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Manual Lymphatic Drainage (MLD) is a specialized massage technique aimed at stimulating the lymphatic system.
This system is responsible for maintaining fluid balance, supporting immune function, and removing waste products from the body.
MLD involves gentle, rhythmic strokes that encourage the movement of lymph fluid, which can help reduce swelling, improve circulation, and enhance overall health.
How is MLD Applied?
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• MLD is a slow, rhythmical touch applied by the therapist in the form of a light massage. It is incredibly relaxing; some patients fall asleep during treatment.
• It has a calming, anti-stress effect which can facilitate the easing of  pain and the reduction of blood pressure. It can also stimulate the immune defence system within the body.
• It brings about a change in the autonomic nervous system, lowering the "Sympathetic" nervous system (daytime / flight nerves) and accentuating the night / rest nerves of the "Parasympathetic" nervous system.
• MLD reduces pain by exciting the "touch receptors" in the skin which produce an inhibitory or blocking signal to the brain, with the correct application.

 

Anyone from teenagers, adults to older people can benefit from Osteopathy. A range of treatment methods are used depending on the age and individual condition of the person.

Benefits of Osteopathy may include relief from pain and assistance to help the body  function better in a number of ways. These include improved mobility  more ease with walking and other movements feeling more relaxed and sleeping better.
Though well known for treating joints, osteopaths work with many other components of the body including muscles, tendons, ligaments, soft tissues, and nerves.

Additionally, sessions involve giving advice on ways to manage a condition such as advice on posture, walking, safe lifting techniques sometimes specific strengthening exercises to do at home.
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Conditions often helped by osteopaths include:

• General aches and pains.
• Joint pain including shoulder hip and knee pain.
• Tingling numbness and pain in hands or arms
• Neck and upper back restriction, headaches and migraines.
• Stress and tension, poor sleep.
• Lower and upper back pain and restriction
• Sciatica
• Osteo and inflammatory arthritis,
• Stiffness, poor mobility and other problems associated with aging.

​It’s guiding principles have a basis in the healing power of nature believing that:

“The body is not a machine but a vital living organism with a normal tendency towards self-healing, elimination and health” and that: “Health is not merely an absence of disease but a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing.” (1)

In contrary to conventional medicine’s use of pharmaceuticals to treat pathogens osteopaths believed that disease developed due to certain factors lowering the vital force of a person affecting their capacity to heal.

Some of the ways that the early osteopaths and currently Classical School osteopaths aim to encourage the vital processes is through:

• Releasing contracted muscles and other tissues,
• Helping underactive tissues to contract
• Adjusting and balancing joints, bones, ligaments and tendons to each other and to the rest of the body.
• Release of peripheral nerves and nerve centres to relax tight tissues and improve flow to tissues lacking sensation and strength.

Another important principle of osteopathy stems from their belief that it is impossible to treat a painful or injured area in isolation and that it is necessary to address the problem as part of the whole body. The body adapts to a painful knee for example; however, this affects other parts causing pain and loss of rhythm and coordination in walking and other movements.

The aim of treatment is to assist in restoring rhythm and coordination as well as achieving a stable, unified structure for long term recovery.

(1) What is classical osteopathy?