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Lymph is fascinating. It is your other circulatory system. Capillaries are are so narrow they can only allow a single erythrocyte through at the same time. The
by throwaway5752 5y ago
Lymph is fascinating. It is your other circulatory system.
Capillaries are are so narrow they can only allow a single erythrocyte through at the same time. The pressure from your heart causes fluid leakage from the thin vessels. Lymph ducts/nodes help get this fluid back into your blood. Since the heart doesn't pump lymph, that helps move it through your body is actually your musculoskeletal system. That is to a certain degree true from your venous / return flow in your "normal" circulatory system, too. It's why your feet can swell if you're sitting down too much. I'd speculate that lymphatic flow efficiency has local and systemic elements that contribute to it (and so your leg muscles moving lymph help your overall lymphatic system health).
- plutonorm 5y agoThis didn't answer the question, like at all!
- throwaway5752 5y ago"I'd speculate that lymphatic flow efficiency has local and systemic elements that contribute to it (and so your leg muscles moving lymph help your overall lymphatic system health)." Lymph system helps clear waste / ISF from the brain. Overall lymphatic circulation improvement from increased activity would intuitively improve lymphatic clearance from the brain. That would be true if there was direct lymphatic clearance or some indirectly / osmotic gradient driven process (I don't know which, or neither, is the case).
- jjtheblunt 5y agoI'm no expert, but if the lymphatic system's flow is driven by the motion in its surroundings because the muscles and skeleton are in motion, maybe drainage just happens via gravity if motion continually alters momentum and gravity vectors? Genuinely curious too...
- hinkley 5y agoAm I remembering it incorrectly or did someone recently discover a mechanism for lymph to move through connective tissues (in particular, ligaments)?
- ford_o 5y agoIs it just about muscular contraction, or does any kind of motion have positive effect on the lymph system? Say a rollercoaster or jumping on trampoline.