Tumors, Cysts, Lumps, Knots, Growths
Applications for a Healthier Lymph
INTRODUCTION
Why a book on lymph? This rather unexplored and until lately poorly understood system of the physical body has remained mysterious and largely ignored for centuries. Even in the 1930s, when Edgar Cayce was busy carrying on his life’s work of giving readings, the lymphatic system was considered off-limits not only for physicians but also for physical therapists and massage practitioners. If clients or patients, for example, presented themselves with swollen lymph nodes in their necks, the therapist was taught to refrain from massaging or even touching the area. It was believed or thought by the medical community that palpating the swollen nodes or surrounding areas would spread bacteria and viruses, thus increasing infection throughout the body of the client and, as a result, worsening the condition. Because of this mistaken belief and taboo plus lack of knowledge, the lymphatic system was to a great extent disregarded by health care professionals and therapists who did not want to create additional sickness in their clients. Until recently it was common for children with swollen neck nodes or tonsils to have them surgically removed. Spleens and appendixes were likewise removed, their value as a component of the body’s defense system not being discovered until later.
That interest and concern in this topic have gradually increased during this present time period (when individuals are choosing and demanding a more holistic approach and are willing to shoulder some responsibility for the onset of their illness) is also demonstrated by the amount of material covered in anatomy and physiology texts. In the mid-1980s, when I attended massage school, the textbook devoted eighteen pages to a chapter entitled “The Lymphatic System”; however, seven of those pages contained full-page illustrations. Some years later, the lymphatic system merited thirty-seven pages with half- or full-page illustrations and charts covering twelve of those pages. Why this shift in the amount of material and information? Not only is the description of lymph vessels more detailed, but the effect of that system upon the body is better understood and acknowledged. Yet the average person, as represented by those who come for services to the A.R.E. Health Center and Spa, has little knowledge or conception of what the lymph consists of or how the system operates. Unless clients have encountered a specific health problem (sometimes after surgery or an injury) of edema (swelling), they may not be aware of the condition of their lymphatic system or even pay much attention to it.
The physical readings of Edgar Cayce, in a number of instances way ahead of the times, have a lot to say about lymph and its effect on disease and health. There are, in fact, a little over three thousand references or mentions of lymph and lymphatic vessels in the total body of text. Considering that 9,541 physical readings exist, references to the lymphatic system, then, constitute nearly one-third of occurrences throughout these readings. That is quite an “honorable mention” when one realizes how scant attention was being paid to this system at the time the readings were being given, as well as little recognition and understanding of its function and operation.
One exception to this, in addition to Cayce, was a contemporary of Cayce’s, Dr. Andrew Taylor (“A.T.”) Still (1828-1917), who is considered the founder of osteopathy. In a biography, The Lengthening Shadow of Dr. Andrew Taylor Still, written by one of his students, Arthur Grant Hildreth (also an osteopath), is a description of how Dr. Still approached each
