In yesterday’s post I mentioned how important homeostasis is to our wellbeing. In essence, our lymphatic system’s main job is to collect the excess fluid that’s collected in the interstitial cells in your body called lymph and return it to your blood circulation.
If the lymphatic circulation isn’t working properly (or temporarily overwhelmed), this fluid will build up in these tissue spaces, causing that ‘heavy’ feeling and puffiness.
Over time, if the fluid retention continues, our total blood volume decreases and can cause low blood pressure. So, it’s important for the lymphatic system to get that excess fluid moving ASAP.
However, the fluid needs to be filtered first to get rid of some of the stuff that’s leaked from the gut – we call this chyle. Chyle contains fat and fat-soluble vitamins. In the small intestine, the chyle is absorbed by lymphatic capillaries called lacteals which is then moved along through lymph nodes (see image) to filter out any nasties.
Lymph fluid also contains some really useful stuff too. It’s a major producer of white blood cells (or lymphocytes) and other immune cells that destroy potential disease-causing pathogens such as cancer cells, bacteria, viruses, parasites and fungi (e.g. mould).
Stay tuned tomorrow for more about your lymphatic system and a quick summary!