What is lymphatic drainage, anyway?
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What exactly is the lymphatic system and why is it important?
Хей, і ць флора, а є листінти Сайенс Фрайдай. A new wellness trend focused on an obscure capillary system that moves fluid around the body has been bubbling up. And you all wanted to know more.
I am calling questions about lymphatic drainage. In regards to lymphatic drainage I'm not even quite sure what that means. I heard that jumping on a rebounder helps your lymphatic system work better and you feel more healthy. I've gotten a lymphatic drainage massage before.
And I didn't really feel any different. Lymphatic walking, vibration plates, compression boots all have been touted as ways to stimulate the lymphatic system to combat bloating, flush away toxins, and generally promote health. So let's dive in. What is the lymphatic system? What does it do in the body? And is there anything to these claims? Here with answers are two experts. We have Dr. Timothy Padera, a researcher at Mass General Research Institute, who's dedicated his career to better understanding how the lymphatic system works, and physical therapist Dr. Mark Miller, who treats cancer patients with manual lymphatic drainage at UTMD Anderson Cancer Center. Tim, Mark, welcome to Science Friday.
Yeah, thank you for having me. Yeah, Ditto, thanks.
Thank you for being here. Tim, let's start with some one oh one. What is the lymphatic system and what does it do?
So the lymphatic system really is comprised of of many different types of vessels that are all throughout our body. They cover the surface of our brain, they're in the tips of our toes, they're sort of pretty much in every tissue in between. And they also contain um critical organs for generating our immune responses called lymph nodes. And there's really three main functions for the lymphatic system. The first is it really does help maintain our fluid levels in our tissues. And so some of the smaller lymphatic vessels will sit in the tissues, absorb fluid, and that gets collected by larger vessels that end up returning that fluid called lymph back to the blood. A second main function is that the lymphatic system kind of forms communication between our tissue and our immune system.
And so as those small vessels are taking up the fluid from the tissue, they can also pick up bits of bacteria or virus or any other infection and immune cells. And they bring that information to the lymph nodes so the lymph nodes can then determine. whether they need to mount an immune response to anything, any sort of infection that might be happening. And then the third main function is the lymphatics in our gut are really important for um absorbing our dietary lipids.
That's interesting. It seems to have varied roles. And so these these vessels, they're not blood vessels. They're a different kind of vessel.
They are a different type of vessel. So the the the blood circulation is sort of referred to as closed. Like we want to keep the blood in the blood vessels. And so The blood circulation also has this nice central pump on it. We call it the heart. Where the lymphatics really are are are just going one direction. They're going from the tissue to the blood, but it's not the blood coming really back in a closed system back to the lymphatics, right? So it's more like the roots From a tree absorbing fluid and bringing up to the to the trunk of the tree. And because there's no central pump. To actually move the fluid, the larger vessels have their own muscle. and can contract and actually drive the lymph flow back toward the blood circulation.
Tim, what is lymph? What's the definition?
So I always say all lymph is local. Lymph is just the stuff in your lymphatic vessels and it's it's comprised of Whatever's in the tissue. So if you have inflammation in the tissue, it's going to be picking up all those inflammatory signals, bringing it to the lymph node. Um, if you've been fasting for a long time, the lymph in your gut is going to look very different from if you've just eaten, you know, a cheeseburger, right? Because then you're gonna get a lot more lipids into that lymph.
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