and stagnation of lymph, also has a detrimental effect on one's appearance. This is the deeper cause of a series of cosmetic flaws such as swelling, reddening, puffiness, bags under the eyes, pimples...etc.

Stagnation of the lymph flow therefore has catastrophic results for all health and beauty; one must get the lymph circulation going again at all costs and this is achieved with the help of Manual Lymph Drainage."

Dr Emil Vodder: Lymphatic drainage, a new therapeutic method, Paris 1936

LYMPHATIC DRAINAGE MASSAGE FAQs

It’s important to ask lots of questions and fully explore all options available to you. Here are the most popular questions asked.

The lymphatic system depends on muscle contraction and deep breathing to remove fluid and toxins from our body. But lymphatic drainage massage is another important. way to keep the system running smoothly. Less well-known in the UK, lymphatic drainage is a specialised form of massage used widely in Europe, the Far East and other parts of the world to improve lymphatic flow.

We get asked this a lot! By 'ordinary' massage, people tend to be referring to aromatherapy, sports massage, Swedish massage or any of the other - often quite exotic-sounding - massages available today in salons and spas.

With these massages, a therapist is usually working on the muscles, and will often need to use deep massage techniques to reach the muscular layer. Lymphatic drainage massage, however, is targeting the delicate lymphatic vessels and nodes that sit just below the skin, which only require very light pressure in order to move fluid through.

What this means is that if you suffer from water retention, bloating, cellulite or poor skin tone, using traditional massage may not give you what you are looking for.
Lymphatic drainage massage was first promoted as a therapy in the 1930s by Dr
Emil Vodder for treating the symptoms of sinusitis and chronic colds. He discovered that working on the swollen lymph nodes on the face and neck of his patients had a dramatic effect in decongesting the sinuses, eliminating inflammation and in many cases reducing headaches, migraines and even improving facial blemishes.
He expanded his study of lymphatic drainage massage to cover the lymphatic vessels and organs of the entire body, discovering both health and aesthetic benefits:
Yes! - In terms of manual lymphatic drainage massage, while the 'Vodder method' as developed by our old friend Dr Emil Vodder is seen as the absolute gold standard, there are two other schools of lymphatic drainage massage: the Casley-Smith and the Foldi-Leduc methods.
Both of these are almost exclusively used to treat serious medical conditions such as lymphoedema, lipoedema and fibrosis. Any manual lymphatic drainage massage offered in an aesthetic setting, such as a salon, spa or aesthetic clinic, will be based on the Vodder method.
Historically, lymphatic drainage massage has been carried out manually by trained therapists. This involves using light pressure and long, rhythmic strokes to increase the flow of lymphatic fluid - 'lymph' - helping the lymphatic system remove toxins and other harmful waste from the body.

Body Ballancer® is a groundbreaking lymphatic drainage machine that removes the need for a trained lymphatic drainage massage therapist. Instead, the Body Ballancer® uses clinically designed garments that fill with air to provide a powertul, consistent and effective lymphatic massage.

Furthermore, it's based on proven principles of the Vodder method, using fluid compression strokes that gently work from the base of the leg or arm up to the torso - known as 'distal to proximal' - to efficiently decongest the entire treated area of excess fluid.
While lymphatic drainage is a popular aesthetic treatment for detoxification and reducing puffiness, it can also a vital clinical tool for managing certain medical conditions. If you have been diagnosed with or suspect you have chronic swelling, we recommend consulting your GP. You can find comprehensive clinical information on the causes and NHS-recommended treatments by visiting the official NHS guide to lymphoedema.
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