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Heating and cooling Foods
Mis-understanding hot and cold foods:In Ayurveda foods are also classified as heat generating and cold generating. This cannot be taken in the literal sense. Our human body will maintian same body temperature regardless of the food we eat. So the heat and cold is not in that sense. The heat represents action that makes more dynamic or metabolically active or acting fast in immunity. Cold means actiosn that are slow sluggish and more observing immunity.
So please understand the logic behind heat and cold and also about boils occuring in the body which is literally taken as "summer-heat boils". Those boils means the body is actively trying to throw out garbage toxins from our body and so it is called heat boils.
Traditionally, foods are considered heating and cooling, which has a connection to lymphatic circulation and immunity. This is similar to the police department in which one group is constantly patrolling around to catch violators of laws. Another group of police will not do the running around job but will do investigation of suspected candidates. Both groups of police are important in a balanced way.
Same way both heating (pitta) and cooling foods (kapha) are important for a perfect balance of immunity. Heating foods increase lymphatic circulation and allow the lymph flow through the nodes and when they find bacteria and viruses will cause inflammatory immunity reactions to get rid of them. This is why increased consumption of heating foods like ginger, turmeric causes appearance of boils in skin. Vegetables and culinary herbs most helpful to move lymph: steamed mustard greens, bok choi, Spanish black radish, radishes, arugula, horseradish.
While cooling foods decrease indirectly decrease lymphatic circulation so that instead of just killing the bacteria and viruses , they help the helper "T" cells to do produce more antibody production to keep them off from the body. This is why too much of cooling foods produce mucus (kapha) to trap the micro-organisms.
It is good to eat a balance of heating and cooling foods based on exercise and climatic conditions.
Heating and cooling foods also change with the person's body nature: Some foods like ragi which are very detoxifying foods can cause boils if the person's body harbors lot of toxins. This does not mean ragi is heat generating. It is a misnomer of using the word heating and cooling foods. Body tries to throw out toxins through boils if it does not find a route to discard them. So some foods favor the formation of boils to discard toxins.
Lymph, foods and exercise:
As we saw earlier, exercise increases lymph flow ten to thirty fold. Liver circulation is aided by exercise, particularly by movement of the abdominal muscles and diaphragm. As the diaphragm expands the chest, it compresses the abdominal cavity. The gentle compression of the liver with each breath aids circulation of the blood and lymph through the liver. Exercise such as walking, jumping on a rebounder 5 to 20 minutes per day, gentle running or other aerobic exercise and yogic or special breathing exercises help the liver and will also assist the lymph circulation. Swimming is an excellent exercise because it uses all the muscles and combines rhythmic breathing and movement.
If you are bedridden, experiment with what body movements you can make in bed. Wiggle your toes, move your wrists, arms, feet, legs, torso.
The best way to increase lymphatic circulation is YOGA.
A scientific study on A biochemical approach to understand the concept of Snigdha-Ruksha Guna
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Lymphatic system-4
Simple ways to do skin brushing
Here’s the flow – in the beginning just spend a few minutes. Once you get used to it you will spend about five to ten minutes to be thorough.
1) Feet & Legs
Do one side first and then the other. Start with the bottoms and tops of your feet, Brush up and down, ending with the upwards stroke on the front, sides and backs of your calves. Around the knees, back of the knees and then the thighs. Do the outer and inner thighs well – if you’re having hip problems, do the hips well. If you’re inguinal lymph (at the front crease, where your leg bends when you lift it), is congested spend a little extra time on the inner thigh and then lower abdomen. Now do the other leg.
2) Lower abdomen and hips
Scrub well all around your hips, lower and upper belly, inguinal area, buttocks and lower back. Remember to do the sides of your belly too.
3) Hands, arms, shoulders
Start on one side and brush your hands and arms. Brush up and down, ending with the stroke that brushes towards your chest. Brush up to the shoulders, and do your shoulders well. Start up around the neck and brush down to the shoulders, back and chest. If you have chronic tension in these areas brush that tension out!
4) Back and chest
It’s great if someone can brush your back – it’s much more thorough; but otherwise do the best you can. Reach to get as much of your back as you can. It feels great! Also be sure to brush the under arm area and down the side of the rib cage. The sternum is the bone that runs down the center of your chest and all the ribs are connected to it. Along the sternum and in between the ribs there is a lot of lymph so brush all along here. For women do brush gently around your breasts. Then down from the clavicular (collar bone) area.
You can either be standing under the shower while you’re doing this or just turn it off for a bit, scrub up and then rinse off really well. While you’ve been scrubbing, you’ve also scrubbed off a lot of old dead skin and have stimulated better circulation to your skin. An additional benefit, is that you have stimulated the meridians with your brushing massage! Do this daily along with a regular exercise program and appropriate dietary recommendations and you will notice a difference within a week or two.
If this is uncomfortable at first, brush only lightly & for a short period of time. Soon you will brush using more pressure & will enjoy the process.
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Lymphatic Massage-3
Ayurveda and Massage
One of the most important treatments in Ayurveda is massage. The medicated oil massage is aimed to bring lymphatic circulation and clear out toxins. Clearing out toxins is the way to rejuvenate the body and improve immunity.
Get Touchy Feely With Plants: Gently Rubbing Them With Your Fingers Can Make Them Less Susceptible to Disease (Uni5: Then imagine the effects of touch on our own children. This is we emphsize on massage after birth)
Every Day Self Oil Massage
Every day self oil massage is very good for keeping the lymphatic circulation and good immunity. You can use sesame oil , coconut oil or olive oil to massage your body. Self massage your hands legs and all parts of body. While you do this massage if you focus on your breath and do deep breathing, the better the lymphatic circulation.
Abhanyanga for new born children
Ayurveda recommends doing massage for new born babies. Since new born babies have less body movements (always sleeping) this massage helps them to clear toxins out of their body and always gives good immunity.
Self body Massage has deep health benefits which common public and modern medicine are not aware of and are in the process of learning about it.
Saul Schanberg was awarded golden goose award for his wonderful scientific work on effect of massage on babies.
In 1979, Schanberg and his group were studying an enzyme and a growth hormone that are biomarkers for fetal and newborn development. They had to separate rat babies from their moms and in doing so found that, although the babies were kept fed and warm, they did not thrive and the biomarker levels dropped.
To make a long story short, they noticed that rat moms spend a great deal of time grooming and licking their newborns. Wondering if the tactile attention was important, they started using a small brush to stroke the separated babies. That was the missing link—the enzyme and hormone levels rose and the kids turned out okay.
In the 1980s, neonatal specialists read about Schanberg’s work and started trying it with premature infants, with good effect. Today, massaging premature infants is becoming common practice.
Skin brushing
Skin brushing has been found to stimulate circulation to the skin and also to help stimulate lymph flow. Excellent results can be obtained by skin brushing in the shower. Get a good quality natural bristle bath brush at the health food store. Look for one that’s not soft, but where the bristles are stiff. You are going to brush your body toe to chest & head to chest, to help stimulate circulation, movement of lymph and promote healing. You will want to brush probably after you are done soaping up and are clean. You will brush lightly at first, until your skin is used to it, but ideally you will brush until your skin turns pinkish, signifying increased circulatory flow to the area. You will feel great afterwards and soon it will be just like brushing your teeth!
In India, coconut fiber or dried squash fiber or herbal brush called inja are used for skin brushing. Especially kerala women after delivery are given this inja skin brushing to improve the lymphatic circulation.
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Pancha Bhoota walking & lymphatic system
Conscious Breathing
In several sections of this web site we have mentioned that the nature of the mind is to wander in the past and future and never be in the present. When we are not in the present we are not conscious of the breath. To be conscious of the breath always needs some practice and in fact , this is what the subject matter of initial chapters of Sakthi Gita.
Pancha Bhoota walking helps to bring awareness of the breath and is a wonderful technique to practice conscious breathing while doing an action (here walking) and increase lymphatic circulation.
Walk alone, do not talk and walk.
The Purpose of walking is to relax the mind. Walking though gives exercise to the muscles, it relaxes the mind by decreasing the thoughts if done with breath awareness. So walk to relax your mind. Talking while walking gives the mechanical physical exercise and does not relax the mind. Walking and relaxing the mind brings the best benefits of walking. Listening to music while walking and jogging gives exercise to the body and no benefit to the mind.
But the problem is just by walking alone some times does not relax the mind because one then starts to ponder about the problems in life while walking. The mature of the mind is to ponder of the past events or anxious or excited about the future. All sorts of mind disturbing thoughts comes to the mind while walking alone. How to avoid this?. This is why we suggest this beautiful breath awareness while walking, called as Pancha Bhoota walking.
Pancha Bhoota walking - Observe your breath
Maximum benefit is derived when some one walks and observe the breath during walking. While walking a little faster, the rate in which we breathe increases. Instead of the unconscious subtle breathing we can notice the strong breathing during walking. Observing this breath during walking will help us to bring the wandering mind focused on the breath. This way we can avoid pondering over thoughts and relax our mind. This observing the breath and walking brings immense benefits to health of the body and the mind by giving relaxation.
But you have to be often aware that the mind slips to its old habit of thinking and thinking thoughts. It is okay. Keep focusing on the breath and that helps to relax the mind. This breath awareness walking gives immense health benefits. Doing this for a long time helps even in meditation by keeping the mind under control. Do Pancha Bhoota walking for a couple of months and feel that the mind is more relaxed and you can do your meditation much better.
When you walk with breath awareness the lymphatic circulation becomes much better. This helps in detoxification and relief from so many diseases.
PB walking and detoxification of the body and mind.
Do water therapy in the morning (Drink 1.5 liters of water) and then do Pancha Bhoota walking has much more benefits. Walking and conscious breathing will improve lymphatic circulation and the water therapy will facilitate the removal of toxins from the body. This is an effective method as given by Arasan Shanmuganar. We have practiced this and found to be highly effective.
Breath Awareness while working Even while working or when you sit in a chair outside or by a window you can do some simple breathing exercises. Here are a few basic breathing exercises to get you started.
1) Sit up in a comfortable position, maybe a chair or chaise lounge. Sitting outside is preferable or at least by an open window with some fresh air, if it’s not too cold.
2) Get comfortable and relaxed. Just sit and let yourself breathe naturally, admiring the view and letting go of all thoughts or emotions right now.
3) Bring your attention to your lower abdomen – the area just below your belly button. If you like, you can rest the palm of your hand there, with your thumb resting on your umbilicus (belly button). Simply let your attention rest on the lower belly, observing the rising and falling of your belly with each breath. You are not making your breath do anything, you are simply observing.
4) After a few minutes of this, slowly take a deep breath, breathing right into the palm of your hand resting on your belly. Feel your belly fill with air. Then slowly exhale, allowing your hand to follow your belly down. As you inhale again, feel the expansion in your diaphragm (the lower part of the rib cage) as that gently expands with each inhale. As you exhale, notice again how the diaphragm feels. Do this gently and rhythmically for a few minutes. This rhythmic expansion and contraction of the diaphragm helps pump blood and lymph through the liver.
Adapted from-Lymphatic System-Vital to Healing & Good Health by Suzanne E. Sky).
Now our web site news proved right in 2018 research
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Lymphatic circulation-3
What can I do to keep my lymphatic system healthy?
Since there is no pump for the lymphatic system as the heart is the pump for the blood system, how does the lymph move? Several factors influence lymph movement. The filling of a lymph vessel segment causes it to contract, which pumps the lymph into the next segment. This is known as intrinsic lymphatic pumping. Other factors that influence lymph movement are all related to movement and activity:
1) contraction of surrounding muscles during activity
2) movement of the body
3) pressure changes in the thorax during respiration
4) compression of tissues by objects of the body
5) arterial pulsations
During periods of rest, lymph is sluggish. During exercise the lymphatic pump becomes very active. Exercise can increase lymph flow ten to thirty fold. Thus, regular exercise is the most important factor in keeping a healthy lymph flow.
Health secret of exercises
Why is exercising healthy? Medical Researchers and Doctors advocate exercise, but many do not understand its real benefit. For example, they know that exercise and estrogen levels in women are related. There is lot of research evidence showing that exercise prevent heart diseases, cancers, diabetes and various other diseases. In short medical research shows that poor exercise is one of the major contributor of many diseases and hence they recommend physical exercise.
This is also true but there is much more to it. Exercise increases blood flow, which removes all the wastes from that region and supplies nourishment. They increase blood circulation, heat circulation, air circulation and energy circulation. More important is that it facilitates lymphatic circulation. Poor body movements means poor lymphatic circulation and so poor immunity.
We have already seen that body movements and deep breathing helps in lymphatic circulation. Deep breathing can happen only when you have awareness of yourself. Which means the body , breath and mind are connected. This connection is the Fire therapy.
