A long time ago I made the mistake of watching some YouTube videos purporting to teach Dr Vodder's MLD. Some of them would have made great how-not-to-videos for the classroom, and I was quite disturbed by the number of chats claiming that you should feel nauseous or ill somehow after lymph drainage. There was even an insistence in some comments that it hasn't worked unless you feel dreadful. This is the exact opposite of what I have learned and observed in nearly 25 years of

Across two decades of teaching therapists how to interact with lymphatics through MLD and Lymph Taping, I have witnessed an explosion in research on lymphatic function and disease. Some observed truths have been completely reversed, like the advice around exercise for people affected by lymphedema. Once it was shown that any post-exercise swelling is temporary, and that overall people who exercise have better lymphedema outcomes than those who don't, our advice did a big 180

The study looked at how the lymphatic endothelia cells behave when there is tissue hypoxia, so there are three interesting things here. How

The main difference between the three lymphatic therapies was in the rate of removal of lactic acid, which was more effective in the group r

Intensive drainage of the intercostal pathways are used during MLD for upper torso and arm lymphoedema, and along with the bronchitis techni

Thompson et al, found evidence for MLD to prevent onset in early breast cancer patients and to reduce arm volume in early stage lymphoedema

While there are multiple studies showing that MLD & CDT reduce the symptoms of inflammation and can reverse some fibrotic changes, there is

Manual Lymph Drainage, developed by Emil and Estrid Vodder over 80 years ago, has gained recognition around the world for its effectiveness

The Basic Pre-Quiz is being updated. Here are the results on the 500 responses received

Lymph flow is required for the valves to form and function, and now we know that endothelial cells can ‘sense’ the flow and respond.

My issue is that therapists and clients pick up on studies like this and start thinking that it means we should do something different

People are often surprised when I start talking about MLD to resolve trigger points, or treat conditions like adhesive capsulitis and CRPS

I just did a quick search on the National Lymphoedema Practitioner Register #NLPR to see where people affected by lymphoedema have access therapist services. As expected people with the necessary training and skills are clustered in the metro areas and Melbourne and Sydney have over 50 therapists within a 100km radius of each city centre. Brisbane is not far behind with 48 Perth has 31. Everywhere else you will struggle to find more than a handful of therapists and even majo

When I teach MLD we talk a lot about the way the body responds to stress. We're all familiar with the symptoms, sweaty palms, knotted stomac

What ICG fluoroscopy can't tell us, is what is happening in the deep system, nor the systemic effects of MLD which were shown by Heutzschenr

A recent SR and MA on standard therapy (compression with or without exercise and skin-care), compared to standard therapy with MLD, concl

An area of great excitement in lymphatic research - and I think great confusion - is the ‘new discovery’ of ‘lymph vessels’ in the brain. Th

Also called near-infrared fluorescence imaging (NIRFI) or near-infrared fluorescence lymphatic imaging (NIRFLI) the technique uses a very sm