Is there a role for contrast hydrotherapy ?

have passed since the first descriptions of lymph nodes in 500 BC, and lymph vessels in 300 BC (Ambrose, 2006), in relative terms the lymphatic system is still poorly understood. Indeed, as noted by Skandalakis et al (2007), 25 years ago the President of the International Society of Lymphology (ISL) stated, ‘It is perhaps rather unusual for an international society to feel that it is essential to draw attention to the very existence of its subject matter... such is the general lack of knowledge about the lymphatic system’. It seems that our desire to understand the structure and function of its seemingly more pathologically significant cousin, the vascular system, has taken precedence. Perhaps rightly so in light of the fact that vascular dysfunction is a more obvious cause of morbidity and mortality. Given emerging structural and functional interactions between the venous and lymphatic systems, and the pivotal role being published in the last 10 years. This explosion of knowledge is relevant to the concepts presented in this paper, as it has provided the scientific evidence giving biological plausibility.