Drainage pathways made simple
Drainage…
How do we take something that has been made so complex and break it down to understand it?
I always think foundations are important. If I understand how something works, I can understand the process. I find this true in educating my patients. If I show them the human body and how fascia is connected, how organs drain, where nerve and lymphatics are located then they seem to understand what is going on and why what we are planning will help benefit them.
Think of the drains in your house. The kitchen sink drains down the stack to the basement then under the home (think lymphatic system). Gravity helps. What if something is too big or greasy for the sink to break down? The garbage disposal and soap help (just like the liver and gallbladder). The basement might funnel through a pipe underneath your floor out to the sewer lateral. From there it travels out to the sewage station for clean up (much like your bowels). Anything that doesn’t get eliminated may be recycled through your kidneys and liver. If there’s a leak, water doesn’t go through the proper pipe and drain pathway and spills (same thing happens in your body and can funnel into your skin, kidneys and lungs).
So how does the drainage funnel work?
Always, think you need to open the drain from the bottom up. If you do not open the clog then pathogens or junk can recirculate which can cause additional symptoms.
I don’t have any specific environmental exposures so how does this pertain to me?
Just looking at our drinking water, I would find it hard to believe your body has zero exposures. With that said, 75% of people have no genetic predisposition and can eliminate pathogens, viruses, toxins and microbes because our bodies are miraculous healing machines.
A back up of your drainage system can show up as: headaches, brain fog, vertigo, musculoskeletal pain, joint pain, fascial tightness, heel pain, swelling (can advance towards Lymphodema or Lipoedema), anxiety, constipation, diarrhea, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, acid reflux, asthma, vocal cord dysfunction and the list goes on.
Have you ever had shingles come back? Have you ever reactivated Epstein Barr Virus (EBV)? Do you have a rash on your skin that just won’t go away? Have you had kidney stones? Did you have your gall bladder removed or gallstones? Do you have high blood pressure? Do you have high cholesterol? Do you have migratory aches and pains (not from working out)?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, then there is a good possibility that your drainage pathways are not operating and funneling smoothly. You need to examine each level to determine where the clog or back up may be located.
How does this affect the nervous system?
We have to remember when someone is having difficulty clearing inflammation, it will start to arouse the autonomic nervous system. Over time, subconsciously, the sympathetic nervous system (fight, flight or freeze) will be on alert as a primitive reflex to protect the body and the vagus nerve is over stimulated. We have to remember it takes the body less energy to tighten your muscles, decrease motility in your bowels, increase heart rate & blood pressure, tighten your lungs, diaphragm, fascia and vocal cords than it does to relax. So when the nervous system senses any type of danger, it will react so it has more energy to fight whatever intruder it suspects. At this point, healing time will be lengthened because the body needs your parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest) to heal and drain. So healing and draining work congruently with one another.
How does this relate clinically?
In the office, I have seen many Baker’s cyst (behind the knee) blow up from external stimuli. I never understood why until I started testing and looking at external factors in the environment. You have to determine the trigger. I had one patient that had their cyst drained multiple times before I saw them and it had created a leg length discrepancy (because the knee could not straighten). We tracked symptoms for a short time and through testing, confirmed it was foods high in sulfur that caused increased swelling. This meant their liver and gallbladder pathways were backed up so their lymphatic system could not work properly. Everything from that point upstream would be affected (which then pushed into organs and tissues, Baker’s cyst,).
I have another performance client who has had a variety of fungal rashes, high blood pressure and borderline A1c. We have been using grapefruit, challenging more diverse food consumption to broaden the microbiome and working on gut health in conjunction with strength training (Olympic lifting, mobility, explosive power) and they have seen a 19% power increase over the past 2 years on the bike. They now have lower resting blood pressure. Through following triggers with the fungal rashes and looking at external factors in the environment, we have found tools to aid healing. They have changed personal care products, foods, added a water purification system to lower toxic burden and testing the home for fungus. We have found the root cause.
Sometimes helping patients with nerve pain is simple. Bike fitting for instance, if we stencil the foot and measure the toe box on the stencil and compare to the last on their shoe, we often times find the shoe is narrower than the foot causing a compression injury to the nerve. Sometimes patients accidentally do the splits and overstretch their hamstring, strain their sciatic nerve and hamstring muscle. This is a stretch injury to the nerve. And other times, it is far more complex and the body is not eliminating aggravating factors (inflammation) that is setting off the autonomic nervous system and irritating nerves.
Drainage is important. You need to support your body’s pathway for elimination. This helps you remove inflammation, pathogens, toxins and unwanted junk from your body and live a more purposeful life.
This is not medical advice. You should always consult your healthcare practitioner(s) for medical advise and what is best for your care. The purpose of this blog is to centralize and share information while connecting with others.