You’ve probably seen the videos by now. Social media is littered with clips of beautiful, poreless women gently running their hands up the edges of their “snatched” jawlines and down the sides of their neck. What they’re performing — with varying degrees of expertise — is known as lymphatic drainage massage.
It’s a wellness trend that’s caught on for its purported aesthetic benefits, which include giving your visage a more sculpted, radiant look. It’s a technique that’s been used for decades to treat lymphedema and relieve inflammation, but some claim it can also boost immunity and even ease sinus congestion. We spoke to some experts about the science behind lymphatic drainage and whether it lives up to the viral hype.
What is lymphatic drainage?
As you may have guessed, lymphatic drainage targets the body’s lymphatic system — a large network of vessels and nodes that lie just beneath the skin. Lymph, a substance that carries nutrients to your cells and sweeps out toxins, courses through it, making it a critical part of immunity.
Unlike the cardiovascular system, the lymphatic system doesn’t have an organ devoted to pumping this fluid through the body. It relies primarily on the force that’s generated when we breathe and move and the gentle pulsing of lymph nodes. But lymph can become stagnant and pool, which is where lymphatic massage — also called manual lymphatic drainage, or MLD — comes in, as Lisa Levitt Gainsley, a certified lymphedema therapist and the author of The Book of Lymph, tells us.
The technique was first pioneered in the 1930s by a pair of Danish doctors, Emil and Estrid Vodder. The two of them noticed that they could relieve their patients’ swollen lymph nodes with gentle massage in specific regions of the body. But the concept of lymphatic drainage has been around for far longer, appearing in eastern medicine thousands of years ago. Techniques like gua sha, a Chinese method that involves scraping the skin with a smooth-sided tool, and dry brushing are rooted in lymphatic massage.
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How does lymphatic massage work?
The idea is simple: You help lymph circulate throughout the body by guiding it toward the body’s lymph nodes. There are hundreds of these small, bean-shaped structures that are clustered primarily in the neck, armpits, chest, abdomen, and groin. Unlike other forms of massage (think Shiatsu or deep tissue), MLD is performed very gently.
“The lymphatic system is relatively superficial, so there’s no need to dig into the tissue,” says Tori Harsha, a licensed massage therapist who performs MLD for the Cleveland Clinic. “It’s a very light movement to help flush the fluid through the body.”
MLD is often used to treat cancer patients, who may have had lymph nodes removed, “which kind of stops up the plumbing,” says Gainsley, who began her career at UCLA Medical Center working with people with cancer. “Let’s say someone has 10 axillary nodes in the armpit taken out. Fluid from the hands, arms, torso are supported to drain through those nodes, but if they’re not there you risk developing lymphedema,” she tells us.
People with other conditions, like rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia, and those who’ve recently had surgery or suffered an injury can also benefit. However, when it comes to some of the other claims around MLD, there isn’t much research supporting it. Some practitioners believe it can help boost the immune system, which would make sense in theory, because lymph plays such an important role in protecting the body, but there haven’t been many studies to assess its effectiveness.
As an aesthetic treatment, academic studies are, again, limited. There’s some research that indicates light massage and methods like gua sha can increase circulation to the skin. But lymphatic massage has won so many people over, including the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow and Meghan Markle, because they do report that it can help depuff the face — at least temporarily.
“I always like to say it’s the best and cheapest facial you can get, because you can do it right there at home,” Harsha says.
How to do a lymphatic drainage massage on your face
If you’re interested in trying out MLD at home, we’ve got a few tips for you. Harsha says you want to start at the chest, where your axillary lymph nodes are located. Push down on the skin gently and move your palm from the center of your chest down toward your armpits. Do that on both sides about 10 times.
Then, place your hands below your ears and under your jawline. Rub in gentle circles and move your hands down the sides of the neck five times. After that you can work on your under eyes by massaging that region. Harsha says you’ll want to wrap up the massage by working on your chest and pushing that lymph toward the axillary nodes.
She also recommends giving MLD a shot during your morning shower, so you can use the water as a light lubricant.
“It’s a very simple, easy, and effective technique that really anyone can do,” she says.
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