Healing time with Lisa

October is Fire Prevention Month 🔥🏠
It’s a good reminder to check the little things that can make a big difference—test your smoke alarms, keep an eye on electrical cords and outlets, and make sure your family has a fire escape plan.

Another helpful tool is Ting, available to eligible State Farm customers at no extra cost. It monitors your home’s electrical system and can help detect potential hazards before they become bigger problems. https://www.statefarm.com/insurance/ting-fire-safety

A few simple precautions can go a long way when it comes to fire safety!

🚪💧 LYMPHIES… YOUR LYMPH HAS ONE-WAY DOORS!

Yes. Actual tiny valves.

And they are sitting inside your collecting lymphatic vessels helping lymph travel in the right direction. 🤯

Most people imagine the lymphatic system as a network of little tubes where fluid simply “flows.”

But your lymphatic vessels are far more sophisticated than that.

Let’s zoom in. 🔬💚

💧 FIRST… HOW DOES FLUID BECOME LYMPH?

Your cells live surrounded by fluid called interstitial fluid.

Some of this fluid enters tiny initial lymphatic capillaries.

Once it enters the lymphatic system…

✨ we call it LYMPH.

From there, lymph begins its journey through progressively larger lymphatic vessels.

But there’s a problem…

Gravity exists.

Pressure changes.

Your body moves.

So how does your lymphatic system help stop lymph from simply moving backwards?

🚪 ENTER THE ONE-WAY VALVES.

Inside collecting lymphatic vessels are delicate valves that help maintain directional lymph flow.

Here’s the clever part:

1️⃣ Pressure causes the valve ahead to open.

💧 Lymph moves forward.

2️⃣ The valve behind closes, helping prevent backflow.

3️⃣ The next valve opens and lymph continues its journey.

Open. ➡️
Move. ➡️
Close. 🚪
Repeat.

But WAIT…

It gets even cooler. 🤓

💚 THE SPACE BETWEEN TWO VALVES HAS ITS OWN NAME.

It’s called a:

✨ LYMPHANGION ✨

A lymphangion is a functional pumping segment of a collecting lymphatic vessel between two valves.

And unlike the idea that lymphatic vessels are just passive little pipes…

collecting lymphatic vessels contain smooth muscle and can contract rhythmically.

🤯🤯🤯

These intrinsic contractions help propel lymph from one segment toward the next.

Movement, breathing and changes in surrounding tissue pressure can also influence lymph transport.

So when you hear:

❌ “The lymphatic system doesn’t have a pump.”

There is an important bit of context missing.

It is true that the lymphatic system does not have one central pump like the heart.

BUT…

💚 Collecting lymphatic vessels can actively contract.

💚 Lymphangions function as pumping units.

💚 One-way valves help limit backflow.

💚 External forces such as muscle movement and breathing also contribute to lymph transport.

Your lymphatic system isn’t just a bunch of passive drainage tubes.

It is a dynamic biological transport network.

And all day long, without you thinking about it…

tiny valves are opening…

lymph is moving forward…

and those valves are closing behind it.

🚪💧🚪💧🚪

Your body is absolutely INCREDIBLE.

Now tell me, Lymphies…

👇👇👇

BEFORE TODAY, DID YOU KNOW YOUR LYMPHATIC VESSELS HAD ONE-WAY VALVES?

💚 YES! I knew!

😲 NO! You just taught me something!

I want to see how many people knew this one! 😂👇

🌿 Educational note: This post explains general lymphatic anatomy and physiology for educational purposes. It is not intended to diagnose, treat or provide individual medical advice.

Restless feet. Low energy by 3pm. Sore shoulders after a long day. Sound familiar — or does it sound like someone you know?

Nikken’s Magnetic Technology is designed to support everyday comfort, balance and daily vitality, one small habit at a time — worn as insoles and jewelry.

Send this to someone who needs a little more balance in their day. 🧲💛

Only 5 spots remain! 💚

Join us October 10 for a restorative sound bath experience featuring Songs of Serenity Healing. 🎵

Registration is required to save your spot.
Come as you are. Leave a little lighter. ✨

Craniosacral Therapy for peace, calm & clarity! Your decisions now create your future!

Depression has long been linked with cognitive decline, and years ago it was found that antidepressants are associated with increased neurogenesis, so new research showing that depression is associated with loss of the ability to produce new neurons (neurogenesis) makes sense. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260823094135.htm

Living near a dry cleaner was associated with a 14% increased risk of Parkinson’s. Dry cleaners use chemicals such as PCE, which increases risk for Parkinson’s. This builds on previous research showing increased risk from living in proximity to a golf course, and highlights the role of pollution in neurodegenerative diseases. https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/living-near-dry-cleaner-tied-14-increased-risk-parkinsons-2026a1000rhy

Today is World Alzheimer’s Day, a solemn day for all of us to acknowledge the magnitude of this global, growing problem. However, it is also a celebratory day, a day for us to recognize the increasing number of healthy survivors and to take stock of the many recent advances.

Dementia was described over 2500 years ago by Ayurvedic practitioners, and well known by both the Greek and Roman cultures, with Emperor Marcus Aurelius writing a particularly insightful description. Dr. Alois Alzheimer, as well as Dr. Oskar Fischer, described the pathology associated with what we now refer to as Alzheimer’s disease. When I published the subtypes of Alzheimer’s in 2015, I had no idea that Ayurvedic physicians had described similar subtypes 2000 years ago!

Down through the ages, there has been nothing to do to bring about sustained cognitive improvement in patients with Alzheimer’s, but this has changed radically in the last 15 years. Prior to that, the typical course would be that someone would complain about memory loss, the physician would say that it was probably just due to aging, run some basic tests such as vitamin B12 and thyroid, obtain an MRI without key volumetrics or blood flow analyses, and tell the patient that, if it turns out to be Alzheimer’s, there is nothing that can be done anyway. There were no biomarkers, no precision medicine, no clinical trials showing cognitive improvement, and no documented long-term cognitive amelioration. The accepted opinion, which many still believe, was that “there is nothing that will prevent, reverse, or delay Alzheimer’s.” It was a hopeless situation.

Now, just 15 years later, look how much has changed: we have accurate biomarkers such as p-tau 217, allowing early and accurate diagnosis, as well as a guide for follow-up; MRI volumetrics, ASL (arterial spin labeling), and DTI (diffusion tensor imaging), increasing sensitivity for even modest atrophy, blood flow alterations, and white matter tracts, respectively, all of which offer a much more accurate picture of brain structure; sensitive on-line tests for cognitive status; and a plethora of data—including three successful clinical trials and hundreds of documented improvements—showing that cognitive decline can indeed be reversed (the earlier the better of course, but even in later stages reversal has been documented) and the gains sustained, by using a precision medicine approach in which the various contributors are identified and targeted by well-trained teams of practitioners and health coaches.

Rapid progress continues, and we are now at the point when, if everyone would be evaluated early—while asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic—and begin optimal prevention or early treatment—we could all make the dementia of Alzheimer’s a truly rare condition. Now that is something to celebrate on this World Alzheimer’s Day.