Top Tips for Keeping This One Neglected Body System Clean and Healthy

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Your lymph system is a complex and little-thought-of drainage system in the body. This system is mostly ignored, of course, until someone gets cancer. The entire system contains vital organs including the spleen, the thymus, lymph nodes, and blood vessels. Your lymph system plays an extremely important role when it comes to fighting infection, and removing fats, toxic waste, and excess fluid from the body. A deficiency in iodine, digestive problems, lack of exercise, and illnesses can all clog the lymph system, keeping it from doing its vital job.

But what can you do to keep this system from becoming clogged, trapping toxins and other waste, including excess fluids, inside the body? There are plenty of natural ways to keep your lymph system clean and free flowing. Doing so has many benefits as well including improving your skin tone, relieving recurring sinus infections, headaches, arthritis, fatigue, lowering cholesterol levels, improved energy levels, an improved immune system, and a general improvement in overall health.

Keep reading and find out the top ways you can keep your body’s drainage system in tip top shape. It’s easier than you think!

1. The Right Foods

Eating a healthy diet is perhaps one of the best ways to avoid a sluggish lymph system. Adding the following foods will go a long way towards keeping your lymphatic system healthy and clear.

Red staining foods are very good for stimulating lymph movement. These include pomegranates, beets, strawberries, cherries, and cranberries
Flaxseed oil
Avocados
Brazil nuts
Spirulina
Walnuts
Almonds
Chia seeds
Spinach
Kale
Beet greens
Turnip greens

The more raw, organic vegetables and fruits you can add to your diet, the healthier your lymph system will be.

2. The Wrong Foods

The same way that eating the right foods can help to keep your lymph system running smoothly, eating the wrong foods will clog your system with their toxic waste and lack of nutrients. Avoid the following foods as much as possible:

Refined sugar
Red meat
Baked goods
Sodium
Processed foods
Artificial preservatives
Artificial colors
Artificial sweeteners
Refined grains
White rice and white bread

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Young couple while beauty health spa treatment taking a sauna

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3. Dry Brushing/Saunas

Performing dry brushing a minimum of 5 days per week will help to improve lymph flow and will actually kick your entire lymph system into action. This is easy to do: before you get in the shower, dry brush your skin with a soft brush (they sell brushes exactly for this purpose) with long strokes moving towards the heart. This only takes about 5 minutes and will really help keep the lymph system moving. You can also stimulate the lymph system and get it moving by using saunas, which will increase sweating, removing toxins and allowing the lymph system to drain itself.

4. Exercise

Be certain that you get regular exercise, especially exercise that involves jumping. Think of jumping as a way of cleansing your lymph system essentially by pushing or squeezing things through the lymph drainage system. In the same way pushing on a plunger will help push stagnant water and waste out of a sink and into a sewer system, jumping up and down will help pushing toxins and waste out of your lymph system and then out of your body. Any exercise will do, actually, because as long as your muscles are moving, they are massaging your lymph nodes, but why not take just an extra minute and do a few jumping jacks at the end or the beginning of an exercise routine to really get things moving?

5. Herbal Teas

You most likely already know that herbal teas are powerful medicine and some herbs are better at improving the lymph flow. Teas that are known to really support the lymph system are:

Wild indigo root
Red clover
Echinacea
Goldenseal
Pokeroot
Astragalus
Lemon balm

Try to drink at least one cup of one of these herbal teas each day to help improve lymph flow and remove waste from the body.

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6. Alternating Hot and Cold Water

The Swedes and Finnish people have known for hundreds, if not thousands, of years that alternating temperatures is good for circulation; both blood circulation and lymph circulation. You can alternate hot and cold in several different ways. In the shower is most likely the easiest place for most people to do this. Simply alternate water as hot as you can stand it with water as cold as you can stand it a couple of times before you jump out of the shower. This will make your blood vessels contract and dilate, which will stimulate your lymph system.

7. Stay Hydrated

In order for your lymph system to work properly, your body needs water. You’ve probably heard this before, but it doesn’t make it any less true; drink at least 6 to 8 glasses of pure water each day, more if you are sweating, exercising heavily, or live in a very hot climate. Find out reasons for dehydration.

8. Alternative Therapies

Deep breathing exercises are known to stimulate lymph flow and bring fresh oxygen to the cells in your body. Acupuncture is another good way to stimulate the lymphatic flow. Yoga is another method many people find helps them get their lymph system stimulated and flowing.

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9. Avoid Toxic Beauty and Personal Care Products

You might not be aware of it, but many types of makeup, toothpaste, body lotions, face creams, deodorants, and other types of personal care or beauty products contain toxic, chemically laden ingredients that are absorbed directly into your bloodstream within minutes after you put them on your skin. These toxic chemicals go into your lymph system as well, placing an added burden on them and causing them to become sluggish. Use only natural, organic products that do not contain toxic preservatives or that are petroleum based.

SEE ALSO: Easy 3 Day Lymph System Cleanse

10. Wear Loose Clothing

Wearing tight clothing, especially those made from synthetic fibers, can slow down the lymph system flow and even cause blockages. Lymph nodes are located all over the body, and there are multiple glands located around your waist and groin area, so be certain that you don’t wear tight underclothes or jeans that cut off your circulation, limiting the flow to and from the lymph system.

Keep these tips in mind and you won’t have to worry about your lymph system clogging up and causing you problems in the future. When your lymph system is working well, your overall health will improve, giving you more energy, less aches and pains, less swelling, and fewer toxic buildups in the body.

References:

Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Lymphnotes.com

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