Say What?!

Lately I've come across several advertisements and articles advocating "dry brushing." You use a special stiff brush on your body, starting at the extremities and brushing towards the heart. Among other benefits, it is supposed to stimulate the lymph system. Google it if you're curious for more information.

The lymphatic system is a major part of the body’s immune system. It is made up of organs and lymph nodes, ducts and capillaries that transport lymph throughout the body. Many of these lymph capillaries run just below the skin and proponents of dry brushing claim that brushing the skin regularly helps stimulate the normal lymph flow within the body and help the body detoxify itself naturally.

From what I've learned in my Manual Lymph Drainage classes, I can not disagree with the benefits of dry brushing. But I do not have time to add yet another thing I'm supposed to do daily - I struggle with fitting in exercising and sometimes eating lunch. Then I realized that I was already dry brushing every time I showered.

You remember, we do not dry our laundry. People always tell me that is great because it is environmentally conscious, but they would never do it because they don't like stiff towels. I never noticed a problem with my towels - I like the invigorating rub over my body as I dry myself off. Besides, after the first use with a clean towel, it softens up significantly.

So now that I know about dry brushing, I conscientiously dry my body with my stiff air-dried towel in the direction of the lymph flow. I also do this when I sauna and rub myself down (but the benefits of sauna is a whole other post by itself. . .). 

But if you are not convinced to give up your dryer and still need your soft towel, well then, may I recommend booking a manual lymph drainage (MLD)! MLD is a gentle massage which encourages the natural drainage of lymph and in the process helps to build the immune system. As the winter season approaches, MLD is one more way to help your body fight off the viruses and bugs that are around.

Continue reading to learn the benefits of air-drying your clothes.

One of my daughters and her roommate have friends over to their apartment for a weekly "Appreciation Night." They celebrate different aspects of life: leaves, hammocks, color, light, music, cereal . . . you get the idea. They will do an activity based on their topic. The people who attend vary each week, depending on who is available and who is interested in the activity. And someone always brings a new person or two. I love to hear about their activities and the friends they make. I have longed to join them.

I finally got the chance last week! My youngest daughter was on spring break, so we decided to spend one night with her older sister at college. We conveniently picked "Appreciation Night." Well, my daughter took advantage of me - more than the usual free dinner - and asked if I would help them to appreciate touch.

I've had many clients with pain between their shoulder blades. They tell me that I can spend the entire hour massaging their upper back. I don't. Don't get me wrong, I try to give each person the massage they want; I just don't give them the massage they tell me to do, rather the one they really want.

They want relief from their pain. Clients regularly ask me, "Do you feel that huge knot?" Uh, no. . .  I used to think that I was horrible at palpation because I couldn't feel the "obvious" knots. But in the last three years of massaging, I have learned a few things. 

"Why didn't anyone mention fascia earlier? Because not many people know that much about it. Fascia's messy stuff. It's hard to study. It's so expansive and intertwined it resists the medical standard of being cut up and named for textbook illustrations. 

. . . .the convention in med-school dissections has been to remove as much of the fascia as possible in order to see what was underneath. . . .

In 2007 the first international Fascia Research Congress, held at Harvard Medical School, brought about a new demand for attention to the fascial system. . . . "

"What exactly does it do? It wraps around each of your individual internal parts, keeping them separate and allowing them to slide easily with your movements. It's strong, slippery and wet. It creates a sheath around each muscle; because it's stiffer, it resists over-stretching and acts like an anatomical emergency break. It connects your organs to your ribs to your muscles and all your bones to each other. It structures your insides in a feat of engineering, balancing stressors and counter-stressors to create a mobile, flexible and resilient body unit. It generally keeps you from being a big, bone-filled blob. . . ."

I wanted to get my hands on her leg and help speed up the recovery with massage, but they lived too far away. A year later they returned to the US and the leg was still swollen and tender. She said the leg felt like a balloon blown up tight, ready to burst and and she couldn't put any pressure on it - just setting a book on her knee was painful. She was also limited in how much she could move her leg, thus hampering how much she could walk. As soon as they visited us, I put her (with a lot of protesting - she is a also a very stubborn Dane!) on my table and gently began to work on her knee.

I was particularly interested in his explanations on using movement and energy (i.e. vibrations like gentle touch, sound, and light) on and in the body to affect the brain. I am more and more convinced that movement is necessary to maintain optimal health. I am not convinced that we need specialized training or to do heavy exercise, but we DO need to keep moving. We've heard it before, but movement, even as simple as walking, will not only benefit the body, but also the brain.  

I am intrigued by fascia, or connective tissue. I use myofascial release in many massages and find that it helps to break adhesion, thus decreasing pain and increasing range of motion. Today I read an article in The Scientist by Dr Helene M. Langevin where she explains her research with connective tissue. I'll highlight some of what she wrote below, but you can read the entire article if you want more information.

The study of connective tissue is shedding light on pain 
and providing new explanations for alternative medicine.

Helene M. Langevin is a visiting professor of medicine and Director of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and a professor of neurological sciences at the University of Vermont.

Connective tissue is one of the most integral components of the human machine. Indeed, one could draw a line between any two points of the body via a path of connective tissue. This network is so extensive and ubiquitous that if we were to lose every organ, muscle, bone, nerve, and blood vessel in our bodies, we would still maintain the same shape: our “connective-tissue body.”