What is Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)? Traditional Chinese Medicine is a two thousand year old holistic natural medicine modality based in ancient China. Practitioners use acupuncture, herbal remedies, tuina massage, cupping and several mind-body practices, such as qigong exercise and tai chi to treat, prevent future health problems and bring the body back to balance.
Cupping is when you take either a glass or plastic “cup-shaped” tool and create a vacuum suction to attach them to the body. Glass cupping uses the traditional “fire cupping” method: a vacuum is created by quickly inserting and removing a burning cotton ball inside the cup, and then placing the cup on the preferred location, sealing it on the skin. For safety purposes, flames are kept far enough away that no heat is felt on the skin when using this method. Plastic cupping are usually attached to a hand pump to create the proper suction needed to keep the cups attached to the skin.
Which ever type of cup is used, the true work is done by the vacuum - it pulls and pinches a small patch of skin in the area that may be in pain, sore, or over-worked (such as for athletes). The most common place to use cupping is on the back and shoulders, but it has been known to help other muscular areas and scar tissue as well.
The cups are often placed along the energy meridians in the body that provide acupressure and acupuncture points used by acupuncturists, or where the patient dictates pain is present. The practitioner leaves the cups on the body for around five minutes, but can be left on for up to ten minutes in some cases. With several cups, they look almost like lightbulbs lining the body. Afterwards, there may be circular marks resembling bruises that could last a few days, but will fade within a week. They are not painful upon touch, solely a strong suction-style bruise.
The popularity of cupping has increased lately due to the American Olympic Swim team showing up at the Rio Olympics sporting the tell-tale circular bruises from cupping. Some interesting articles to check out regarding this are added below.
Intuitive Acupuncture and Wellness considers cupping an important tool in helping deal with any back pain complaints or chronic illness. The added bonus is it also tends to increase a sense of calm and relaxation for a patient. Call today to inquire if acupuncture and cupping is right for you.
