The lymphatic system comes up a lot in things related to cancer. It never showed up in high school biology or textbooks. I know that it involves the fluid known as ‘lymph’ but I don’t really understand what lymph is even after researching it.
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There’s a lot of posts saying it’s a highway for the immune system. This isn’t really the case. Your immune system is everywhere and a lot of your immune system is inherently part of your circulatory system.
At its most fundamental, lymph is there to collect fluid that leaves your blood vessels. Water leaves your blood vessels to go into your tissues. When there’s a bit too much it has to go back to the blood and it does through your lymphatic system.
Because the lymph system just passively pushes things it’s a great place to park immune cells. They hang out in your lymph nodes waiting to detect any issues with your tissues from the fluid passing through.
In the end it all gets dumped back in your blood near your heart for recirculation.
Without the lymphatic system, your tissues would swell up super easy, and your immune system wouldn’t be as effective.
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