Cupping

Many people have become more familiar in recent times with the practice of acupuncture. They may not realize that acupuncture is based on a holistic and extensively practiced theory explaining how the body functions. Based on this perspective, acupuncture is considered one of the “five branches of Traditional Chinese Medicine”. The other branches include herbal medicine, nutrition, exercise, and massage. There are various techniques considered part of the specialty of massage, including cupping.

Using Cups for Our Health

Cupping is a technique that has been used for around two thousand years as a part of Chinese Medicine to treat various illnesses and conditions. One of the earliest documentations of cupping can be found in the work titled, “A Handbook of Prescriptions for Emergencies”, which dates all the way back to around 300 A.D. in China. It has been called a “fire jar,” because typically a small flame, usually a cotton ball dipped in alcohol, is put momentarily in a glass cup which may vary in size from a golf ball to a baseball. This takes the oxygen from inside the cup and creates a vacuum as it’s quickly placed on the skin, causing suction. The skin and superficial muscle layer are drawn into and held in the cup. Aside from glass, bamboo cups can be used for this but hollowed out animal horns were originally used.

The cup may feel warm from the flame but there will not be any burning sensation. The suction is usually a pleasant, pulling feeling. The muscle tissue is pulled upward into the cup, helping to break up the tension and improve circulation throughout the area. You may envision massage as more of a downward pressure to disperse congestion while cupping creates an upward pull. Drawing up the skin opens up the skin’s pores, which helps to stimulate the flow of blood, breaks up obstructions, and creates an avenue for toxins to be drawn out of the body.

What Does Cupping Treat?

Cupping is a great deep tissue therapy. It’s understood to affect tissues up to four inches deeper than the skin layer. Inflammation and swelling can be cleared, toxins are released, and veins and arteries can be refreshed within this depth of affected materials. The technique is used to relieve back and neck pain, stiff muscles, migraines, and joint pain. Cupping is also valuable for the lungs, as it can clear congestion from a common cold or bronchitis, and help control asthma. In the earliest Chinese documentation of cupping, it was recommended for the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis. It’s helpful in these musculoskeletal and respiratory conditions because of its ability to move congestion. Before placing the cups, salve may be applied on the skin to allow for the cups to move easily over the area. In this way, a cup can affect a larger area. An example of using this moving cupping technique may be to alleviate muscle strain in the lower back.

Depending on the reason for treatment, there may be one to twenty cups used of various sizes, left in place for around twenty minutes. When the skin under a cup is drawn up, the blood vessels at the surface of the skin expand. This may result in small, circular markings on the areas where the cups were applied. These are usually painless, however, and disappear within a few days of treatment. You may remember seeing these markings at the Beijing Olympics on the backs of the swimmers, most likely to manage muscular strain or to keep the muscles loose. On certain occasions, cupping should not be used. It shouldn’t be done on inflamed skin, in cases when there is a high fever, or on patients who bleed easily. A pregnant woman should not have cupping on her abdomen or lower back.

The Body Is Not In Separated Parts

Don’t forget that the body is a continuous network, not just of the channels of energy that Chinese Medicine focuses on, but also of all the tissues and organs. There isn’t a beginning and an endpoint in the body; it’s interconnected. By affecting the surface through cupping, amongst other techniques, we can affect the local area, the internal workings, and the body as a whole.