What are lymphatic massages?

What are lymphatic massages? Lymphatic massages are a specialized treatment to strengthen and / or heal the lymphatic system. It is a set of techniques from massage therapy, applied to the patient in order to regulate the operation of said system, which is specifically responsible for transporting lymph.

These massages are also known as lymphatic drainage, and thanks to their stimulation in the lymphatic system, they provide different and important benefits to the health of the body. Next we will know everything about these massages, which, despite being fundamentally therapeutic, can also be contracted for recreational purposes.

Contents

What is the lymphatic system?

Surely we understand with a good notion of what a massage is, but perhaps the word lymphatic next to the word massage may be somewhat noisy for our understanding. The first thing is to understand what the lymphatic system is, before knowing what these massages are about precisely.

The lymphatic system is a group of vessels, which are responsible for transporting a colorless and transparent liquid known as lymph – hence the name of lymphatic vessels. It contains different substances such as proteins, salts, etc. Its function is to maintain the balance between the multiple fluids that are in our body, as well as to protect it from possible infections.

Then:

How do lymphatic massages work?

The role of lymphatic drainage or massage is to provoke contractions that help repair any damage present in the lymphatic system. At the same time, they can also be used to just stimulate lymph circulation, significantly improving the health of the body respectively.

The treatment of lymphatic massages consists of facilitating and promoting the circulation of all the waste that may lodge in the lymphatic vessels. In this sense, it is a mechanism that can strengthen the body’s defense systems, and at the same time, purify it.

Benefits of lymphatic massages

In turn, lymphatic massages also provide other benefits parallel to their incidence on the circulation of the vessels. The patient who undergoes the treatment of these massages, will be able to find benefits such as:

Appearance of the skin: The lymphatic system also improves the appearance of the skin. In this regard, it is used to combat conditions such as acne and cellulite, cleaning impurities that may lodge in the skin.

Benefits blood circulation: The lymphatic system and the circulatory system operate in parallel, so lymphatic drainage treatment will provide benefits to the latter. For this reason, they can be used to combat complications associated with blood circulation problems.
It works as an analgesic: The lymphatic massage treatment provides an analgesic effect, which makes it a recommended option to treat complications such as fibromyalgia.
It stands out as relaxing: Another of the most outstanding aspects of the use of these massages is its relaxing effect on the nervous system. Lymphatic massages are thus used to regulate stress and also episodes of anxiety. They can even treat diseases such as migraine.

What types of lymphatic massages are there?

The lymphatic massage technique can be applied in different ways. We will thus find a variety of lymphatic massages in this regard, which are presented as follows:

Slipped: This application is mostly prescribed for arms and legs, as they are areas that can be covered by the hand. In this case, the hand should be placed on the treated area and closed as much as possible. Then you will need to maintain light pressure and thus perform a small glide in cycle.
Fingers in a circle: The fingers should be placed on the area to be treated –except for the thumb-, and then, movements are made in a circle with slight pressure on the skin. The circling of the fingers does not need to be fast, and it is important to maintain uniformity in tracing the circles with the fingers.

Thumb in circles: As in the previous exercise, now only the thumbs will be placed on the treated area. Then, circular movements should be applied in a concentric manner, repeatedly applying slight pressure to the area to be treated. While this exercise is applied, no friction should occur in the treated area.
Manual pressure: For this exercise, the lateral area of our hands should be used, the one that hits the little finger. We will place it on the area to be treated and we will exert slight pressure and then make small turns without taking off the hand. The turns should be done with the wrist, so that when each one is finished, the other four fingers have touched the treated area.

Recommendations on lymphatic massages

Treatments for lymphatic drainage offer, as we have seen, important benefits not only to our lymphatic system but also to the aesthetics of our skin. We have also observed benefits associated with blood circulation, so that, ultimately, lymphatic massages result in a positive effect for our body.

However, it will always be important to accompany the treatment of this type of massage with a good exercise routine. And last but not least, a balanced diet specialized in the changes we are looking for. Massages can give us interesting results, but this will not be possible if we do not make an adjustment in our habits.

It is important to value the accompaniment of a professional that allows us to design an adequate strategy to achieve our objectives. Thus, either to just purify our vessels, or to treat certain abnormalities such as cellulite, it will be necessary to have the help of this professional.

Contraindications of lymphatic massage

The prior assistance of a professional will allow us to determine if there are no contraindications in our profile. In this regard, it is known that the following are contraindications to lymphatic massages:

Hypertension.
Malnutrition.
Acute skin infections.

Tumors
Hyperthyroidism

Applying for lymphatic massages, it will be necessary to carry out a check-up with a doctor, who will be able to tell us if we present some of these contraindications, being only the most typical that have to appear.

External resources: Medicalnewstoday

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