Why and How to Dry Brush your Skin?
How does our lymphatic Work?
A peak functioning lymphatic system is key to health and vitality, but most people don’t appreciate or know much about this critically important part of the body. Your lymphatic system is your body’s built-in sanitation center, the plumbing that carries away and filters out poisonous waste products from every cell, tissue, and organ. It absorbs fats and fat-soluble vitamins from the digestive tract and delivers them to the body’s cells. It is also essential to the immune system, maintaining fluid levels, fighting infection, and producing disease-fighting white blood cells. Twice as extensive as the arterial blood supply system, which brings oxygen and nutrients to the cells, the lymph is the takeaway garbage collector and the body's most extensive circulatory system. The lymphatic system needs your help to move the fluid through the body because it doesn’t have an automatic pump like the heart, which carries the blood in the circulatory system.
What backs up your Lymph?
Lack of Movement: Proper lymphatic flow requires deep breathing and body movement – the contraction of skeletal muscles forces tiny one-way valves of the lymph system to open and close and push the fluid to the subclavian veins.
Dehydration: Dehydration can contribute to poor lymphatic drainage and cause lymphatic stagnation.
Stress: The waste products of stress-fighting hormones are acidic, and an acidic body leads to lymph congestion.
Chronic Digestive Imbalance: Constipation or diarrhea due to damaged intestinal villi promotes lymph congestion.
Processed Foods: An unhealthy diet containing processed foods and bad fats will lead to a sluggish lymphatic system.
Chemical Exposures: When your body is exposed to harmful chemicals in skin and body care products, cleaning products, or pesticides, it may be unable to unload or detoxify immediately.
Signs your Lymphatic System is Backed up
Headaches, brain fog, lack of energy
Mucous in the morning, mucous drainage (especially after dairy or flour), reduced ability to fight off infection.
Constipation or sluggish bowel function
Unable to lose weight (toxins play a part in holding on to weight)
Soreness or stiffness in the morning
Bloating, swelling, or heaviness in extremities
Sore breasts or breast swelling with your menstrual cycle
Itchy Skin, Acne, Dry skin, or other skin issues
Below are simple ways to naturally activate your lymphatic system and encourage your body’s natural detoxification process. These tips can easily be incorporated into your everyday routine. As a byproduct, you’ll reap the benefits of a healthy lymphatic system that contributes to many other primary bodily functions.
Dry brush your skin
Fact: Dry brushing is brushing the skin with a natural, dry, stiff-bristled brush. It is said to improve circulation, stimulate lymph flow and exfoliate the skin. Dry skin brushing promotes lymphatic drainage of toxic waste, resulting in many other benefits, such as enhanced immunity, refreshed skin, and cellulite reduction.
Tip: Start a habit of dry skin brushing a few minutes before your shower or bathe using an inexpensive natural bristle brush. Hard pressure is not necessary – the lymphatic system is close to the skin’s surface, and it only takes a light pressure to release congestion. You can find dry brushes in many retail shops and health stores. Still, I suggest LIFEROOTBOTANICALS for the best brush and essential oil for Hello Palate community, presenting you with a 25%discount using HELLO25 for March 2021.
Additional Dry Brush Resources
Try DIY home Hydrotherapy
Fact: Lymphatic vessels contract when exposed to cold and dilate in response to heat. A hot and cold shower is hydrotherapy that uses water temperature and pressure to move stagnant lymphatic fluid, increase circulation, and boost immune function and metabolism.
Tip: After dry skin brushing, supercharge your morning shower experience by alternating hot and cold water for between 90 seconds and several minutes.2. Be sure to always end on cold water. Note: Avoid this if you are pregnant or have a heart or blood pressure condition.
Eat Foods that Promote Lymph Flow
Fact: Processed foods are challenging for the body to digest and can cause inflammation and clogging within the lymphatic system. This is why our bodies become sluggish after eating too much-processed food.
Tip: Keep your diet rich in fresh vegetables and fruits as they naturally cleanse and retain energy levels. Leafy, dark green vegetables are specifically beneficial for detoxification and combatting backup as chlorophyll purifies the lymph and blood. Good sources of healthy fats rich in essential fatty acids like nuts, seeds, avocados, oils (olive oil, coconut oil, palm oil), ghee, and butter promote lymph flow. Stock your home with nutritious, whole foods you can reach for when hungry, and try to plan meals around more green vegetables.
Practice Deep Breathing
Fact: The simple exercise of diaphragmatic breathing activates the lymphatic system and detoxifies the body. Diaphragmatic breathing should engage your stomach, abdominal muscles, and the diaphragm; think of conscious, deep breaths that genuinely move your body. This practice helps you get closer to reaching your lungs’ full capacity and facilitates the movement of lymph through the bloodstream while decreasing the number of toxins.
Tip: Take a few minutes every day for deep breathing. Take a minute to watch this video demonstration on proper Diaphragmatic Breathing.
Keep Your Body Moving
Fact: A properly functioning lymphatic system depends on muscle movement to circulate fluids and pump the lymph within vessels. If you’re sedentary for long periods, lymph fluid can build up and become congested, which leads to swelling in the body.
Tip: Light exercises like walking, stretching, and yoga can move lymph. Try not to sit for 20 minutes without getting up for a few minutes. Take a meeting standing up, stretches during a break, then take a walk to decompress after the workday and the added benefit of breathing exercises. Studies show one of the best ways to activate lymphatic flow is by taking a brisk walk daily while pumping your arms.
These practices are nearly as old as time—many find value in them, even if modern-day research finds them anecdotal. If anything, it will not harm you and can only benefit your health.
“Detoxing means cleaning out the body — removing toxins, clearing out your jammed hormone receptors, and resetting key hormones,” says Dr. Sara Gottfried, MD, author of “The Hormone Cure” and “The Hormone Reset Diet,” and “Younger.” “One of the most common obstacles to detox is a sluggish lymphatic system.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3312397/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24364845/
