The C-Word: Bouncing, Body-Brushing and Your Lymphatic System

If you have cancer - or almost any chronic illness - you owe it to yourself to try body-brushing. It's a cheap, simple way to make your skin and lymph nodes more effective at eliminating toxins and producing vitamin d3. Your skin is your body's largest organ and, when working properly, eliminates 25% of the toxins in your body every day. In natural medicine, your skin is called your "second kidney" for its importance in clearing fluids and wastes from your body.

If you are simply a healthy person, it also strengthens your immune system, increases circulation, reduces cellulite, gets rid of ingrown hairs and blocked pores and exfoliates for the softest, smoothest skin you ever felt. The other benefit is that many people find the process meditative, restorative and energizing, all in one.

dry brushing or body brushing can smooth away orange peel skin and help heal cancer

Think of it this way, any dead or dry skin cells on the surface of the skin block the healthy ones from light and oxygen so it's harder for your skin to produce the vitamin d it needs to keep you healthy. Also, by stimulating the skin, you stimulate the lymph system which is a highly-sensitive series of tiny tubes that lie just beneath the surface, transporting waste from your tissues to your blood for elimination. When your lymph system is inflamed or blocked, you are more likely to develop disease.

So here's how you start - you go to your local health food store or bath and body place or online amazon or thrive market - and a buy a natural fiber body brush. Mine tend to cost between $6 and $12 and last about a year. It is should be firm and a bit scratchy-feeling, though NOT TOO STIFF because the idea is not to rub yourself raw. For your first body brush, I'd suggest one that is slightly softer so you ease into it. This is the one I started with.

In the morning, before your shower, you strip down and start brushing at your feet. Remember this is DRY brushing. You do it before you are wet. Don't use any oils or products on your skin, it's just you and the brush. The idea is to always brush towards your heart, from bottom to top. Brush each foot, top and bottom, from the toe to the top of the foot and up your leg to your thigh. Stop there and brush the other leg.

Drybrushing for the lymphatic system

A simple map for drybrushing

You then brush the abdomen, personally, I follow the direction of the colon to also help with my digestion. If you do a search online, you'll see amazing before and after pictures of loose or puffy tummy skin being tightened up with regular brushing. Brush briskly so that your skin feels stimulated but not irritated. You can get a long-handled brush for your back.

Some people suggest brushing in small circles around your joints to loosen the fascia and release tension and toxins there.

If you have bad acne, I've read suggestions of a soft brush for the face - and seen incredible before and after images, but I have never tried it. You would need to wash your brush with soap and water regularly to avoid spreading bacteria.

Take a shower after the brushing and massage your skin with sweet almond oil as that helps soothe and heal the skin. Then apply any body lotion or product you like (but try to stay away from the junk, no matter how good it smells). You've just strengthened the moisture barrier on your skin so you're pretty protected now.

So what about the bounce?

If you are getting chemotherapy or radiation - your skin may be too sensitive for much brushing. I know mine felt thin and irritated all the time. Chinese medicine practitioners suggest using a rebounder - or a simple mini-trampoline - to keep the lymphatic drainage going.

daily rebounding can also be useful for cancer patients

This is equally easy and simple. You get on it once or twice a day and bounce gently for 10 minutes, more if you feel like it. You don't need to get really vigorous, it's not gymnastics. If your balance is off or you feel shaky, you can put the rebounder next to the sofa or a heavy piece of furniture to hold on to, or buy one with a handle. Shift your weight from one leg to the other and you will also help increase your bone density and improve your balance.

The motion of your body also helps stimulate the lymphatic system. I've read account of people with lymphoma who incorporate rebounding along with juicing and avoiding sugar animal products who have lumps and tumors resolve themselves with no other intervention. It's worth a try.

If you want to get fancy, try a powerplate. Just standing on one of these vibrating platforms for 2 to 4 minutes, twice a day, not only stimulates the lymph, it strengthens your muscles and increases your bone density which is very useful when aging, chemotherapy or radiation can make your bones porous.

Cancer especially seems to affect the lymph system - whether it's lymphoma, breast cancer or thyroid cancer - so any or all of these are worth adding to your healing or protective arsenal.

day 17 - you looked fantastic!

 left side

 rightside

head-on

so i got that text message from my friend tony today. i'd dragged the amazons to see him in macbeth and we were all a bit tired still from the eid festivities and my mum and dad visiting the previous few days. so i zipped myself into my standby herve leger skirt that is so stretchy, it fits immediately post-chemo and now that i am 12 pounds heavier, too.

i texted back, "not fishing for compliments but what looks fantastic?"

he texted, "hair looked nice, well-dressed, nice make-up and earrings."

since the extent of my make-up is kajal (which i put on once every few days) and blush (which i put on after the pool in the morning) and the only thing i was wearing which he hadn't seen before were my grandmother's earrings, my reaction to his enthusiastic compliment (and he doesn't give lots of compliments either) was:

"wow!"

so the cream is working.

i walked in on mary schook who is madly preparing the shop to be the msapothecary winter wonderland holiday destination and she said, "oh my gosh, your cheeks are higher!"

the current consensus: the beaucell cream has - in 16 days - taken about five years off my face.

again, it costs $2,000 and is only available in korea, japan and, possibly, at mary schook's shop (if it keeps working).

in case you couldn't remember what my face looked like in april (2 months after the end of chemotherapy) - here's my college trip with sasha and aaron up to syracuse university. sasha filmed me sitting on the shore of the river.

what's tragic is that i thought i looked GOOD. phew. i must have looked really really bad during chemo. i remember reading some kind of statistic when i was working on anti-ageing skincare for loreal. about 75% of women don't realize how much they are ageing and how much their faces have changed.

i do know that i don't look in the mirror often - and when i do, i am so surprised at how different i look that how i feel (like 10 times bigger, taller) that i rarely get past that to notice the details - like the little wrinkles around my eyes or my sagging jowly chin - until i see a photograph or a video.

those have to be pointed out to me by my daughters.

also, i am so thin and pale in the video that i am amazed i thought i could jump in the car and drive 6 hours back and forth to show sasha colleges. no wonder people were alarmed!

anyway, if you have $2,000 to spend on face cream - i should add that this is an ENTIRE kit: day cream, toner, eye cream, night cream, face masks, so you needn't have anything else and the texture and scent (very very mild) is really nice - this DOES seem to make a difference.

testing, testing

i have been given the quite wonderful job of guinea pig for my friend mary schook (beauty engineer extraordinaire) http://www.maryschook.com/

she literally knows EVERYTHING about beauty and aging (follow her on twitter @beauty212 ).

i am testing one of the most expensive anti-aging creams in the world by a korean company called beaucell.

it costs $2,000.00 for a one-month supply and comes in this very sleek, futuristic packaging, lying on a bed of silvery satin.

its claim to fame - medical-grade human stem cells.

the complicated process involves a serum that must be refrigerated upon opening and applied to the skin once a night using a small battery-operated electrical device that helps it penetrate the skin better. then there's a gel, then a mask (pictured above), then a night cream and an eye cream!

during the day, there's a toner, another gel and an essence.

the question is - 1. can a topical product really make a difference? (i have never had botox, collagen, silicone or any other injectable nor any anti-aging cosmetic surgical procedures) 2. for an advertising person like myself - in this economy, will people buy it?

in my mind, the first problem is that there are no real instructions. there's a very beautiful silver but totally vague brochure. everything on the package is in korean except for a stick-on label that says, in english, made in korea. (um, yes).

i like instruction sheets myself. especially if they are well-written and give you a bit of story. it makes you feel looked after, and as if you are using something important, that someone has put a lot of thought into. i like the conversation with the company who's produced the product.

without a good instruction sheet, especially with all these silver packages, i feel like i am in limbo. i have to keep emailing mary with questions. this is not good for a $2,000.00 at home treatment.

rara is laughing at the mask as she watches tv.

for now, my face feels super-moisturized but that's it. (mary says i look brighter, but that might be the glare of the light in the grease. the night cream is very rich.)

supposedly, this should work no matter what the chemo has done to my skin. once a week, i'll go to mary's for a picture that shows the thickening of the collagen and the reduction (i hope) of the sun damage (the chemo drugs made my skin overly sensitive to the sun this summer).

i'll put up a picture every day...

this is me, this afternoon. mary tested it last night.