Dry brushing is an Ayurvedic medicinal technique of skin brushing with a natural hard bristle skin bush that helps the lymphatic drainage system flush itself of unwanted waste and toxins. It has been used for centuries.
Dry brushing also helps to gently exfoliate the skin, encourage blood flow, and restore firmness. It helps to invigorate the body and relax the nervous system.
About the Lymphatic System
The lymphatic system helps your body stay well and
keep your immunity high giving you the ability to easily fight off infections. Fluid
flows throughout your body and is filtered through your lymph nodes.
If you’re ill or have been exposed to toxins, the system often can become backed
up. This is why your lymph nodes can become swollen when you have a cold or an
infection.
Dry brushing can help the body release toxins by helping the system pump and flush the liquid that has the toxins in it. The coarse bristles stimulate the pores and open them up allowing the body to sweat more easily and release the contaminated water increasing the ability of lymphatic drainage.
Why could this helps potentially prevent breast cancer?
Though the lymph system is present throughout the entire body, we have a plethora of lymph nodes concentrated in the underarm/breast area. Our armpits have been designed to be one of the major sweat-release areas on the body. Unfortunately, due to societal standards, sweating is considered an undesirable trait. It can leave embarrassing stains under our arms on our shirts, as well as cause orders we would rather not be associated with. Because of this, many underarm deodorants are also combined with antiperspirant chemicals such as aluminum.
The Issue with Antiperspirants
These chemicals temporarily block the sweat from
escaping which is great news for our shirts and our social well-being, but not
so wonderful for our lymph glands trying to do their jobs. Though research has
been inconclusive, studies have found that aluminum present in many
antiperspirants can damage DNA and may interfere with estrogen. It was
also found via toxicology that some samples of breast tumors contained paraben
(also found in commercial deodorants). Research has also suggested that women
who use underarm cosmetic products (UCPs) several times a day starting before
age 30 may have an increased risk for breast cancer.
Tissue samples have shown that women diagnosed with breast cancer had more
aluminum in their breast tissue than control groups without cancerous cells.
Choosing a deodorant that is non-aluminum, non-paraben based is an excellent idea. Combined with dry brushing, while we do not have exact stats to confirm or deny this theory, common sense would tell you that if your body is able to easily flush waste, as it was intended, should cancerous cells develop it would give your body a greater fighting chance to heal and clear them if the lymph system is working at 100%.
Dry brushing on a regular basis, daily or weekly can greatly improve circulation and blood flow to the breast tissue, helping to keep it healthy.
References: https://www.komen.org/breast-cancer/diagnosis/factors-that-affect-prognosis/lymph-node-status/
https://breast-cancer-research.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/bcr2424
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14745841/https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16045991/
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