The Lymphoedema Diet

Lymphoedema is a chronic disease which can cause unsightly swelling in any part of the body due to a damaged lymphatic system.The symptoms of lymphoedema are increasing disability, disfigurement and pain. The current treatment is to wear compression garments 24 hours a day and apply massage to try and encourage the stagnant lymph to move through the system.However, all the while the risk of infection is very high.Lymphoedema can occur after surgery or during cancer therapy treatment; sometimes this can occur immediately after the event or, in some cases, it can occur years later. The fact that lymphoedema can occur years after surgery, when some lymph nodes may have been removed suggest that the remaining lymph nodes have been able to cope until something has occurred that has tipped the balance. Once thought to be irreversible and due to a plumbing problem, a ground breaking study has now uncovered the molecular mechanism responsible for triggering lymphoedema. Lymphoedema is now known to be due to inflammation - not a plumbing problem. This suggests that even if some lymph nodes have been removed they are not the direct cause of the lymphoedema. The illness or injury necessitating their removal, or responsible for their damage, has set up an inflammatory response. It is this that needs to be addressed.Lymphoedema was first found to be a problem due to inflammation when studies showed that ketoprofen - an anti-inflammatory - was successful in alleviating the symptoms of lymphoedema. While a prescription drug to reverse this mechanism is still in the offing there are a number of nutritional substances which can inhibit the same inflammatory processes that are specific to the genesis and progression of lymphoedema. They work on the same principle to reduce and reverse the damaging effects of inflammation on the lymphatic system.This book is intended to inform lymphoedema patients of the latest - and successful -research about this condition and how this this knowledge can be applied now by adapting the diet so that the inflammatory changes that fuel the progression of lymphoedema are inhibited.The author describes simply and clearly what causes the debilitaing changes and, just as simply, shows what can inhibit the underlying aetiology, through diet using foods and supplements which are easily available