This can be used as an alternative to such pharmaceuticals as blood thinners and can reduce the risk of a heart attack. It is important to remember blood is not the only fluid circulating through the body, lymphatic fluids must also be dispersed throughout the organs of the body. The lymphatic system rids the body of toxins, wastes, and pathogens. As tension in the muscles builds up the pathways through which lymphatic fluids travel can be blocked or narrowed. This causes an increase of toxic fluids in the body which will lower ones immunity to allow the invasion of diseases.
Massage benefits the lymphatic system in much the same way as it does the circulatory system.
Hands-on techniques help move the toxins through the body's normal pathways of release and elimination. It restores full circulation and may break away any scarring cause by injury or surgery that may congest these pathways. This is yet another healthy benefit people have found by receiving massage therapy instead of more invasive techniques. The American Holistic Health Association reports of one such person who found massage therapy to be the only affective treatment for her aliment. For ten years she had struggled with chronic pain in the soft tissue throughout the area.