Andrew Huberman

Tubes of different sizes, depending on where you are in the body and what you need to accomplish.

But here's a really key point that everyone should know.

We spend so much time and attention thinking about the lymph nodes, which of course are super important, right?

Go to the doctor, you say you're not feeling well,

they're going to feel your lymph nodes.

I'll explain why they do that in a minute.

They're going to feel under your jaw.

You know, maybe you've had swollen lymph nodes where your legs meet your groin.

You have them in your armpits.

You'll occasionally feel some swelling or some kind of dull pain.

By the way, that dull pain or swelling isn't necessarily a sign of a systemic infection.

It could be, but it's not necessarily a sign of an infection.

We'll talk about what the lymph nodes do, but the lymphatic vessels don't get nearly enough attention, in my opinion.

Your entire body is innervated, as we say, by these lymphatic vessels, right?

From your little pinky toe and all your toes and your feet, any tissue in your body, because it needs blood and oxygen,

and nutrients, and because the cells there create waste products, and because some of that fluid remains in the interstitial space, doesn't make it back into the vasculature, you need lymphatic vessels everywhere.

You need them in your brain, you need them in your skin, you need them in your adipose tissue, your fat, that is, you need them everywhere.

And so if I were to give you a map of the lymphatic vessels across the body, it would just look like spaghetti everywhere.

Lymph nodes are going to be those larger compartments where some of the lymphatic fluid and the stuff within it is sequestered for a bit, monitored for infections, and then passed along.

We'll get back to that later.