Lymph System (Rasa Dhatu)

Dear Lovely People,

Happy May, I hope you all notice some gorgeous flowers blooming around you and feel the sun's rays grow stronger.

This month we will be focusing on the lymph system. Each day, about 20 liters of plasma flow through our circulatory system, carrying nutrients to the tissues and cells and moving waste products away from the cells.

From the Western medicine perspective, the lymphatic system consists of lymph fluid, lymph nodes, lymphatic vessels, lymphatic ducts, spleen, thymus, tonsils, adenoid, bone marrow, Peyer's patches, and appendix. These tissues and organs communicate with each other and move this watery lymph fluid (or plasma) around our circulatory system.

The main functions of our lymphatic system are:

1. Protect against foreign invaders

2. Remove and transports waste products(including abnormal cells).

3. Absorb fats and proteins from our intestines and transport them back to our bloodstream.

4. Maintain and balance fluids in our bodies.

In Ayurveda, we refer to the lymph system as Rasa. This word means "juice" or "taste" in Sanskrit. Rasa is comparable to the lymph or plasma of the body, and it is rich in nutrition and feeds the other tissues of the body. According to the ancient text of Caraka, Rasa is the liquid food in the bloodstream (su 28 #5 Caraka).