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The sensible practice of yoga does more than slap
a Happy Face on your cerebrum. It can also massage the lymph system,
says Dr. Mehmet Oz, a cardiac surgeon at New York Presbyterian Hospital
in Manhattan. Lymph is the body's dirty dishwater; a network of
lymphatic vessels and storage sacs crisscross over the entire body, in
parallel with the blood supply, carrying a fluid composed of
infection-fighting white blood cells and the waste products of cellular
activity. Exercise in general activates the flow of lymph through the
body, speeding up the filtering process; but yoga in particular promotes
the draining of the lymph. Certain yoga poses stretch muscles that from
animal studies are known to stimulate the lymph system. Researchers have
documented the increased lymph flow when dogs' paws are stretched in a
position similar to the yoga "downward-facing dog."
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