What is Cupping Therapy?

Cupping is an ancient healing therapy that some people use to ease pain. A provider places cups on your back, stomach, arms, legs or other parts of your body. Inside the cup, a vacuum or suction force pulls skin upward. Cupping is a form of traditional Chinese and Middle Eastern medicine. People have practiced cupping therapy for thousands of years.

What are the types of cups?

Most providers use glass or plastic cups, but cups may be:

  • Bamboo.
  • Ceramic.
  • Metal.
  • Silicone.

How is cupping performed?

There are different ways to perform cupping. The steps vary slightly depending on the chosen method. Your provider will leave the cups in place for several minutes. Some treatments involve briefly moving the cups to stretch and massage the area .Depending on the treatment, your provider may place multiple cups on your skin. Cupping methods include:

  1. Dry: Your provider heats the inside of each cup — typically with an alcohol-soaked cotton ball that is set aflame. The heat sends oxygen out of the cup, creating a vacuum. Some providers use a suction device to remove air from cups. Once placed on your skin, the vacuum force pulls skin up into the cup. 
  2. Wet: Your provider uses a needle to lightly puncture your skin before, and sometimes after, cupping. Toxins leave the body through the puncture wounds during the cupping procedure.

RISKS OF CUPPING:

Cupping is a relatively low-risk therapy. Still, you may experience: Burns from heated cups. 

1. Fatigue

2. Headaches 

3. Muscle tension or soreness.

4. Nausea

5. Skin infections, itching or scarring

How effective is cupping? 

There aren’t many high-quality studies about the effectiveness of cupping. And researchers don’t know a lot about why or how cupping might help people. Cupping may provide a placebo effect, meaning it helps because people believe it does.

Benefits of cupping that the review authors cite may include:

  • Pain reduction
  • Muscle relaxation
  • Improved blood circulation 
  • Activation of the immune system release of toxins 
  • Removal of wastes and heavy metals

Therapists may use cupping for the following conditions:

1. Shingles

2. Pain

3. Facial paralysis

 4. Spinal disk wear and tear (cervical spondylosis)

5. High blood pressure

6. Cardiovascular disease prevention 

7. Musculoskeletal pain 

8. Lower back pain 

9. Neck pain

10. Fibromyalgia 

Effects of cupping

1. Skin: Improved metabolism in skin tissue, better functioning of sebaceous and sweat glands, improved healing and improved skin resistance.

2. Muscles: Stimulates blood flow and lymphatic drainage 

3. Joints: Increased blood flow and secretion of synovial fluid 

4. Digestive system: Increased peristalsis and secretion of digestive fluids, better digestion and excretion. 5. 5. Blood: Improved blood circulation, improved functioning of RBC and WBC. 

6. Nervous System: Stimulates sensory nerves of skin, Improves ANS. 

Side Effects of cupping

 Cupping is a low-risk therapy. The side effects will typically occur during your treatment or immediately after. Lightheadedness or dizziness, sweating or nausea may be experienced.

 After treatment, the skin around the rim of the cup may become irritated and marked in a circular pattern. There may be risk of Infection after undergoing cupping therapy and it can be avoided if practitioner follows the right methods for cleaning skin and controlling infection before and after the session.

  • Burns from heated cups.
  • Blisters : second degree 0f burn than can caused by dry cups if stayed for long time.
  • Fatigue
  • Headaches
  • Muscle tension or soreness.

 Use Of Cupping in physiotherapy

 A Physiotherapist utilizes a rubber pump to create a vacuum and this causes the skin to rise. The blood vessels will expand and is used to create a massage effect.

 The sites are selected according to the treated ailment. The cups are commonly placed on areas with abundant muscles. The back is the most common site of application, followed by the chest, abdomen, buttocks, and legs. Other areas, such as the face, may also be treated by cupping. According to research studies, it is recommended that cups should be on the skin for no more than 5-10 minutes. The residual marks left from cupping disappear in 1-10 days.