Summit Introduction and Guest Welcome

Hello and welcome to the Beyond Infertility Summit. I'm your host, Dr. Aumatma And I want to introduce you to Dr. Caitlin Czezowski today. She is a functional medicine practitioner, also a chiropractor, and most importantly, a drainage specialist.

Driven by her commitment to empower others through knowledge, Dr. Caitlin educates individuals on the importance of proper drainage for overall wellness.

Her expertize focuses on optimal drainage pathways such as the lymph system, liver and gut. She equips her students with a holistic tool kit, including practices like lymphatic drainage, manual, lymphatic massage castor oil packs and nervous system regulation.

In our chat today, we are going to pick her brain on all things drainage. Drainage is sometimes thought of as detoxification, but it's actually different.

So we're going to start with what's the difference between detox and drainage and why is drainage so important? And I am very excited that she shares in our chat today the seven key areas that you want to focus on every single day.

Detox vs. Drainage Explained

You can do this in a couple minutes a day to support the drainage pathways, to be open and moving fluid properly so that your body can maintain a level of health, being and homeostasis.

So let's get into it. You're going to love her. So enjoy this talk. And my encouragement or my challenge to you is start to implement. The few minutes of opening the drainage pathway is really we're talking about the specific lymph node open those lymph nodes every single day because that's going to make such a huge difference on your fertility journey.

I'll see you in there. Welcome, Dr. Caitlin, it's so great to have you on the Beyond Infertility Summit. I'm very excited about what we're going to get into.

Detox and drainage and like detox is such a buzz word, especially in the fertility world. Everyone thinks, Oh, I'm an ability to accident magically pregnant.

I am excited to talk to you. And I know that just also from watching you and seeing you on Instagram and all of your amazing content, I know that what you teach is just so valuable.

It's the piece that we're not talking about very often. So, yeah, I'm really excited that you're here. Oh, I thank you so much. And you're 100% accurate with, like, detox being a buzzword.

It everybody, I feel is talking about it, but they're not talking about the whole story behind it. Hmm. And I'm sure you're the same. I hear and see all of the bad outcomes from it because things weren't prepared beforehand or their body wasn't fully prepared before doing it.

And then they're completely put off because they're like, Oh my gosh, I feel worse than before. I've actually gotten away from talking a whole bunch about detoxing because there's a huge step that has to be done before you can even do that now, which you're right, most people don't even talk about.

Yeah. So let's maybe start there. What is the difference between detox and drainage for people that are like brand new or have only heard about the detox?

And they're like, What the heck are you guys talking about? Yeah. So the buzz word with detox, what most people are talking about is they're either in one or two camps, like one camp is.

You don't need to do any detox because you have organs that do it for you, which I get. But we'll talk about why that's not 100% foolproof all the time.

And then the other camp is, okay, we need to take things to detox. So they're usually taking either chelator so things that are going to pull or killers if they're going to do like a parasite purge or they're taking different herbs to ultimately cause your body to Remove.

Those toxins that are built up in your system. The problem with that is your drainage pathways, which a lot of people think drainage and detox is different.

It's not really when I use the word detox, I'm talking about using substances to actually chelate, pull kill, just like I mentioned. But drainage is what all of our bodies are meant to do on a regular basis to prevent those toxins from accumulating and just building up in our systems in the first place.

So what I find that happens for most people just living in today's world, because we're surrounded by toxins, we actually find that there's 300 and something toxins found in cord blood, the born job.

So kids are born with toxins before they even take their first breath, which comes from mold, comes from the environment. And so what ends up happening is our body has filters and these functions built in to help clear those toxins.

But because we are just bombarded with toxins every single day, all the time from water, air, food to the clothes we wear to the products we put on and in.

Signs of Congestion and Lymph Support

Like it's just coming from everywhere. Our drainage organs, which is our kidney, our liver, our gut, our limbs, our lungs and our skin, it ends up being like over worked in a sense.

Imagine like your employer is like, hey, I need you to work an extra hour every day. Initially you'd be able to do it and nothing else would fail. You may even have to pick up like a job or two, a task or two, because somebody else isn't quite like doing its job.

But eventually over time you would get burnt out, especially if the work kept coming and you kept having to do more and more work. Well, that's what happens with those drainage organs.

And so they get congested or they start to malfunction in the sense that they're not performing all of those functions. And so what happens is not all of those toxins that we are exposed to, you get broken down and eliminated either via sweating or urine or feces because our body just can't do it.

And so before anybody can or should I should say should before anybody does a detox or a parasite purge, they have to actually go and support those organs and drainage pathways so that when they do start taking things, that is pulling those toxins that have built up in our body that they can be eliminated and removed.

Because right now, the whole reason why you're accumulating them is because those drainage pathways just aren't draining. They're not normal. And that's really what I find is like the biggest thing that gets missed or overstepped.

Yeah. Yeah. So really it's detox being like pull out stuff, get rid of stuff. But drainage is like the underlying systems that are going to clear that stuff out.

And so it's the liver, the kidneys, the gut and the limb. I think I missed one. Lungs and skin, those are one. Skin, the skin and that's a big one. What's driving it does get to me.

But yeah, it does tend to be the big ones and the one that I find that honestly gets overlooked all the time is live. Most providers, whether they're an M. D., a DC, a functional naturopath, health coach, there's tons of amazing providers out there.

They tend to focus on like liver and gut, maybe kidneys if kidneys show up as a problem. But lymph is very rarely ever talked about. And I find that actually because of how we live, that's one of the ones that needs the most attention by ultimately just like changing some minor lifestyle hacks, because our lymph is what removes the waste products from every tissue cell and organ in our body.

Yeah. If that's not working, we end up having a whole bunch of other problems, not to mention lymph. Also helps with hormone regulation and distribution and it helps with digestion and absorption of fatty acids.

And so there's just so many things that the lymph does, and more times than not, it gets completely forgotten about. Yeah, yeah. You're so right. I have a funny story.

There was a woman that came to us. She. We had to give her some herbs for her fibroids, and that and I know this, but the herbs that we gave her Chinese medicine, herbs that really stimulate the liver to clear estrogen, as well as congestion in the pelvis out of the body.

However, literally after she started taking it, she was like, Oh, my skin's freaking out and I feel weird and I'm itchy all the time. I like what's happening.

And then we were like, Okay, maybe you start with some dry skin brushing and literally two days later, the symptoms are gone. I'm good. Oh, so do your body.

Like the, like drainage. And we're going to get into dry skin brushing, I'm sure. But having those the superhighways open to get these toxins that you're trying to move out of the body, the lymph is super important.

And if that's if that is backed up or if that has a traffic jam, then it's really going to be hard to get those things out and they're going to cause symptoms.

So what are some of those signs and symptoms that could maybe have us thinking in the back of our mind? Oh, maybe it's the drainage pathways that are congested.

Yeah. And the crazy that's such a great question. And I see that happen all the time. Like with her to work on one drainage pathway right. So late liver or even the uterus is actually a drainage pathway that a lot of us don't talk about and we don't talk about having a regular cycle.

And what does that look like? Like the color, right. And the distances and how important.

What Causes Lymph Congestion

But what I find I found and I've heard over and over again and I've seen with my one on one clients, when we start working on one thing, it actually will show us like where other problems are because that's okay, great.

But now I got to get this out and the only way out is through the skin. And so people, you know, this is the worst thing ever is just your body communicating.

And we just got to make some minor tweaks, just like you did in order to provide the body with actual the capability of removing those toxins. I love that you did that.

And some of the symptoms are things like allergies and people are like, what? Allergies and their allergies? It can be seasonal. It could be too animal dander, it could be to mites.

It could be whatever bloating is another one, brain function, it can be achy joints, especially in the morning, it can be headache, it can be digestive issues and fill in the blank with digestive issues because there's so many out there, it can get swollen, tender breasts during different parts of your cycle.

There's also things like estrogen dominance is one of those things which could also be due to low progesterone. Right. Because we can have many reasons for why we have estrogen dominance.

And that can be things like cysts, fibroids, even like endometriosis to some degree. There's all sorts of things that fall into that and then we can talk to about like food sensitivity.

Is this one of those things that can be due to drainage pathways being backed up and congested? So there's so many different things that could be the reason for why somebody has a symptom.

And a lot of those are linked to Liam. Also dry, itchy skin rashes like eczema or eczema, depending what part of the world you're in, all of those things.

And I do believe it's because all of those drainage pathways really do work together and lymph and skin tend to go hand in hand. That was my big what in the heck is going on with me?

It was my lymph showing up on my skin. It's because most of our lymph, like 70%, is in like just below the surface of our skin. It's in the dermis layer.

It's some of the muscle, it's above the fat tissue. And it shows us exactly what is happening. And it's not always fine. Believe me, I've been there, but it lets you know, Hey, there's something else going on that needs some support, some adjusting in order to clear it all up.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Are there tools or things that people can use maybe at home, ideally, that are helpful in supporting the movement of this limb?

Yeah. So I think what's important to talk about is like what causes limb to even become congested or stagnant in the first place because there's things that you can like specifically do to start getting that moving, which is also going to take pressure then or off of your gut and liver because people are like, Oh my gosh, I started doing this and I'm having like three bowel movements a day where before I was having them like every other day.

Yeah. Yup, those are right there. So what are some things that cause congestion one sitting at? We're stationary and alone. So I know, right? This working thing really puts a damper on overall health and wellness, which is one of the reasons why I have a standing desk.

I even have a walking treadmill that goes under my desk to try and limit the sheer amount that I'm just sitting there. But sitting what it does is when we're not contracting our muscle and since our lymph does not have a pump of its own or circulatory system, right.

Or circulatory system has it's harder has our heart, which pumps all of the blood everywhere. And the lymphatic system is like the mirror to the circulatory system.

So circle circulation brings like oxygen nutrition to every tissue and organ. And then as a result, all of the like byproducts, the waste products of making cellular energy from metabolism goes into the lymphatic system.

So it's like our sewage system of our body. And so the way that the lymphatic system works is really by pressure gradients and by pumping our muscles.

So contracting or muscles getting our heart rate up because live lays next to our arteries. And so now your arteries are pumping. It's also helping to pump lymphatic fluid.

So we actually have to be less stationary and move our body more. That's the first thing. Another thing that massively restricts our lymphatic fluid, since we don't have a pump like it's not just going to automatically pump is wearing really tight clothing.

So one of the biggest culprits is underwire bras. And women hate when I say this, especially larger chested women and I get it, I have to wear it though otherwise I don't have support.

And it's X-Y-Z. I'm not telling you not to wear them. I'm just going to suggest like only wear it for as long as you have to. And then when you take it off, do some lymphatic drainage routine in order to get that lymphatic fluid that was stagnant, stuck while you were wearing that clothing.

And it doesn't move just because it can be like tight. You'll go, Yeah, I'm guilty. I still wear it. But when I take it off, I do something to get it moving or socks or too tight or even if like bracelets or watches are too tight.

If it leaves a mark on your skin, it's not flowing. It's not draining while you're wearing it. So do something after you take it off to get that fluid moving.

Some other things can be like conventional.

The Seven Key Lymph Nodes

Dairy can be very you can have genic meaning it like thickens your lymphatic fluid, which makes it harder to move. So some people are like super sensitive to dairy.

So I usually tell them, let's take it out and let's just see what happens. And I'm willing to bet about 90% of the time they're like, it's working better.

And it's just because that conventional dairy is not. It's ultimately like causing increased mucus production. And I'm sure you talked about that before.

So sometimes a better option is like the best option if you're going to do it is like raw, organic, grass fed people tend to do better on that. That's not an option than going to like organic grass.

And if you can't do the raw and just see and then maybe just don't do as much. So what are some of the big things? Not to mention dehydration. If we're dehydrated, water is going to be pulled from our lymphatic fluid for other functions, which is then going to thicken or lymph fluids.

So instead of it being like nice and fluid like water, it becomes more like molasses, which then you can imagine, like moving molasses is harder than moving water.

So those are a few things that cause congestion that I always recommend people start with. Again, moving because when you get your lymphatic fluid moving, you'll actually see like other improvements like in your gut health.

You'll see and likely feel better improvements with your hormone health, even like lymph transports, progesterone. So I love or struggle with estrogen dominance or too low progesterone or you're taking progesterone you're lymphatic fluid.

Absolutely has to be working in order for those two hormones to be in check. I won't dove into it because I know that you guys have talked about as she gets around probably to the moon and back.

But yeah, her with flowing lymph is necessary in order to have that balance between estrogen and progesterone. Yeah, and I don't know that I knew that progesterone moves through late.

That's different in feels relatively important is there a reason that we move that through the limb then other. Yeah so I think it has to do with and they're still learning more and more about this but I think it has to do with like the fat soluble of the progesterone compared to other things because one of the jobs of live is also absorbing our fatty acids and our fat soluble vitamins.

And so I think that what they will find is those are going to go hand in hand. So now what I tell, like my women are taking progesterone and you better be like doing a little lymphatic routine if you want the most out of that replacement therapy that you're doing, or even if you're taking stuff like to increase your progesterone naturally, you still need it to be moving around.

That's 100% one of the things that I always recommend they do. And then the other thing would be like to open up their lymph nodes because the more that you can decongest, lymph nodes are like doors.

They're either open or their closed vessels or the hallways. You can't move the fluid in the hallway if there's a closed door, it's just not going to happen.

Imagine a group of people in a convention center and you're trying to get from one room to another room, but the doors shut and locked. You can't get to that other room that you're trying to get to.

So by opening up and decongesting the lymph nodes, that's going to better allow fluid to flow through. So I teach some different things like the specific seven where that is the minimum that I personally believe people should be doing.

And then the total 12 is going to be more of a full body, like making sure everything's open so that your brain can drain which who does it want better brain function and just better flow, especially if somebody is retaining fluid like in their feet or their hands, that type of things.

Those are probably the things that I typically start with. Most people is let's do some things to reduce the amount of congestion that we're creating based on our lifestyle, whether in one movement getting up every hour, maybe get a standing desk, going for a walk after dinner or whatever it may be, reducing the amount of time that we wear the tight clothing, reducing the amount of dairy, increasing our water consumption, and then implementing like the lymph node techniques, massages in order to get like stuff moving in the right direction.

And usually when people implement those things, they see a pretty massive difference and improvement. And then when we start implementing things like manual lymphatic massage or dry brushing or gua sha, things like improve even more just because then we're influencing the lymph vessels, the fluid in the vessels versus just the notes.

Okay. Okay, cool. So I think that makes a lot of sense, like reduce the things that are going to cause congestion first. That seems like a really smart thing to say.

And then do the big one like the nodes that are going to control all of these. So those are like the control mechanisms and then clear the highway. Yeah, tollbooths, open up like unlock and open the doors and then let the traffic through it just move so nicely.

And when people learn it in that version, they're like, Oh my gosh, no wonder it didn't work before this. They were like, starting in the wrong location.

Because the big thing that I find prevents people from getting results when they do lymphatic drainage is they don't follow what I call the three principles of lymphatic drainage.

First is the amount of pressure. Most of the time people are like putting way too much pressure. Neven lymph is not like massage like muscles lymph is on top of muscles.

It needs a lot less and it responds to lighter touch. It responds to like the stretch mechanism. And so if we go too hard, we're not going to get results.

The next one is the order. So the order that we're doing things and meaning, especially with lymph nodes, you're not going to start at your ankles if all of your fluids drains at your collarbone, you got to start where it drains, right?

You got to move the car closest to the traffic jam like the first power versus the last part. You can't move the last car in front of like it just doesn't work.

And then the third thing is the direction. So meaning all the cars have to be going the right direction. You can't be driving down a one way street the wrong way.

No, those three things do need to be applied. And when you understand them, people are like, Oh my gosh, this is actually working and seeing amazing results.

I'm getting an armpit back again or my bloating is gone or my cycle is improving, or I'm less moody or I don't have the breast tenderness. And it's just because they started to clear the gunk that was preventing them from draining and removing all of the waste products that their body was accumulating.

Mm hmm. Yeah. Is there what are the big seven? And is there, like, order to what they the Big Seven need to be in? Yes, there's always an order.

How to Do Lymph Drainage Safely

So you're always. Going to be able to remember that's a very good. This is what I will do for you guys. I'll give you guys however you guys want to do it, especially wise.

I'll give it the order for your listeners or maybe special for whatever, but I'll give you guys in order to make it easy. So it's always termini. Termini is above your collarbones.

This is where all of the lymphatic fluid drains, all of it. So toes, head, breast, fingers, stomach, it all drains above her collarbone. So this is the first one.

The second one is our tonsil or node. This is going to help with draining our brain, training our face, making sure that everything from here can drain down to our termini.

Yeah, that's two. Number three is apical. So apical is like under our bra strap for females or like on the inside when you roll your shoulder in below your collarbone, this one helps string breast tissue.

This one helps drain the fluid like from our armpit. So this is an important one. This one usually is the one that gets missed, which is very. I have a question and since I'm like doing it with you is there should we feel anything in this area or is it just somewhere we're assuming that we're in the right place?

Yeah. So you shouldn't you're not necessarily going to feel anything for a lot of these lymph nodes unless they're swollen like you may actually feel or see swelling.

So if like when you're looking at your collarbones, if you have swelling above or below your collarbones, like fluid, there's congestion. Like things aren't draining properly, which means that doors closed, which means fluid can't go through, which means the immune system can't do its job.

So then what I recommend is you got to slowly work on those nodes. So just because you can't feel a node doesn't mean that it's open. But if you can feel a noted, it definitely means that it's at least partially closed, if not totally closed.

And that needs to be congested. Yeah. The apical is number three armpit like in like the crux of your armpit like on the inside of your pack. Major is the next one.

That's number four. The stern a Kylie is the worm that is like in our abdomen. This one tends to be tender for most people. This one you will never feel because it runs along your spinal column and this is actually the one that drains all of the fluid from your organs and your legs up to your thoracic so that it goes back to your circulatory system and drains.

And then the next one is your groin. So number six is groin along the inside of like our thighs, right where our assignments are, abdomen, that priest down the middle and then the last one is behind the knee.

So those are the big seven and then you open them up in that order and then always finish at the termini. Because think about it like if your fluid is like thicker and it's not draining very nice, but you start to get things moving.

You just want to make sure that where it drains to is clear. So I always start and finish here just to ensure that I'm creating that pressure gradient because it's the lowest pressure, whereas like fingers, toes, high pressure, fluid high pressure, too low pressure.

We know that from our high school things class. So we just want to always make sure that we keep this low pressure. When there's congestion here, it becomes high pressure, which means there's no vacuum.

Like it's not sucking that fluid up to you. Got it. Okay. And the abdomen one I missed, like, how do we locate it? So that one's between like halfway between your belly button and your sternum.

So right where your rib cage comes together, it's a halfway point between your belly button and your stratum. Okay. And if it sounded like that one's pretty deep, like close to the and you're.

Not going deep when you do it. But still, when people do it, you're only going about an inch, maybe two inches deep. And it doesn't depend upon the size of the individual.

So even if you're a plus size individual or your like a bodybuilder, the pressure is going to be the same. But that one tends to be tender when you do it.

Because I honestly believe since the thoracic doc is literally draining all the fluid from our organs or at like lower abdomen or legs, there's a lot of congestion that can happen there.

And congestion drives inflammation and inflammation drives that like uncomfortable sensation. So when people do that one, they may even feel like a little lashes.

They're like, Oh, God, I feel like I might throw up. Okay, back off. Don't push as hard. And that probably means you need to do more of it. Totally. I definitely feel that one thought.

I felt like, well, that one is tender and it can even be tender on me, especially if I'm sitting more like doing more like desk work kind of stuff. And then I go through, I'm like, Oh gosh, yep.

Got some weird congestion that I got to work out there. And the more that you do it because remember, the more that we do things that cause stagnation, the more we actually have to do things to get things moving.

And in my personal opinion, I do believe that we should be doing something for our lymphatic system every day, something for our drainage systems. And it really it's for our overall health of being like we know movement is life, right?

So when we're not moving very much, we're going to end up with problems. I just find that like when I'm not moving my body as much, I get more stagnation just like everybody.

And it's just a good reminder because then I'm like, That's why I'm not supposed to be sitting 10 hours a day. Yeah. When we figure out how to work with.

That, looking up, if you have to work 10 hours, try and get up every like 15 minutes and just move your body. Yeah. And how long do you need to move for to be effective?

Yeah, everyone's going to be different, honestly. So, like, for some people, I'll tell them, like, hey, if you can work your way up to 10 minutes on a trampoline or a rebounder, that's going to be equivalent to 30 minute like cardiovascular jogging exercise.

What do you do? Vibration plates? I usually do 10 minutes of that just till vibrated up, but everyone's going to be different. What I can say, though, is get up, go get some water, go pee.

Even if you just shake it out, move your body, contract your muscles, you will be happier and healthier in the long run. Now, 10 minutes, though, once a day is not going to be sufficient because you still got to move your body, right?

We got to build muscles. We got to get our heart rate up. We got to do all those things. But just not having that like stationary or long stationary periods is going to massively improve all of your overall just drainage pathways and how they work together.

Mm hmm. Yeah. Awesome. And is any of this okay to do while pregnant or breastfeeding or is it not so great? Great question. And I can tell you, I probably get asked this 50 times a week on my social media accounts, too.

So what I always recommend is like first trimester.

Pregnancy, Breastfeeding, and Detox Symptoms

I wouldn't do a whole lot of it. I would only do terminate. And the reason being is that first trimester is just so delicate. Right? And we don't want to be doing a whole lot, especially if it's if this is brand new to you.

I wouldn't recommend doing this during the first trimester. Now, second trimester, third trimester. Generally speaking, it's fine so long as it's not a high risk pregnancy.

So if somebody has pre-eclampsia or things like that, I would say no, because doing lymphatic drainage can increase or put more pressure on our kidneys and increase blood pressure more because we're returning more fluid back to the circulatory system so so long as it's not a high risk pregnancy.

Absolutely. And what I found and what people have told me is, oh, my gosh, when I started doing this in my second pregnancy, I didn't have the swollen ankles and I didn't have like as much fluid retention as I did in the first pregnancy.

So, yeah, it's generally safe second, third trimester and then breastfeeding again, generally safe so long as there's nothing else crazy going on. One thing I do recommend depending is that these women take like a clean binder or like an activated charcoal or something just to absorb anything that your body is moving right or releasing.

We just don't want it to go to baby, depending upon what you have going on, especially if you have detox symptoms when you do it. Because I hear this a lot.

Oh my gosh, I started doing this and it gave me the flu or it gave me a headache or it gave me a cold or it gave me a sinus infection or okay, lymphatic drainage isn't going to give you that.

It is going to, however, expose you or show you what has been stuck in your lymphatic system for who knows how long. So if you had or have a chronic infection that's been sitting in your lymphatic system for a year, five years, ten years, 20 years, 30 years, whatever, and you finally wake up the lymphatic system and get things moving.

All of a sudden your immune system, because our lymphatic system also is part of our immune system, it's like, well, I can finally address this. And so you may have symptoms of that, not like it gave you those symptoms.

It's just alerting you that there's something going on. In which case I would also recommend that those individuals take some type of binder, slowed down the amount of lymphatic drainage they're taking, drink more water to flush things out and just listen to your body.

That's the big thing. Your body's literally telling you and showing you, Hey, guess what? You had a lot of garbage stuck in there, and now you're literally, like, waking us up.

It's like turning the light on, and now you're you the whole mess, and you're like, Okay, where do I start heating food? So that's usually what I recommend for pregnant breastfeeding individuals or even just individuals who are trying to get pregnant.

And they have those types of symptoms, taking a clean binder, slowing things down, drinking water, usually. Good. First starting steps. Yeah. Okay, awesome.

And then is there a point at which they should like we've in dry skin brushing or I don't know if I've seen this. You do this like a tapping motion to move the limb.

I don't know if I could fill a thing. Yeah, I think manual lymphatic resources just using your hands and you're just literally, like, manually moving the fluid in your leg muscles.

And yeah, there is definitely a time to do that. But I would say it's after you master opening up the lymph nodes. Know what? That's the big thing. And people are like, How do I know?

Do you know how to do it? Do you feel some changes happening? Do you feel like confident in it? Are you doing it regularly because consistency is key?

So if you're like, Yeah, I've done it once a week for a month. Here. Probably not enough. Which means when you start to implement like moving or ushering the people or the cars through the litter vessels, if the lymph nodes aren't.

Are told to lose the air, that it's. Not really moving anything. Right? So you're better off like really focusing on one thing and then moving to the next.

So sometimes people are like, How do I know it's moving? You may feel things especially like with your tonsils or node like post nasal drip, you may have like feel like you have to swallow.

You might actually have to blow your nose because your nose starts running. You may have a tickle in your throat or feel the need to cough or sneeze. Those are all things that like you're opening things up in your head's now draining.

It's like hearing that again. Other symptoms could be like those, what people would say negative symptoms, right? Like the flu, the achy joints, the upset stomach, the headache, that type of thing tells me that things are moving again.

Not a bad thing. It's just your body's way of saying, Hey, things are moving and there's stuff in there that we got we can now take care of. So those are some other things.

And then along with what are the symptoms that you are dealing with? Are they improving? Meaning you have less of what originally made you start doing this in the first place?

And so as you start to see those then is when I usually recommend let's start implementing like lymphatic drainage. So like the lymph vessel, like when I'm working with people, I usually go, okay, we're going to do the total 12 or the specific seven, depending what's going on for two weeks every day for two weeks.

And then we're going to assess where you are and we'll add the lymphatic vessels stuff in. Or we may say, okay, let's do one more week of the living and then we'll do the vessels.

So that's really how I approach it when it comes to like manual. And I also teach use your hands first before you throw in like a tool. And the problem is, do I have my I don't know the I do as like do I probably not have a dry brush near me on my my hand or give somebody a tool, they automatically are like more aggressive with it.

It's just what we do. And so I always teach use your hand because we're going to be less aggressive with our hand. And then once we get the whole pressure, because remember, pressure is one of the things that's going to influence our outcome, then I can give them the tool because they understand the pressure.

They understand what does that feel like?

Building a Daily Drainage Routine

So I personally don't love jumping people to like a dry brush or a gua sha or even one of those like wooden paddle type things until they understand the concept of pressure and how much to use.

Mm hmm. Okay. Okay. I love that. And it's great because we have the tools in our hands right now. I tell people all the time, I'm like, you literally can do lymphatic drainage almost anywhere.

Now when you work on a vessel it doesn't work so well through clothing that really needs to be skin or skin. But the lymph nodes, you can do it through your clothing.

So I will literally do lymphatic lymph node massage at conferences or on an airplane or sitting in traffic. Because I got my tools and I can do it through clothes, maybe not through a winter parka or like a whole bunch of layers.

Yeah. Absolutely. This is has been enough to do it. Yeah. Absolutely. Especially like when you can't strip down. Or the other thing is people are like when how often what's the best time of day?

The best time of day is when you're going to do it. Really whenever you're going to. And I feel like when you're trying to take on a new habit, it's helpful to share it with something that you already do.

So it's okay before my shower, I'm going to do my little stuff. Yeah. Or after I brush my teeth. Whatever works for people, but it's really easy to pair it with something rather than, oh, I have to like remember yet another thing throughout the day which I personally don't do great at?

Well, no, because we're so bombarded with a million things on their to do list that we don't even get to everything on our to do list. And when it's something new, that usually falls to the bottom when you're on a visit, right?

I teach people habit, I call it habit stacking, jacket whistling. So if you're missing tea or coffee, what's going to take about 5 minutes? So you have 5 minutes while it's brewing to do your lymphatic drainage or like you just do it after you brush your teeth right before bed.

Or maybe you set an alarm halfway through your day to get up, move and do 3 minutes of it. It's whatever works for you, whenever works for you, it's just a matter of you actually doing it.

So that's usually what I tell people. Like time of day matters less when you get more advanced. There's other things that we could talk about and consider, but in the beginning, when you're doing lymph node stuff, any time of day is fine.

And then the other thing is the frequency, but I can tell you is the more consistent you are, the more often you do it, the better and faster results you're going to get.

So I usually tell people like your goal in the beginning is to do the specific seven, so take 3 minutes, because if you take 30 seconds for like each node, it's going to be like 3 minutes and 30 will say 4 minutes take 4 minutes every day and you will start to see like things change within, but it's like some people, it's going to be immediately, some people it's going to be like a month later and then some people, depending upon what else is going on, it may be like a couple months, but I've never had somebody not see little changes anyway when they start doing it.

That's so awesome and it must be just so rewarding to see the transformation from it's not always about taking more stuff. It's literally, let's just get your systems working.

Just love on your life, love on your drainage. Because here's the other thing. When you love on your limb, if you're actually loving on your liver and your gut too, because they work together.

So it's one of those things where people are like, Oh, I don't physically see something wrong with my length. You might not physically see something, but I can promise you if you have issues with your liver or if you have issues with your gut, your lymph isn't working as well as it should be.

So by loving on this is actually going to help the other two that you're probably working on with your provider or practitioner, whoever you're working with.

Yeah. Thank you so much for joining us today. Where can people find you? Where can we connect with you? Yeah, so I'm on Facebook and Instagram and now YouTube.

I'm doing longer form for people because I need more information. How do you I'm like, okay, so then it's under @doc.talks.detox even though I talk more about drainage.

But it's @doc.talks.detox Dr. Caitlin Czezowski and you're going to find me on those three platforms currently. Also Also, thank you for being with us today and sharing like amazing gems.

I hope for all of you listening in. You're just going to go and add in 4 minutes a day, hit this the seven major ones and then let us know like in a month from now what's improved from just adding these like four little things into your 4 minutes of your time into the day Absolutely. Love it. Love it.

Thank you so much for being with us. Thanks for having me.

Caitlin Czezowski, DC, CFMP, CACCP

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