Is lymphatic massage truly beneficial?

My wife has to do it every day. Her lymph system was compromised due to a hysterectomy. Her lymph won’t move if she doesn’t massage it. So it makes a big difference. If you’re massaging a healthy lymph system, it probably helps it work better and clean out toxins more efficiently.

Lymphatic massage is definitely beneficial. And you can always tell that it’s truly doing something, because if you don’t drink a lot of water afterward (to flush the toxins that were moved), you’ll get sick as hell.

If you have lymphedema, it is beneficial.

@wundayatta Was it a complication of her hysterectomy or a normal hysterectomy itself that caused the problem?

Can someone explain how this works (assuming it does)?

@augustlan A complication. There was something that looked suspicious, so they decided to take it out while they were there instead of taking a biopsy and having her have to get another surgery. Well, the thing turned out to be benign, but in the process of removing it, they cut out something that was essential to her lymph system. So now she has lymphedema.

I’d also like to know more about the lymph system since I’m pretty ignorant about it. Maybe I’ll have read up on it by the time there is a substantive response here, but someone please answer anyways. Whenever I hear the phrase “removes toxins” I become skeptical. I get the impression the lymph system is a fluid between the skin and muscle that assists in the transportation of (nutrients? enzymes?) throughout the body? My wife got one only from the shoulders up yesterday, saying “that’s where most of the lymph is.” I don’t really know what that means.

Lymphatic system

@Pandora Thanks. That jogged my memory. I learned a little about it a long time ago, but I’d forgotten it was associated with the immune system. I’d gradually developed the notion it was something like chakras.