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Detox Showers part 2

Posted by PattyLA on Jan 12, 2012 in Detox, GAPS | 0 comments

This is a follow up to my detox shower post. I realize that not everyone knows what the lymph system looks like and how to find it so I found some pictures to help you with your lymphatic massage.

These images are of the lymph system in the body. Instead of a central heart like the circulatory system the lymph system relies on the movement of the body to move it’s fluid around. There are lymph vessels and lymph nodes. Those nodes can swell and become congested and tender when you are ill. The ones under my chin are chronically enlarged, I assume because of my Lyme disease. The point of the lymphatic massage is to move the lymph around your body and allow it to help you detoxify. So massaging toward the lymph nodes helps move the lymph into them and then pumping on top of those lymph nodes moves the lymph through them and to the rest of the body. As you can see in this picture you have a lot of lymph nodes in your gut. Your immune system and detoxification systems are centerd in your gut so moving your lymph toward your gut makes it easier for your body to then dispose of those toxins that are in your lymph and deal with any pathogens.

See page for author [CC-BY-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

This somewhat gruesome picture was the best one I could find detailing the lymphatic system in the head. You can see the lymph nodes around the ears and neck.

By Henry Gray (Gray’s anatomy) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Another good detoxifying maneuver to do while in the tub is to massage your organs. I’ve got this picture so that you can imagine what you are feeling. While lying back in the tub use both of your hands and gently pull from the edges of your belly toward the center. Start on your lower right hand side and move upward and around ending on the lower left just gently pulling in on your organs. This will stimulate your digestion and also it just gives your internal organs a massage. Go all the way around a few times noticing any tender or stuck places and gently working on them. T-Tapp uses this in an exercise and calls it putting organs into place. I now use it in the tub most days. It is good for your digestion and if you think of all those lymph nodes there in your gut these sorts of moves also help to pump them and move your lymph around.