CUPPING AND TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE
Traditional Chinese medicine brings to mind acupuncture and the use of natural herbs as healing remedies. Cupping is a lesser-known treatment that is also part of Oriental medicine, one that can provide an especially pleasant experience. One of the earliest documentations of cupping can be found in the work titled A Handbook of Prescriptions for Emergencies, which was written by a Taoist herbalist by the name of Ge Hong and which dates all the way back to 300 AD.
Cupping is the term applied to a technique that uses small glass cups or in some cases plastic cups are used as suction devices that are placed on the skin. There are several ways that a practitioner can create the suction in the cups. One method is by using an alcohol-soaked cotton pad which is held with hemastats and then the pad is lit and placed quickly into and out of the cup. The cup is then immediately placed onto the skin. This method heats up the inside of the cup, drawing the oxygen out. As it is placed onto the skin the cooling action creates a strong vacuum or suction. Another more modern method is using a hand-held pump to pump the excess air out of the plastic cups to creat a vacuum.
Once the suction has occurred, the cups can be be kept in place or gently moved across the skin (often referred to as "gliding cupping"). The suction in the cups causes the skin and superficial muscle layer to be lightly drawn into the cup. Cupping is much like the inverse of massage - rather than applying pressure to muscles, it uses gentle pressure to pull them upward. For most patients, this is a particularly relaxing and relieving sensation. Once suctioned, the cups are generally left in place for about ten minutes while the patient relaxes. This is similar to the practice of Tui Na, a traditional Chinese medicine massage technique that targets acupuncture points as well as painful body parts, and is well known to provide relief through pressure.
Generally, cupping is combined with acupuncture, but it can also be used alone. The suction and negative pressure provided by cupping can loosen muscles, encourage blood flow, and sedate the nervous system (which makes it an excellent treatment for high blood pressure). Cupping is used to relieve back and neck pains, stiff muscles, anxiety, fatigue, migraines, rheumatism, and even cellulite.
Cupping is one of the best deep-tissue therapies available. It is thought to affect tissues up to four inches deep from the external skin. Toxins can be released, blockages can be cleared, and veins and arteries can be refreshed within these four inches of affected materials.
This treatment is also valuable for the lungs, and can clear congestion from a common cold or help to control a person's asthma. In fact, respiratory conditions are one of the most common maladies that cupping is used to relieve. Three thousand years ago, in the earliest Chinese documentation of cupping, it was recommended for the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis.
In our Colorado Springs office cupping is done by a licensed acupuncturists for a safe and effective treatment.
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