By Dave Scrivens, Certified Lymphologist, Well Being Journal, Vol. 17, No. 3. 
​​The body has a built-in need for activation. The lymph system, for example, bathes every cell, carrying nutrients to the cell and waste products away. Yet the lymph is totally dependent on physical exercise to move.Without adequate movement, the cells are left stewing in their own waste products and starving for nutrients, a situation that contributes to arthritis, cancer and other degenerative diseases. Vigorous exercise such as rebounding [jumping on a therapeutic mini-trampoline] is reported to increase lymph flow by 15 to 30 times. Also, bones become stronger with exercise.
Vertical motion workouts such as rebounding are much different and much more beneficial and efficient than horizontal motion workouts, such as jogging or running.
The lymph fluid moves through channels called “vessels” that are filled with one-way valves, so it always moves in the same direction. The main lymph vessels run up the legs, up the arms and up the torso. This is why the vertical up-and-down movement of rebounding is so effective to pump the lymph.
Rebounding For Detoxification And Immune System BenefitsThe rebounding motion stimulates all internal organs, moves the cerebral-spinal fluid and the aqueous fluid within the eyes (many people claim improved eyesight), and does wonders for the intestines. Many immune cells such as T-lymphocytes and macrophages are self-propelled by amoebic action. These cells contain molecules identical to those in muscle tissue. All cells in the body become stronger in response to the increased G-force during rebounding, and this cellular exercise results in the self-propelled immune cells being up to five times more active. The job description of these cells includes eating viruses, bacteria and even cancer cells, so it is good that they be active. This exercise directly strengthens the immune system.
Rebounding is an exercise that reduces your body fat; firms your legs, thighs, abdomen, arms, and hips; increases your agility; and improves your sense of balance. Rebounding strengthens your muscles overall, provides an aerobic effect for your heart, rejuvenates your body when it’s tired, and generally puts you in a state of health and fitness.
Jumping on a rebounder is remarkably gentle on the joints. There’s no solid ground to suddenly stop the bouncing of your feet. Your movements are perfectly safe, and they make the effect of gravity beneficial.

Some benefits of rebounding include:
• 20 minutes of rebounding = 1 hour of running for cardiovascular workout
• Easy on the bones and joints (when using a therapeutic rebounder)
• Rebounding strengthens the heart muscle
• Profound body detoxification is possible
By working against constant gravitational pressure while bouncing, you resist Earth’s pull. Your resistance is subtle, but it builds cellular strength. Rebounding’s alternating weightlessness and double gravity produce a pumping action that pulls out waste products from the cells and forces into them oxygen and nutrition from the bloodstream.
The Detoxification Effect of ReboundingThe lymphatic system is the metabolic garbage can of the body. It rids you of toxins such as dead and cancerous cells, nitrogenous wastes, infectious viruses, heavy metals, and other assorted junk cast off by the cells. The movement performed in rebounding provides the stimulus for a free-flowing system that drains away these potential poisons.
Unlike the arterial system, the lymphatic system does not have its own pump. It has no heart muscle to move the fluid around through its lymph vessels. There are just three ways to activate the flow of lymph away from the tissues it serves and back into the main pulmonary circulation. Lymphatic flow requires muscular contraction from exercise and movement, gravitational pressure, and internal massage to the valves of lymph ducts. Rebounding supplies all three methods of removing waste products from the cells and from the body.
The Muscular Effect of ReboundingJames White, Ph.D., director of research and rehabilitation in the physical education department at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD), has explained how jumping for health offers a true physical strengthening effect to the muscles.
“Rebounding allows the muscles to go through the full range of motion at equal force. It helps people learn to shift their weight properly and to be aware of body positions and balance,” says White.
An advocate of rebounding for athletic conditioning, White uses the rebounder in his rehabilitation program at UCSD. “When you jump, jog, and twist on this [jumping] device, you can exercise for hours without getting tired. It’s great practice for skiing, it improves your tennis stroke, and it’s a good way to burn off calories and lose weight,” says White.
“My students tell me it’s so much fun that they often exercise on the rebounders for their own enjoyment.”
White adds that jumping for health is more effective for fitness and weight loss than cycling, running or jogging, and it has the added advantage of producing fewer injuries.
The gentle bounce of rebounding is effective in returning natural, regular bowel movements to chronically constipated persons. The steady bounce sets up a pulsating rhythm transmitted by the nervous system to the brain area responsible for regulating the intestinal system, which reestablishes one’s rhythmical bowel activity. Digestion is improved as well.
It is important to realize that as you age, your body may become more toxic due to the pollutants in today’s world. It is also important to realize that if you have a disease, your cellular structure is compromised, as your cells are already being robbed of the correct oxygen, mineral and nutrient compounds that they need to stay healthy.
Rebounding is beneficial, but other commonsense health practices are also important to maximize health and well-being.
About the Author:
Dave Scrivens, certified lymphologist, is Canada’s first full-time practicing lymphologist, and is co-author (with Philipa Corning, Ph.D.) of “The Importance of Mobilizing the Lymphatic System,” published in Quest (Winter edition, 2006), a Canadian journal that focuses on remedies for fibromyalgia, myalgic encephalomylitis, and chronic fatigue syndrome.

​It is estimated that anywhere from 30-100% of Americans, depending upon their age and community living environments, are deficient in Vitamin D.  More than half of all American children are vitamin deficient and worldwide, it is estimated that the epidemic of Vitamin D deficiency affects one billion people.  ​In my practice, when I have strongly urged my clients to get their levels checked with a simple blood test, 80% of them are deficient.  As a matter of fact, when I had my own level checked I was shocked to find that although I was in the sun quite often and even took a small amount of Vitamin D as a supplement, my level was 18, dramatically below the recommended level of 50-70 ng/ml.  

A growing body of evidence shows that vitamin D plays a crucial role in disease prevention and maintaining optimal health. There are about 30,000 genes in your body, and vitamin D affects nearly 3,000 of them, as well as vitamin D receptors located throughout your body.   Researchers have pointed out that increasing levels of vitamin D3 among the general population could prevent chronic diseases that claim nearly one million lives throughout the world each year. Incidence of several types of cancer could also be slashed in half. As mentioned by Dr. Holick, one of the Nurses' Health Studies showed that nurses who had the highest blood levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D, averaging about 50 ng/ml, reduced their risk of developing breast cancer by as much as 50 percent. Similarly, a Canadian study done by Dr. Knight showed that women who reported having the most sun exposure as a teenager and young adult had almost a 70 percent reduced risk of developing breast cancer. Dr. Holick noted:
"Studies have shown that if you improve your vitamin D status, it reduces risk of colorectal cancer, prostate cancer, and a whole host of other deadly cancers by 30 to 50 percent. You're correct. Cancer is a big deal. You need to realize that vitamin D is playing a very important role in helping to maintain cell growth and to help fight cancer when a cancer cell is developing in your body."
Vitamin D also fights infections, including colds and the flu, as it regulates the expression of genes that influence your immune system to attack and destroy bacteria and viruses. In this interview above, Dr. Holick expounds on these and many other health benefits of vitamin D. For instance, optimizing your vitamin D levels can help protect against:

• Cardiovascular disease. Vitamin D is very important for reducing hypertension, atherosclerotic heart disease, heart attack, and stroke. According to Dr. Holick, one study showed that vitamin D deficiency increased the risk of heart attack by 50 percent. What's worse, if you have a heart attack and you're vitamin D deficient, your risk of dying from that heart attack creeps up to nearly 100 percent!
• Autoimmune diseases. Vitamin D is a potent immune modulator, making it very important for the prevention of autoimmune diseases, like multiple sclerosis and inflammatory bowel disease.
• Infections, including influenza. It also helps you fight infections of all kinds. A study done in Japan, for example, showed that schoolchildren taking 1,200 units of vitamin D per day during winter reduced their risk of getting influenza A infection by about 40 percent. I believe it's far more prudent, safer, less expensive, and most importantly, far more effective to optimize your vitamin D levels than to get vaccinated against the flu.
• DNA repair and metabolic processes. One of Dr. Holick's studies showed that healthy volunteers taking 2,000 IUs of vitamin D per day for a few months up-regulated 291 different genes that control up to 80 different metabolic processes, from improving DNA repair to having effect on autoxidation (oxidation that occurs in the presence of oxygen and/or UV radiation, which has implications for aging and cancer, for example), boosting your immune system and many other biological processes.

How Much Vitamin D Do You Need for Optimal Health?  When it comes to vitamin D, you don't want to be in the "average" or "normal" range, you want to be in the "optimal" range. The reason for this is that as the years have gone by, researchers have progressively moved that range upward. At present, based on the evaluation of healthy populations that get plenty of natural sun exposure, the optimal range for general health appears to be somewhere between 50 and 70 ng/ml. As for how to optimize your vitamin D levels, appropriate sun exposure is the best way.  Generally speaking, this will be when your skin turns the lightest shade of pink or, as Dr. Holick recommends, about half of the time you suspect it would take you to get a mild sunburn (So if you know you tend to get sunburned after 30 minutes, you'd want to stay in the sun for about 15 minutes). How long you need to stay in the sun varies greatly depending on the factors such as age, use of sunscreen, time of day, skin color or current level of tan, and season.  Oftentimes, however, our D3 level is still too low and our disease defense walls are down.

Get Your Vitamin D Levels Tested
How do you know if your vitamin D level is in the right range? The most important factor is having your vitamin D serum level tested every six months, as people vary widely in their response to ultraviolet exposure or oral D3 supplementation. The test is called 25(OH)D, also called 25-hydroxyvitamin D, and you can have it done by virtually any physician. You should test at your highest point, which (if you live in the US) is typically in August and again at your lowest point, which is usually February. Knowing your vitamin D levels is one of the most important tests you can take, so please, if you haven't checked your levels before, do it now -- I cannot stress the importance of this enough.  When I found mine to be only 18, I began taking 25,000 IU a day and then retested my blood serum level after 2 months.  It rose to 74.  After that I have used a maintenance level of 10-15,000 IU per day, depending on the time of year.  Some of my clients choose to stay on 25,000/day without having their blood level checked as I had recommended and when they were tested, found that the level had risen well over 100.  Again, I highly recommend checking it after 2 months to see how your body is adjusting and then backing down the dose to a maintenance level.  Too much of a good thing is a bad thing and levels must be checked, as there is no way to guess.  Hypervitaminosis D is a rare but potentially serious condition. It occurs when you take in too much vitamin D and it is usually the result of taking high-dose vitamin D supplements for long periods of time.  

Ask your physician to order the blood test for you or you can add it to your screening at the 9-News Health Fair without a doctor's order.  It is simple, inexpensive, easy and way too important to overlook when developing your health and wellness plan.  Contact me directly if you would like to book an appointment for a health and wellness consultation/goal development plan.  It's time for me to get out in the sun now and get away from the computer awhile!  Enjoy your day.

Thank you for joining me for my first blog post!  I am branching out from my beautiful mountain town of Buena Vista and now will be taking clients in my new office in the Reunion area at 13875 E. 104th Ave., Ste. 600 (A Touch of Wellness studio), Commerce City, Colorado  80022.  I have found that it is much easier to sit still and let clients come to me rather than driving all over Denver for individual home visits!  

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