Читать книгу Your Key to Good Health - Elaine Hruska - Страница 17

After this rather technical introduction, a few concluding ideas to help summarize the concepts presented are needed here. Offering an overview of any bodily function that one can easily comprehend and grasp is difficult with any system, not only because of its overall complexity but because the understanding of the functioning of our body is a work in progress. Discoveries continue to be made, explorations continue to be done, revising former conceptions and rethinking old formulas.

The lymphatic system has several functions:

1.To drain interstitial fluid; this is the fluid that arises in between the cells; the lymphatic vessels help drain the tissue spaces from excess fluid

2.To transport dietary lipids (fats); these and other substances, such as proteins, are carried by lymphatic vessels and returned by them to the blood

3.To protect against invasion; lymphatic tissue carries out immune responses by targeting particular invaders or abnormal cells (such as bacteria, viruses, cancer cells, and so on) and responding to them in specific ways; in effect, destroying them and eliminating them from the body

Since blood and lymph are part of the circulatory system, comparisons between them may help in understanding more fully their role and function. Some differences include the following:

1.The lymphatic system does not form a complete and closed circuit like the blood.

2.The circulatory system has a muscular pumping organ—the heart; the lymphatic system does not.

3.Lymphatic capillaries structurally have larger diameters than blood capillaries and thinner walls than veins; also pressure is lower than in the blood vascular system.

4.The lymphatic network, unlike the blood, has “interruptions” by way of lymph nodes, stations which slow the movement of lymph temporarily in order to purify and filter the fluid.

Similarities between the two systems include the following:

1.Veins and lymphatic capillaries both have valves which move the fluid through the vessels; lymphatic vessels, however, have more valves.

2.Each forms increasingly larger structures, beginning with tiny capillaries and progressing to larger tubes and channels.

3.Respiration and joint/muscular movements affect transport for both.

4.Both are pervasive and widely distributed throughout the body.

These similarities and differences may assist in a better understanding of how the lymph operates in the physical body as well as the nature of its importance in our overall health and balance.

With the conclusion of this presentation, we will begin in the next chapter to study in greater detail the functioning of the lymphatic system as seen through the readings of Cayce. What were some of the indications, first of all, that pointed to improper lymph flow in the body? How were these conditions described? What were the circumstances surrounding this dilemma? Recognition of the overall pervasiveness of the lymph will be one of the results from this examination.