{"id":13037,"date":"2019-05-14T15:05:26","date_gmt":"2019-05-14T19:05:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalwellnessinstitute.org\/?post_type=modality&#038;p=13037"},"modified":"2025-07-18T10:51:31","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T14:51:31","slug":"manual-lymph-drainage","status":"publish","type":"modality","link":"https:\/\/globalwellnessinstitute.org\/wellnessevidence\/manual-lymph-drainage\/","title":{"rendered":"Manual Lymph Drainage"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Definition of Manual Lymph Drainage<\/h2>\n<div class=\"wp-block-atomic-blocks-ab-columns ab-layout-columns-2 ab-2-col-wideright\">\n<div class=\"ab-layout-column-wrap ab-block-layout-column-gap-2 ab-is-responsive-column\">\n<div class=\"ab-block-layout-column\">\n<div class=\"ab-block-layout-column-inner\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-30026 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/globalwellnessinstitute.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/lymphaticdrainage-crop-1-300x209.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"209\" srcset=\"https:\/\/globalwellnessinstitute.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/lymphaticdrainage-crop-1-300x209.jpg 300w, https:\/\/globalwellnessinstitute.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/lymphaticdrainage-crop-1-600x418.jpg 600w, https:\/\/globalwellnessinstitute.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/lymphaticdrainage-crop-1.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ab-block-layout-column\">\n<div class=\"ab-block-layout-column-inner\">\n<p><strong>Manual Lymph Drainage:<\/strong> a form of massage designed to assist the function of the lymphatic system by the application of slow, light, and repetitive strokes that help move lymph fluid through the system of vessels and nodes.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Explore Manual Lymph Drainage research in the following databases:\u00a0<br \/><\/strong><strong><a class=\"sqs-block-button-element\" style=\"padding: 1em 1em;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed?term=Manual%20Lymph%20Drainage%20\">PubMed<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0<strong><a class=\"sqs-block-button-element\" style=\"padding: 1em 1em;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tripdatabase.com\/Searchresult?criteria=manual%20lymph%20drainage&amp;search_type=standard\">Trip<\/a><\/strong> \u00a0<strong><a class=\"sqs-block-button-element\" style=\"padding: 1em 1em;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cochranelibrary.com\/advanced-search?cookiesEnabled\">Cochrane*<\/a><\/strong><br \/><span style=\"font-size: 12px;\">*The Cochrane database requires users to enter the search term manually. Enter \u201cmanual lymph drainage\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><span data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">AI Search:<\/span><\/b> Access Semantic Scholar\u2019s results on manual lymph drainage.<br \/><strong><a class=\"sqs-block-button-element\" style=\"padding: 1em 1em;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.semanticscholar.org\/search?q=manual%20lymph%20drainage&amp;sort=relevance\"><span data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">Semantic Scholar<\/span><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Learn more about our<span data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">\u00a0<\/span>3 research databases and AI search platform\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/globalwellnessinstitute.org\/wellnessevidence\/research-databases\/\">HERE<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/globalwellnessinstitute.org\/wellnessevidence\/manual-lymph-drainage\/manual-lymph-drainage-research\/\"><\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/globalwellnessinstitute.org\/wellnessevidence\/manual-lymph-drainage\/manual-lymph-drainage-research\/\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Research Spotlight<\/h3>\n<p>The databases often return hundreds of medical studies for a single wellness approach. This section summarizes a sampling of five studies \u2013 providing just a taste of the available research.\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Korean study: MLD Helps Reduce Patient Stress<\/strong><br \/>A small, preliminary study (Korea, 2014) indicated that manual lymph drainage performed on the neck in subjects with psychological stress resulted in brain changes: an energy shift in the alpha frequency band from the left hemisphere to the right hemisphere, resulting in greater left-side activation, which could be related to the positive emotional state observed post-treatment. Very preliminary findings suggest that frontal EEG asymmetry was attenuated after MLD.<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC3996415\/\">Access this Manual Lymph Drainage study<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>Manual Lymph Drainage (MLD) Significantly Reduced Hand Edema and Increased Function in Patients with Systemic Sclerosis<\/strong><br \/>A five-week study of sclerosis patients using the Vodder MLD technique showed significant improvement at the end of treatment in hand edema and function \u2013 and perception of quality of life compared to the control group.<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/21523925?dopt=Abstract\">Access this Manual Lymph Drainage study<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>Manual Lymph Drainage Works in Preventing Lymphedema<\/strong><br \/>A clinical trial (120 women) who had surgery for breast cancer that involved dissection of lymph nodes demonstrated that early physiotherapy, including manual lymph drainage, massage of scar tissue and shoulder exercises, was significantly effective in preventing secondary lymphedema.<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/20068255\">Access this Manual Lymph Drainage study<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>Taiwan study: MLD Helps Mitigate Swelling in Breast Cancer Patients<\/strong><br \/>A systematic review by Taipei Medical University (2013, 10 randomized clinical trials, 566 patients), found that 7\/10 studies assessed manual lymph drainage\u2019s reduction in arm volume for patients with breast-cancer-related lymphedema. But the researchers concluded that the clinical\/statistical inconsistencies between the studies confounded their evaluation of MLD\u2019s effect, arguing that current RCTS do not support the use of MLD as a lymphedema treatment.<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed?term=23347817\">Access this Manual Lymph Drainage study<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>Adding Manual Lymph Drainage Massage to Compression Therapy Beneficial to Cancer-Related Lymphedema<\/strong><br \/>A systematic review of the medical evidence by the University of Alberta (Canada) concluded that for breast cancer patients, a statistically significant benefit comes from adding manual lymph drainage massage to compression therapy for upper extremity lymphedema volume.<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/21381006\">Access this Manual Lymph Drainage study<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/globalwellnessinstitute.org\/wellnessevidence\/manual-lymph-drainage\/manual-lymph-drainage-spotlight\/\"><strong>Read more study snapshots<\/strong><\/a>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/globalwellnessinstitute.org\/wellnessevidence\/manual-lymph-drainage\/manual-lymph-drainage-research\/\"><\/a><\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/globalwellnessinstitute.org\/wellnessevidence\/manual-lymph-drainage\/manual-lymph-drainage-research\/\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Studies-in-Progress\/Clinical Trials Underway<\/h3>\n<p>A clinical trial is any research study that assigns people to health-related interventions to evaluate the outcomes. \u201cInterventions\u201d include drugs, surgical procedures, devices, behavioral treatments, preventive care, etc.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"margin-bottom: 0 !important;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/clinicaltrials.gov\/ct2\/results?term=Manual%20Lymph%20Drainage\">ClinicalTrials.gov<\/a>: explore trials underway in the U.S.<\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-bottom: 0 !important;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/trialsearch.who.int\/Default.aspx\">World Health Organization<\/a>: explore trials happening across the globe. When you reach WHO\u2019s search page, please type in \u201cmanual lymph drainage.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Access all studies currently available for Manual Lymph Drainage in these databases:<\/h3>\n<p><strong><a class=\"sqs-block-button-element\" style=\"padding: 1em 1em;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed?term=Manual%20Lymph%20Drainage%20\">PubMed<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0<strong><a class=\"sqs-block-button-element\" style=\"padding: 1em 1em;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tripdatabase.com\/Searchresult?criteria=manual%20lymph%20drainage&amp;search_type=standard\">Trip<\/a><\/strong> \u00a0<strong><a class=\"sqs-block-button-element\" style=\"padding: 1em 1em;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cochranelibrary.com\/advanced-search?cookiesEnabled\">Cochrane*<\/a> \u00a0<a class=\"sqs-block-button-element\" style=\"padding: 1em 1em;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.semanticscholar.org\/search?q=manual%20lymph%20drainage&amp;sort=relevance\"><span data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">Semantic Scholar<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12px;\">*The Cochrane database requires users to enter the search term manually. Enter \u201cmanual lymph drainage\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns has-3-columns\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\"><!-- \/wp:post-content --><\/div>\n<\/div>\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Definition of Manual Lymph Drainage Research Spotlight The databases often return hundreds of medical studies for a single wellness approach. This section summarizes a sampling of five studies \u2013 providing just a taste of the available research.\u00a0 Korean study: MLD Helps Reduce Patient StressA small, preliminary study (Korea, 2014) indicated that manual lymph drainage performed on the neck in subjects with psychological stress resulted in&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":8,"template":"","categories":[],"class_list":["post-13037","modality","type-modality","status-publish","hentry","wpautop","clearfix"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Manual Lymph Drainage - Global Wellness Institute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/globalwellnessinstitute.org\/wellnessevidence\/manual-lymph-drainage\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Manual Lymph Drainage - Global Wellness Institute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Definition of Manual Lymph Drainage Research Spotlight The databases often return hundreds of medical studies for a single wellness approach. This section summarizes a sampling of five studies \u2013 providing just a taste of the available research.\u00a0 Korean study: MLD Helps Reduce Patient StressA small, preliminary study (Korea, 2014) indicated that manual lymph drainage performed on the neck in subjects with psychological stress resulted in&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/globalwellnessinstitute.org\/wellnessevidence\/manual-lymph-drainage\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Global Wellness Institute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-18T14:51:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/globalwellnessinstitute.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/lymphaticdrainage-crop-1-300x209.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/globalwellnessinstitute.org\/wellnessevidence\/manual-lymph-drainage\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/globalwellnessinstitute.org\/wellnessevidence\/manual-lymph-drainage\/\",\"name\":\"Manual Lymph Drainage - Global Wellness Institute\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/globalwellnessinstitute.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/globalwellnessinstitute.org\/wellnessevidence\/manual-lymph-drainage\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/globalwellnessinstitute.org\/wellnessevidence\/manual-lymph-drainage\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/globalwellnessinstitute.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/lymphaticdrainage-crop-1-300x209.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-05-14T19:05:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-18T14:51:31+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/globalwellnessinstitute.org\/wellnessevidence\/manual-lymph-drainage\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/globalwellnessinstitute.org\/wellnessevidence\/manual-lymph-drainage\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/globalwellnessinstitute.org\/wellnessevidence\/manual-lymph-drainage\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/globalwellnessinstitute.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/lymphaticdrainage-crop-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/globalwellnessinstitute.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/lymphaticdrainage-crop-1.jpg\",\"width\":768,\"height\":535},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/globalwellnessinstitute.org\/wellnessevidence\/manual-lymph-drainage\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/globalwellnessinstitute.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Manual Lymph Drainage\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/globalwellnessinstitute.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/globalwellnessinstitute.org\/\",\"name\":\"Global Wellness Institute\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/globalwellnessinstitute.org\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/globalwellnessinstitute.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/globalwellnessinstitute.org\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Global Wellness Institute\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/globalwellnessinstitute.org\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/globalwellnessinstitute.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/globalwellnessinstitute.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/GWIlogosocialmedia.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/globalwellnessinstitute.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/GWIlogosocialmedia.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":668,\"caption\":\"Global Wellness Institute\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/globalwellnessinstitute.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Manual Lymph Drainage - Global Wellness Institute","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/globalwellnessinstitute.org\/wellnessevidence\/manual-lymph-drainage\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Manual Lymph Drainage - Global Wellness Institute","og_description":"Definition of Manual Lymph Drainage Research Spotlight The databases often return hundreds of medical studies for a single wellness approach. 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