Cupping therapy promotes healing throughout the body

Randall Wegener

Special to the Village News

If you watched the summer Olympics in Rio, you likely saw that cupping therapy was being used by some of the U.S. athletes. Cupping therapy is an ancient form of alternative medicine in which a local suction is created on the skin. Practitioners believe this mobilizes blood flow in order to promote healing.

Suction is created using heat (fire), usually in a glass or plastic cup, or using mechanical devices (hand or electrical pumps) with a plastic cup. There is a suction that’s created which pulls the skin and blood vessels in toward the cup. This can leave round, bruised-looking marks on the patient’s skin.

Cupping therapy has been used for thousands of years in Europe, Asia and Africa. In China, cattle horns were used to suck poison out of wounds. One of the oldest medical textbooks in the world, the Ebers Papyrus, describes how the ancient Egyptians used cupping therapy in 1,550 B.C. In ancient Greece, Hippocrates (c. 400 BC) used cupping for internal disease and structural problems.

Cupping is thought to release tissues deep inside the body, relax tense muscles and ease stiffness associated with chronic back and neck pains, migraines, rheumatism, and fatigue.

Some athletes have been known to use cupping therapy to naturally improve performance and reduce stiffness, muscle cramps, joint pains and scar tissue caused by injuries. Cupping is relaxing is because the cups help lift pressure in tense muscles, which offers a relieving sensation.

Cupping is commonly used to treat respiratory illnesses like the flu or common colds by helping to nourish the lungs and clear away phlegm or congestion. Cupping helps improve immune function by moving blood and lymphatic fluid throughout the body.

Cupping can be used to improve digestion and reduce symptoms like frequent stomach pains, diarrhea, acute gastritis, loss of appetite, gastrointestinal diseases and water retention. For digestive disturbances, cupping is commonly performed in the following areas: around the navel, over the bladder, around the kidneys, or over the stomach.

For more information about cupping or Chinese Medicine, contact Randall Wegener, Acupuncturist, at (760) 451-2188.