Lymphatic Drainage Massage
and Its Benefits for the Body
Lymphatic drainage massage, also known as manual lymphatic drainage, relieves swellings that arise when treatment or disease blocks the lymphatic system. This system is part of the immune system, created by nature to maintain fluid balance in the body and protect it against infections.
The lymphatic system includes the organs, vessels, and tissues that move or drain watery fluid (lymph) from other parts of your body into your blood: bone marrow, thymus, tonsils and adenoids, spleen, and lymph nodes. If the lymphatic system isn’t working correctly or is blocked, excess fluid accumulates in your tissues.
Lymphatic drainage massage gently affects the lymphatic system and relieves swelling from excess lymphatic fluid in body tissues. It involves gently manipulating specific body areas to help lymph move to an area with working lymphatic vessels.
What Is The Purpose
of Lymphatic Drainage Massage?
It is mainly used to relieve painful swelling of the hands and feet caused by lymphedema. It often affects people recovering from breast cancer surgery. If you have lymphedema after a mastectomy (removal of breast tissue for the treatment or prevention of breast cancer), massage may help reduce mild or moderate symptoms after surgery.
Also, many things cause lymphedema, in particular:
- Genetic disorders
- Trauma
- Infection
- Cancer treatment
- Surgery
Symptoms of lymphedema you should pay attention to:
- Pain
- Change in skin color
- Swelling of tissues
- Heaviness in the limbs
- Weakness
- Hardening or thickening of the skin
- Recurrent infections
Benefits of Lymphatic Drainage Massage
Massage promotes fluid movement and swelling. If you are healthy, lymphatic drainage massage can help you relax. However, it is unlikely to improve your health significantly.
Lymphedema occurs when the tissues retain the fluid left after blood rushes through them and their organs. Usually, the lymphatic system accumulates lymph and returns it to the heart through a network of lymphatic vessels and lymph nodes. When this process is broken, the lymphatic system gathers lymph in the hands and feet, causing them to swell.
The massage therapist uses lymphatic drainage massage to move lymph from tissues to lymph nodes, reducing tissue swelling.
Your specialist can use manual lymph drainage along with other methods, including:
- exercises;
- compression bandages, sleeves, or stockings;
- a sleeve that inflates and lifts to apply pressure to your arms or legs (sequential pneumatic compression).
What Happens
During Lymphatic Drainage Massage?
Talk to your doctor before you start massage, and make sure you see a trained and certified professional. Your massage therapist will follow a sequence using various massage techniques, including stretching, compression, sliding, and cupping movements. They begin with the main lymphatic outflows. They include lymph nodes: neck, groin, armpits.
Massage stimulates your lymphatic system without solid pressure on the vessels. This allows fluid to move quickly through your nodes and tissues, ensuring fluid doesn’t get stuck anywhere.
How to Find out
if Lymphatic Drainage Massage Works?
Massage may not help with your lymphedema immediately enough to be noticeable. If it works, the symptoms will be relieved. Your swelling should go away. You will feel less heavy or tense. It will also be easier to move around. You may notice that your clothes “fit” you better.
If you have made several messages and don’t notice any difference, ask your doctor about other things to try. Medical workers are still studying how lymphatic drainage massage affects the human body. Some studies show that people under the age of 60 benefit from it.
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How Is a Massage Performed,
and What Are Its Types?
Lymphatic drainage massage consists of two stages:
- Clearing: This step releases the lymphatic fluid in your tissues.
- Reabsorption: This step moves fluid to lymph nodes.
There are four types of massage commonly used by massage therapists, physiotherapists, and doctors. These include:
- Vodder. This technique uses different movements around the area your therapist is treating.
- Foldi. An extension of the Vodder technique, the Foldi requires your massage therapist to alternate between circular hand movements and moments of relaxation.
- Casley-Smith. This approach to lymphatic massage also involves circular movements of the hands, mainly from the sides and palms.
- Leduc. This technique relies on hand movements to collect lymph fluid before redirecting it into a more extensive lymphatic system.
All of these techniques work in roughly the same way. The massage therapist stretches and moves the skin toward the lymph flow. Strokes should start from the part of the limb closest to your body and move outward. The massage usually lasts from 15 to 60 minutes.
Some people benefit from a mechanical process. A sleeve with a pneumatic pump is used, which pulsates and helps the lymph flow away from the tissue to lymph nodes.
In Which Diseases Can Lymphatic
Drainage Massage Be Useful?
This massage is often used to relieve lymphedema after breast cancer surgery.
It will be helpful in the following conditions:
- Rheumatoid arthritis is a long-term arthritis of the joints that causes pain, swelling, and stiffness. Lymphatic drainage massage may help reduce symptoms of late-stage rheumatoid arthritis.
- Fibromyalgia causes chronic muscle and joint pain due to inflammation of the cutaneous nerves, skin discoloration, and tissue swelling. Lymphatic drainage massage is better than connective tissue massage, in treating depression and stiffness and improving patients' quality of life.
- Chronic venous insufficiency (CVI) occurs when the valves or walls of the veins in the legs do not work properly, making it difficult for blood to return from the legs to the heart. Lymphatic drainage massage may help speed up blood flow in people with CVI and improve the functioning of the femoral artery, the large thigh artery. It is unclear how long this effect lasts, or whether it provides massage and continued relief of pain and swelling.
- Lipedema: occurs when excess fat accumulates in the lower body, blocking the lymphatic pathway and causing lymphedema.
Are There Risks Associated
With Lymphatic Drainage Massage?
In general, massage is a safe method of treating lymphedema. There are some conditions and circumstances under which it’s not recommended:
- Heart diseases
- Kidney failure
- The presence of blood clots
- Infection
If you are concerned that massage may affect your physical health, talk to your healthcare provider or a certified healthcare professional about lymphedema.
How to Drain Yourself
of the Lymphatic System?
Talk to your healthcare provider or see a certified therapist about learning the massage technique. They will have information to help you decide whether doing a lymphatic drainage massage at home or working with a trained massage therapist would be beneficial.
You can also try other things to help your lymphatic system, such as:
- Deep breathing
- Exercises
- Move the brush in circles on the skin
- Swimming
- Tapping in the skin just above the collarbones.
Procedures should be carried out by an experienced specialist so that they only benefit. The Massage Bliss and Bodywork team includes professionals only. Entrust your body to the skilled hands of our massage therapists.
FAQ
Will Lymphatic Drainage Massage Help to Get Rid of Lymphedema?
Massage may not produce immediate results. If you have had several sessions with no results, ask your healthcare provider about alternative treatments.
How Many Sessions Are Needed to Achieve Results?
It all depends on the problem, the general condition of your body, and whether you play any kind of sport or are recovering from surgery. Each person and each case are individual.
Is It Possible to Get Sick After Lymphatic Drainage Massage?
It usually safely and effectively helps with lymphedema. Few people have adverse reactions to such messages. Sometimes, there are complaints of headache, nausea, and fatigue. It would help to ask your healthcare provider about managing side effects when this happens.
When to Call a Doctor?
You should call your doctor if your lymphedema worsens during the course massage. Swelling and increased risk of infection is an unfortunate and unpleasant result of some methods of treatment for cancer and other diseases. Lymphatic drainage massage — one of the ways to alleviate its symptoms. Ask your healthcare provider about its benefits for you.
