Lesson Video
It's All About Inflammation
Inflammation is the alarm stage of the healing process. Honestly it’s a little bit more about preventing more damage and stopping the damage from happening than healing, but it is part of the healing process.
Imagine a house fire. Inflammation is putting out the fire – sure, you might get water damage from the firefighters, but at least the whole thing doesn’t burn down. Inflammation can cause some secondary damage, but its primary goal is to stabilize the damaging event. It’s supposed to be short-lived so the real healing can begin, tissue can regenerate and then strengthen.
But it doesn’t always happen that way.
As long as the aggravating condition is there, inflammation persists, it can become chronic. It’s also proportional to the injury – more damage, more inflammation. It’s a necessary step, so it’s not all bad, but it can be miserable.
The Symptoms Are SHARP
S
Swelling
When there's damage, there's a lot of material and debris that your body needs to dilute and flush out. To do so, fluid is drawn to the area - called "edema". The primary edema at the injury site is hard and firm, while the secondary edema surrounding it is puffy.
H
Heat
There is a lot of metabolic activity (the cells doing things) in the injured area, which in the same manner as exerting your muscles, generates warmth
A
A Loss of Function
Well, it's injured, right? Of course it won't function normally! But this is also referring to the swelling and inflammation itself causing reduced ability to function. Swelling may inhibit a joint from full range of motion, pain may limit movement...
R
Redness
As a result of the heat of metabolic activity and the increase in blood and other fluids to the area, it will become red. If the injury is deep, this redness may not be visible from the surface.
P
Pain
The pain of inflammation is caused by different mechanisms. First, damaged tissues release chemicals that cause pain to call for help - it's part of what draws immune cells to the area. Secondly, as the area swells up, there is increased pressure on the nerve endings - the more pressure, the more pain. This pain is most noticeable as throbbing as the pressure increases with every heartbeat, but it can be achy as well.
All of these SHARP symptoms will be present to some degree, although some may be so minor we don’t notice.
The more inflammation, the more significant the injury, so these symptoms can often (but not always) be used as a guidepost to gauge how seriously you’ve been injured.
What About Anti-Inflammatories?
Glad you asked!
When you take anti-inflammatory medication, it interrupts the cells that promote inflammation. That sounds like a good deal, right?
OK, but didn’t I just say that inflammation isn’t all bad? It can get out of control, but it is part of the natural healing process. Inflammation feels horrible, but it is what kicks off the healing.
You could argue either way about whether interrupting that is good or bad, but here’s the kicker – those cells that get interrupted promoting inflammation are the SAME cells that change roles to clean it up.
Excessive use of anti-inflammatories reduces inflammation but ALSO can prevent it from resolving.
ACK! That’s not what anybody wants!
And on top of that there are side effects to kidneys or the liver. I know nurses that won't take NSAIDs at all due to the number of GI bleeds they've seen in the ER.
So for the record, I’m not “anti-anti-inflammatory”, but they are overused and cause problems.
Lymphatic Treatments Facilitate the Resolution of Inflammation
Facilitates? What does that mean? It makes it easier, that’s what!
Inflammation is supposed to happen, trigger the healing response, and then resolve as the body repairs itself. LF assists that process and prevents it from bogging down.
If you have a construction site with a demolished building – how can you start building if the dump trucks and delivery trucks can’t get in and out? How could you rebuild if the building is still on fire? How can more cars enter a traffic jam if none are leaving? LF helps clear the way so healing can progress as fast as it possibly can.
A side effect of clearing the junk is that the symptoms of the junk decrease too and become… less… SHARP.
"LF helps keep inflammation from getting out of control AND it helps your body clear it out faster."
- Mike
The Risk of Doing Nothing - Chronic Inflammation & Poor Outcomes
So all of that is well and good. Lymphatic treatment helps prevent slowed-down healing.
But what happens if I don’t do anything? What happens if I follow “standard” protocol and just rest and pop a bunch of pills?
That’s where things get a little risky.
You see, inflammation doesn’t always resolve itself completely. As long as an aggravating factor is there, it will remain inflamed.
- Trapped inflammatory chemicals will keep promoting inflammation.
- Anti-inflammatories can inhibit full resolution of inflammation.
- Damaged tissue can't get materials to rebuild.
- Secondary damage caused by the inflammation can create permanent tissue changes.
- Misaligned and improperly healed tissue restricts function, leading to further aggravation, further misalignment and restriction, leading to further inflammation...
- Chronic inflammation can spread around the body causing problems as inflammatory chemicals travel around the body and begin to work elsewhere.
All bad stuff.
Chronic Inflammation
Over the years I’ve worked with countless people who have chronic injury with chronic inflammation associated with it. Our bodies don’t always heal and return to baseline. Sometimes the injury sticks with us.
It doesn’t even have to be the original injury that perpetuates things. Any aggravating factor will serve to keep the cycle going. It can be cyclical too, getting better for a while and then a new insult comes along and ticks it off again – flare up, remission, flare up… chronic.
Chronic inflammation is a long-term issue and can cause detrimental health effects around the body. Gum disease is the most common source of chronic inflammation in the body and is a major contributor to heart disease!
That risk of chronic inflammation is one of the reasons that doctors want people to start moving again following injury or surgery as fast as possible – even same day. Movement spurs the healing process. Movement counteracts stagnation and helps flow. Movement is life.
Remember that normal, healthy people who get enough activity don’t have problems with lymph flow. But what about people swelled up like a balloon following surgery/injury that can’t get that activity and movement? That are confined to a bed and limited in their “up” time? That are taking medications that might help them feel better in the short-term but might prevent full recovery?
The conditions a person experiences while laid up are just about the worst set of circumstances for lymph flow. And that’s a problem.
Lymphatic work (combined with properly rehabbing the injured tissue) can be an insurance policy hedging against the risk of your injury becoming a source of chronic inflammation.
Poor Outcomes
Complications following surgery are something everybody wants to avoid.
For the patients I’ve had who’ve undergone cosmetic procedures (like lipo, BBL, augmentations, or tucks…), it is especially true. And not just because of appearance’s sake. Who wants to have had an elective procedure go bad and create permanent problems? Who wants to be worse off than when they started?
The longer something takes to heal, the more likely there is to be problems. Maybe it’s a small risk, but I found that it loomed heavily on the minds of a lot of my patients.
LF and proper rehab can do a lot to stave off bad things that could happen. Taking active steps to heal as best you can helps your chances of the best outcomes.
The most important thing to remember is that your body doesn't just do an automatic reset. We wish it would. We hope it does. We kind of expect it to go back to how it was on its own... but it won't, it doesn't, and it can't. It takes active effort to restore function.
Think about it. Your body (and mind, but that's another story) is constantly adapting to what you do regularly. It's that classic "use it or lose it" conundrum. Well, when you "break" something and then reduce your "use" of the area for a while - guess what your body adapts to?
That's right, your current state of invalidity. Not a desirable outcome to say the least.
At the very least, doing nothing risks a slower healing process – more time off the field, more missed life, more pain and misery.
“Lymph therapy can be an insurance policy against chronic inflammation and other poor outcomes”
- MiKE
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