Health Made Easy

In this podcast, we interview Dr. Shivani Gupta, and she is an Ayurvedic practitioner who has studied Ayurveda in India, and in the US over the last 20 years finally culminating in a Ph.D. and turmeric.

We're going to talk today about the truth about inflammation, what causes it, and how to prevent it. As well as she's going to tell us about her background, her training, and what got her into doing what she does today with inflammation.

The topic of Discussion for this Podcast:

• What are the big causes of inflammation?
• What is the problem with modern medical interventions for inflammation?
• How Ayrveda is different from nutrition therapy, functional medicine, etc.?
• What is the top ayurvedic remedy for inflammation is.
• We also discuss her company, Fusionary formulas, where she creates her own formulas for inflammation

About Dr. Shivani Gupta:

She works with clients and teaches about ancient tools and strategies from Ayurveda for biohacking inflammation and gut health. Not only do her clients learn how to prevent autoimmune disorders and chronic health diseases, but also improve their longevity and vitality.

This is why she wants to change lives with Ayurveda:

When opioids, muscle relaxers, and injections only made a sports injury worse, I decided to rebuild my body naturally and created my own line of natural ayurvedic supplements when I failed to find an effective natural product on the market. I applied this approach to healing leaky gut and an autoimmune condition as well.

She is the founder of Fusionary Formulas, an Ayurvedic supplement company that is the perfect fusion of the right herbal formulations from ancient times fused with modern science to give us the maximum benefits.

Daily she works with physicians including top orthopedic and spine surgeons, rheumatologists, and functional medicine doctors across the country to help patients from top CrossFit athletes to Baby Boomers reduce chronic pain, and acute and low-grade inflammation, prevent surgery and optimize their health.

She has spent over 2 decades accessing gurus, leaders, and changemakers in Ayurveda before she earned my master's and PhD in Ayurvedic studies

We have the right to choose what we put into our bodies and what gets taken out and she believes we need to learn to be our own healers.

She believes in a balanced approach to our health that combines the ancient wisdom of Ayurvedic herbs and diet with modern medical interventions.

After a long day, our nervous system may feel strained and crave some rest. Occasional stress stands in the way of the calm you need for your nervous system. But the good news is you can easily calm down your nervous system by including calming nutrients in your diet. Some supplements, nutrients, and minerals play a significant role in helping support your relaxation efforts.

Have you struggled to fall asleep or decompress after a challenging day? That is probably a sign that your nervous system is strained and needs rest. You need not worry anymore because we have got a solution for you. To guide you, we have prepared research on anti-stress supplements, nutrients, and minerals that will significantly help relax your nervous system.

Supplements/Nutrients/Minerals That Calm Down the Nervous System

• Magnesium

You probably have heard of magnesium's significant role in supporting your body's muscles and energy production. But did you know it also plays an essential role in your nerve function? Magnesium is a "calming mineral" that helps your mind and muscles relax. It greatly helps support the regulation of the sleep hormone melatonin, which in return helps direct your body's sleep-wake cycles.

Magnesium optimizes melatonin secretion, making it easy for you to get sleepy at the end of the day and feel rested when you wake up. Magnesium further helps support feelings of calm and rest by binding with the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) to facilitate sleeping mode in the body. GABA turns down your nervous system activity to help your body settle down and rest. Some of the great sources of magnesium you can consider adding to your diet include; spinach, avocado, whole wheat, almonds and cashews, dark chocolate, peanuts, quinoa, and black beans.

• B Vitamins

Eight different B vitamins work together to manage many processes in the body, including stress levels. Your brain is responsible for helping your body rest. It contains neurotransmitters that alert your body when it's time to wind down. B vitamins significantly help maintain the production of the neurotransmitters that put your mind at ease. Some dietary sources of B vitamins include; milk, salmon, legumes, eggs, spinach, and romaine lettuce. You can consider adding B vitamins into your diet to optimize your mental health and feel at peace.

• Omega-3 fatty acids

Omega-3 fatty acids are a nutrient that directly benefits the nervous system and brain health. A good intake of omega-3 fats helps reduce the risk of anxiety and depression. Omega-3 fats are present in fish and flaxseed. You can also use an omega-3 supplement like fish oil to help ease stress.

• L-Theanine

L-Theanine is an amino acid reported to have a significant calming effect on the body. It helps reduce resting heart rate and lowers blood pressure when facing a stressful situation. It significantly helps reduce anxiety without making you tired. L-theanine is present in green and black tea. You can also take an L-theanine supplement capsule to help reduce stress.

• Zinc

Zinc is a mineral that is well-known for stress modulation. It promotes calmness and rest by helping your brain keep occasional stress under control. Ensure your nutritional diet is rich in zinc by incorporating grains, animal proteins, and legumes.

Different supplements, nutrients, and minerals can help calm your nervous system. Consider including them in your dietary plan.

If you need professional guidance on any natural supplement, nutrients and minerals that calm down the nervous system, you may consult Dr. Jason Jones at our Chiropractic office in Elizabeth City, NC.

Have you ever been in a crisis and wondered how to overcome or cope with the associated stress?

Building resilience is an effective technique for overcoming adversity, coping with stressful situations, and leading a better quality of life. Difficult moments are likely to impair your health, mood, and appearance. Building resilience enables us to regain control and cope with stress, trauma, and turbulence during uncertainty. So, how does doing hard things increase our resilience?

How Does Resilience Help in Adversity?

While situations differ with individuals, resilient people tend to tolerate emotional distress resulting from difficult times. Such individuals tend to find better ways of bouncing back to normalcy.

Building resilience is an ongoing process with no fixed strategy. Each person's journey is unique, and so is the time individuals take to attain resilience. Through resilience, we learn to cope with hard things, times, and experiences without numbing emotions with drugs and substance abuse, among other unhealthy means.

Ways in "Which" Hard Things Enhance Our Resilience

Are you wondering whether there is anything to gain in doing hard things? Hardships help us build resilience in the following ways.

• Learning to Accept the Truth

Building resilience begins by first accepting that we are experiencing a crisis. Living in denial may prolong pain, grief, or sadness and delay healing. Concentrating on situations we cannot control can leave us drained, more anxious, and hopeless. Once we accept our circumstances and feelings and grieve our losses, we free ourselves to focus on what we can control.

• Reaching Out to Other People

When we connect with others, especially family and friends, during adversity, we can boost our moods, relieve stress, and find something good in the change or hard things we are doing. Having a shoulder to lean on can help in being strengthened and build resilience in adversity. Being resilient enables us to prioritize relationships, avoid withdrawing in tough times, avoid toxic people, and create social networks.

• Embracing Self-care Routines

Doing hard things can drain us physically and mentally or even lead to serious health, immunity, and digestive issues. Self-care is an essential part of building resilience and overcoming stressful situations. Some of the self-care activities to enhance our resilience include the following:

• Getting adequate sleep.
• Exercising regularly.
• Body-mind relaxation techniques.
• Healthy dieting.
• Developing stress level management skills.
• Discovering Our Purpose and Meaning in Life

Situations and hardships should not define us as individuals. We can uphold our identity, prevent hard things from overwhelming us, and handle problems prospectively by focusing on things that instill purpose and meaning in our lives. Building resilience enables us to focus on things geared toward our satisfaction without being defined by circumstances or other people's opinions.

• Staying Motivated Throughout the Difficult Situation

Persistence and endurance through hard times help in coping with adversity. Some ways to stay motivated and persevere through tough times include learning to be grateful, celebrating the little achievements, addressing problems one step at a time, and having a hopeful and positive mindset.

While building resilience in hard times, it is fundamental to recognize our situations' uniqueness. Thus, we should be kind to ourselves to avoid being critics of our coping skills or blaming ourselves for every slip along the way to recovery.

You may consult Dr. Jason Jones at our Chiropractic office at Elizabeth city, NC to learn more on how doing "hard" things increases our resilience.

Breathing is an automatic process that we all do without thinking about it. On average, we take 20,000 breaths per day. Breathing is such an essential process in life that people die within minutes if it stops. Your respiratory system and the body cells utilize the oxygen you breath in and, in return, create waste in the form of carbon dioxide that you breath out.

Although breathing takes a subconscious effort, did you know that you can pay more attention to how you breath and significantly impact your stress level? You indeed have the power to change your breathing to relax your brain deliberately. Breath control dramatically helps to manage stress by promoting brain relaxation.

Breathing and stress

You probably have realized that your breathing patterns change whenever you are stressed or anxious. The breathing tends to be irregular and shallow. Your chest activity can also expand and contract so much, making it hard to get adequate air in, disrupting the balance of gases in the body. Ideally, shallow over-breathing can prolong feelings of anxiety by making the physical symptoms of stress worse. It is, therefore, essential to control your breathing to help improve some of these symptoms.

How Breathing Can Quite the Mind

Have you heard people advise you to take a deep breath whenever you are stressed? It is not just a myth. Deep breathing is a practice that enables more air to flow into your body and significantly helps calm your nerves, reducing stress and anxiety. The process also helps improve your attention span and lower pain levels.

Ideally, breathing is a vital part of your body's stress response. Purposeful deep breathing helps calm your body down when stressed or anxious. You could be wondering how exactly deep breathing works to relieve stress. Don't worry! Here is a quick review;

You probably have heard of the autonomic nervous system from biology classes, which control involuntary actions like heart rate and digestion in your body. The autonomic nervous system is split into two parts;

1. The sympathetic nervous system controls your fight-or-flight response.
2. The parasympathetic nervous system controls your rest-relax response.

Though the two nervous systems are always active, deep breathing significantly helps calm your sympathetic nervous system, reducing feelings of stress and anxiety. Shifting your breathing to a modulated, slow, relaxed pattern helps to turn the volume down on the sympathetic nervous system.

Therefore, whenever you are under stress, consider taking a deep breath by involving slower, longer breaths from your stomach to help trigger a relaxation response in the brain. You need to always focus on your breath when stressed to help counter the short, rapid breaths that your body defaults to when stressed or anxious. Practice taking deep breaths by focusing on breathing from your stomach each time you inhale. Ensure each inhalation and exhalation involves longer breaths. After some time, you will start to notice your body feeling more relaxed.

You may consult Dr. Jason Jones at our Chiropractic office at Elizabeth city, NC to learn more on how breathing can quite the mind.

In the face of stress and anxiety, it is imperative to understand the "fight or flight" versus "rest and digest" sides of the nervous system for optimal health. Our nervous system has two modes of operation, namely, the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), also known as the "fight or flight" mechanism, and the parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS), also referred to as the "rest and digest." These modes play opposite roles depending on the state we are in.

The sympathetic nervous system (SNS)

The sympathetic nervous system is responsible for voluntary functions, such as controlling the heart rate, digestion, urination, blood pressure, and sweating. It is part of the autonomic nervous system. The SNS is the "fight or flight" mechanism that helps vertebrates to respond to stressful or dangerous situations.

What is the Purpose of SNS?

When facing danger or a stressful situation, SNS is activated to ensure control over the "fight or flight" response. This mode is responsible for the following body changes when facing danger or stress.

• Enlargement of the pupils to enhance vision by allowing more light into the eyes.
• Increasing the heart rate to ensure adequate oxygen supply to other body parts.
• Relaxation of the airway muscles in the lungs for optimal oxygen delivery.
• Reducing the pace of digestion to concentrate the digestive tract's energy on other body parts.
• Activating the liver energy reserves for quick energy supply.

These changes help in circumstances where fast action or thought is required. The SNS helps in improving eyesight, strength, endurance, and reflexes. The system communicates through neurotransmitters such as epinephrine, norepinephrine, and acetylcholine.

The Parasympathetic Nervous System

The PSNS, or the "rest and digest", helps relax the body after danger or a stressful situation. It is part of the autonomic nervous system responsible for controlling relaxation. PSNS regulates functions such as metabolism, resting heart rate, and breathing rate.

The Role of PSNS in Response to Stress

During relaxation, the PSNS is responsible for the following body changes.

• Constricting pupils to limit the amount of entering the eyes, enhance close-up vision, and trigger tear production.
• Triggering saliva and mucus production to aid breathing and digestion when the body is in rest mode.
• Reducing the workload for the lungs by constricting airway muscles during rest.
• Reducing heart rate.
• Enhancing digestion rate, diverting energy from other body parts to the digestive tract, and commanding the pancreas to increase the production and supply of insulin.
• Relaxing relevant muscles to facilitate waste removal.
• Controlling sexual functions and arousal feelings.

The "Fight or Flight" Versus the "Rest and Digest" Side of the Nervous System

The contrasts between these two sides of the nervous system include the following.

• While the SNN, or the "fight or flight" mode, increases alertness, the PSNS, or the "relax and digest" mechanism, relaxes the body.
• The PSNS regulates the body's activities when calm and feeling safe, while the SNS triggers the body to react when its calmness or safety is threatened.
• The SNS contains signals that enhance alertness while the PSNS signals return the body to its standard activity level.
• The SNS acts first to fight or flee, while the PSNS comes later to help the body cool down, relax, rest, and digest.

The two modes of the autonomic nervous system play opposite but complementary roles to maintain body balance.

You may consult Dr. Jason Jones at our Chiropractic office at Elizabeth city, NC to learn more on the battle between the "fight or flight" and the "rest and digest" side of the nervous system.

Is a tight schedule making it difficult to add time for exercise? Feels crazy!

The intention to work out and stay healthy can be challenging when you have a crazy busy schedule. Many people give up on the goal and blame it for not having enough time to exercise.

The good news is you don't need to exercise every day or even a handful of days. Try these ways to move more and attain your intended health benefits.

Easy Ways to "Move" More without Adding Time for Exercise

• Multitask- When It Makes Sense

You don't have to be glued to your chair on a busy workday. You can schedule a walking phone call or virtual meeting to help you move while you chat. Look for a convenient walking path to avoid disrupting others as you talk. You can also consider answering emails on your phone and taking that time to pace around an empty conference room while you chip away at responses.

• Take the stairs

When you can, avoid the elevator and instead take the stairs, even if it is just for a floor or two. When using the escalator, climb it, don't ride it. Such active steps will help you burn some calories without taking time to go to the gym for exercise.

• Ditch the car

A car is convenient and helps you get to work on time. However, once in a while, consider leaving it at home and instead walking or biking to your destination. Alternatively, you can park farther away from your place of work to ensure you have time to stroll and burn a few calories.

• Stand Up

If you're primarily desk-bound most of the day, form a habit of standing up occasionally. Simply standing up is more beneficial for your body than sitting the whole day or squeezing in a short workout. You can stroll to refill your glass of water or visit the restroom before you plop back to your seat. You can set alarms at intervals to act as a reminder.

• Play Actively with Pets

Physical activity is vital in keeping your body and mind active and attaining desired health benefits. When you are working from home, take short breaks and actively play with your pets. For instance, you can throw a ball or stick for the dog to fetch. You can also lead the cat on a string chase around the house.

• Work Around the House

Instead of getting someone to assist with house chores, take time to do them actively. For instance, you can do house cleaning, home repairs, gardening, and washing the car by hand. Such active engagement helps in keeping the body active.

A busy schedule should not be an excuse for not engaging in physical activities that have health benefits. You can move more without adding time for exercise by taking small steps every day. Physical engagement will help you maintain a healthy weight and lifestyle.

You may consult Dr. Jason Jones at our Chiropractic office in Elizabeth City, NC, to learn more tips that can help you "move" more without adding time for exercise.

One of the most relaxing feelings for a person with diabetes is checking your blood sugar and seeing the numbers right in line. For a diabetic patient, controlling blood sugar isn't just a short-term goal. It helps prevent diabetes complications like heart disease, vision loss, and kidney and nerve diseases.

Diabetic people must try and manage their blood sugars through key lifestyle changes as much as possible.

What is blood sugar?

Blood sugar, also known as glucose, is the main sugar found in human blood. It comes from the food you eat and gives your body energy.

High blood sugar levels cause diabetes, a disease associated with severe problems. A low blood sugar level is also common, and therefore, it is important to manage your blood sugar levels within the target range.

Lifestyle Habits that Naturally Help Manage Blood Sugar Levels

1. Manage your Carb Intake

Carb intake greatly influences blood sugar levels. The body breaks carbs down into sugars, mainly glucose. Insulin then helps the body use and store it for energy.

Eating too many carbs makes this process fail, and blood glucose levels can rise.

A low-carb diet helps reduce blood sugar levels and prevent blood sugar spikes. Prioritizing whole grains over processed ones and refined carbs offers greater nutritional value while helping manage your blood sugar levels.

1. Eat More Fiber

A high-fiber diet helps improve the body's ability to regulate blood sugar and minimize blood sugar lows.

Foods that are high in fiber include; vegetables, whole grains, fruits, and legumes.

1. Observe Quantity Eating Control

One way to regulate calorie intake and maintain a moderate weight is by eating in moderation.

Healthy feeding with monitored serving sizes helps regulate blood sugar levels and prevents highs and lows.

Some helpful tips for managing portion sizes include;

• Serving on smaller plates
• Measuring and weighing food portions
• Keeping a food journal
• Reading food labels and adhering to recommended serving sizes

1. Exercise Regularly

Regular exercise helps increase insulin sensitivity and the body's ability to use glucose as energy effectively.

The right amount of activity and timing should always be observed.

Some health-recommended exercises include light walking and simple resistance exercises like squats or leg raises. Other helpful exercises include running, biking, swimming, dancing, and brisk walking.

1. Drink Water and Stay Hydrated

Staying hydrated helps control blood sugar levels. Water helps kidneys flush out any excess sugar through urine.

Drinking water regularly helps rehydrate the blood, lower blood sugar levels, and reduce diabetes risk.

Water and zero-calorie drinks are recommended. It would be best to avoid sugar-sweetened options since they can raise blood glucose, drive weight gain, and increase diabetes risk.

1. Manage your Stress Levels

When you are stressed, your blood sugar tends to rise. When stressed, the body secretes hormones called glucagon and cortisol, which cause blood sugar levels to rise.

Exercise and mindfulness-based relaxation methods like yoga help to significantly reduce stress and lower blood sugar levels.

1. Get Enough Quality Sleep

Adequate sleep and rest help with blood sugar control. Adequate sleep involves both quantity and quality.

Health experts recommend that adults get at least 7-8 hours of high-quality sleep per night.

Some useful tips to improve the quality of your sleep include;

• Follow a suitable sleep schedule by creating a bedtime routine
• Ensure your bedroom is cool
• Avoid taking caffeine and alcohol in the hours before bed
• Reduce screen time before bed, including TV, Computers, tablets, and cell phones.

1. Maintain a Moderate Weight

Maintaining a moderate weight promotes healthy blood sugar levels and reduces your risk of developing diabetes.

Weight-loss goals don't have to be enormous. Research has proven that a 5% to 10% weight loss has helped improve insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance. There are many health-recommended ways to naturally manage your blood sugar levels. The main improvements are associated with dietary choices. Lifestyle changes like weight management, exercising, handling stress, staying hydrated and quality sleep are also key in controlling blood sugar levels.

You may consult Dr. Jason Jones at our Chiropractic office in Elizabeth City, NC, to learn more natural measures to control your blood sugar.

Welcome to the holiday season! It's that moment filled with endless parties, gift-giving, shopping, cooking, and activities galore that start immediately after Halloween, hypes to thanksgiving, and continues through the end of the year.

Not feeling cheery this time of the year? Don't worry. You are not alone. So many activities take place, and they tend to bring unwanted stress and depression at a time meant for happiness.

But with some practical tips, you can minimize the stress that accompanies the holidays. These tips may even help you enjoy the holidays more than expected.

Mindful Tips to Manage Holiday Stress

• Plan Ahead

Holiday commitments are inevitable. Planning with co-workers, friends, and family is essential to ensure you attend to your obligations and enjoy your holiday.

Creating a menu helps you stay organized by knowing specific days for work, shopping, traveling, connecting with friends, and other important activities.

• Plan Spending

The holiday involves a lot of spending. Spending money on your loved ones is important, but a lack of a plan will leave you paying off debts for the rest of the year.

Before your holiday, do your budget and ensure you stick to it. Decide how much money you can afford, and don't try to buy happiness with gifts and a lifestyle you can't sustain.

• Set your Priorities

As the holiday involvement gets hectic, everyday bills and responsibilities must still be paid. Don't lose sight of what really counts. Before you get overwhelmed by celebration activities, deciding the key responsibilities and bills is essential and ensuring they are paid.

Don't allow activities to leave you exhausted by January. For example, you can start by clearing school fees, house rent, electricity, and water bills before engaging in less demanding activities like sending gifts and partying with friends.

• Be Realistic

The holiday season is usually long and full of activities. It doesn't have to be perfect or like that of other people. There are many expectations from yourself and others. Get comfortable with the idea that you don't have to do everything, and not everything has to be perfect.

Even though your holiday plans may look different from others, you can find different ways to celebrate. For example, if you expect to go on vacation over the holiday, and the budget is no longer favorable, it is ok to adjust and spend quality time with your family at home.

• Learn to Say No

With overwhelming holiday commitments, saying no to some involvements is OK. If you cannot participate in certain activities, be clear and let your friends and colleagues know you can always join them next time.

Ensure you share your to-do list with your family to avoid conflict.

• Maintain healthy habits

Don't allow the holidays to make you a free-for-all type of person. Maintaining healthy habits during the holiday season is one of the best defenses against stress. Try these suggestions:

• Stay physically active by routinely engaging in a short workout
• Eat healthy meals
• Get plenty of sleep
• Avoid excessive alcohol, tobacco, and drug use

Don't let the holidays drain you mentally. Take steps to manage the stress and pressure that come with holiday commitments. Understand the holiday pressures like financial constraints or personal demands and combat them before they break you down. These tips can help you find peace and enjoy your holiday season.

You may consult Dr. Jason Jones at our Chiropractic office in Elizabeth City, NC, to learn more about managing holiday stress.

Holidays are exciting and make you see optimism everywhere, including on your plate. It is a moment of celebration that encourages overeating, sedentary behavior, and excessive consumption of calorie-rich foods.

The holiday lax may find you eating a lot of processed foods that are high in calories, added sugar, fat and salt. Before you know it, you've excused away weeks of unhealthy eating.

Many people tend to gain pounds over the holidays, which is mainly influenced by what they eat. The trouble is that the extra weight you might have noticed may be challenging to lose.

The best advice, of course, is to try to avoid holiday weight gain in the first place. Here are some foods to avoid during the holidays to prevent weight gain.

Foods to Avoid When Trying to Maintain Healthy Weight during the Holidays

• French Fries and Potato Chips

French fries and potato chips are categorized as fast foods that are easy and fast to prepare. The holiday celebrations make it convenient to enjoy French fries and potato chips with family.

Although whole potatoes are healthy and filling, French fries and potato chips are very high in calories and are linked to weight gain. They are unhealthy and fattening.

It's best to avoid them and alternatively enjoy a plate of plain boiled potatoes.

• Pastries, Cookies and Cakes

Holiday celebrations involve a lot of baking and eating of pastries, cookies and cakes. They contain unhealthy ingredients like added sugar, refined flour and trans fat.

These foods are not very satisfying, and you will likely become hungry very quickly after eating these high-calories, low-nutrients resulting in weight gain.

Whenever you are craving something sweet, you can always substitute cakes, pastries and cookies with a piece of dark chocolate.

• Sugary Beverages

During the holiday season, sugary beverages like sodas, sports drinks, and fruit juices tend to be too available for you to take as much as you please. Sugar-sweetened drinks are very unhealthy since they are associated with weight gain and have adverse health effects when consumed in excess.

If checking weight over the holiday season is your goal, minimizing your intake of sugar-sweetened beverages should be your priority.

• Processed Meat

Processed meat includes meat manufacturers have fermented, dried, canned, smoked, and preserved. Some commonly processed meats include bacon, hot dogs, ham, jerky and salami.

Processed meat tends to be very convenient during the holiday season, especially the ready-to-eat type. These types of meat tend to be calorie-dense and are often high in salt and low in nutrients. They are associated with weight gain.

It is best to avoid excessive processed meat intake and instead enjoy lean protein sources like poultry, fish, and beans.

• Some Types of Alcohol-Especially Beer

When the holidays arrive, it can be easy to find yourself in continuous alcoholic parties. Some alcoholic beverages like beer are calories dense and generally high in sugar.

Heavy drinking is associated with increased weight gain. It is, therefore, best to drink alcohol in moderation.

When trying to maintain a healthful weight over the holiday season, it is essential to choose the right foods and avoid those that are calorie-dense but low in protein, fibre and other essential nutrients.

You may consult Dr. Jason Jones at our Chiropractic office at Elizabeth city, NC to learn more on top foods to avoid during the holidays to stop weight gain.

As humans, we consume food, water, drinks, drugs, and other dietary supplements that supply energy and nutrients for our daily activities.

Some foods, drinks, and drugs contain toxic substances that must be eliminated from our bodies. The lymphatic system in our body plays a vital role in getting rid of these toxic substances that accumulate over time.

However, certain factors can affect the lymphatic system, causing poor lymphatic drainage. Here, we will explore how the lymphatic system is impaired and some remedies that can help.

What is the lymphatic system?

The lymphatic system consists of the spleen, lymph nodes, and lymphatic vessels that work together to form a part of the circulatory and immune system that removes toxic substances and waste products from the body.

The system drains interstitial fluids containing toxins and waste products from tissues in the body and carries them through the lymphatic vessels to the lymph nodes where the fluids are filtered before returning to the bloodstream.

The lymphatic system also helps in transporting white blood cells to the lymph nodes. These white blood cells are then transported from the lymph nodes to the bones.

How does the lymphatic system become sluggish?

Unlike the cardiovascular system which has the heart serving as a pump, the lymphatic system has no such pump.

The lymphatic system relies on body movements, intestinal activities, breathing, and actions of the muscles to create a flow of the lymph in the vessels.

However, the lymphatic system may be damaged, which causes a sluggish flow of lymph through the vessels. This condition is known as Lymphedema and can be caused by certain factors which include:

1. Parasite infestation

Parasites such as certain threadlike worms can infect the lymphatic system and clog the lymphatic vessels, making it difficult for lymph to flow through the vessels.

1. Cancer

Rapid multiplication of cancerous cells near a lymphatic vessel or lymph node may cause it to enlarge internally. This may cause the lymph to flow sluggishly or completely block the lymphatic vessel.

1. Exposure to radiation

Inflammation and scar caused by exposure to radiation, especially during surgery can damage the lymphatic system and cause it to become sluggish.

Signs and symptoms of poor lymphatic drainage

The main sign of poor lymphatic drainage is swelling of the limbs. The swollen arm or leg feels heavy and mildly painful, thus limiting the mobility of the affected person.

Other signs and symptoms include:

• Hardening of the skin
• Skin discoloration
• Blisters
• Breathing difficulty
• Blurry vision
• Nasal congestion

How to help poor lymphatic drainage

Here are a few ways to alleviate poor lymphatic drainage:

1. Compression

Regular compression of the swollen areas will help the lymphatic fluids to move out of the arm or leg to the normal lymphatic circulation.

1. Exercise

The contraction and relaxation of your muscles at regular intervals during an exercise enhances the flow of lymphatic fluids through the vessels.

1. Eating the right food

Consider eating more raw foods than processed food. Food rich in green vegetables, almonds, ground flaxseed, and chia seeds are healthy for your lymphatic system.

You may consult Dr. Jason Jones at our Chiropractic office at Elizabeth city, NC to learn more about natural ways to support your lymphatic system and prevent drainage.