Cupping
If you have noticed circular marks on athletes, including swimmer Michael Phelps; celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Aniston; or even people you see every day at the beach or your friends, you have seen a temporary after-effect of cupping therapy. Cupping is a treatment modality used in traditional Chinese medicine to remove stagnation and stimulate the flow of qi (chi), one of your life force energies.
What does cupping therapy do?
Traditional Chinese medicine explains that qi and blood stagnation are behind pain and many disease states. One common saying is, “Where there’s stagnation, there will be pain. Remove the stagnation, and you remove the pain.”
The purpose of cupping therapy is to invigorate qi and blood circulation, so that pain, tension and inflammation can resolve. It removes toxins, both environmental and metabolic waste products, by drawing impurities to the surface of your body. Western medicine describes cupping as boosting circulation and relieving tightness in your connective tissue. The body is relaxed, and cell-to-cell communication improves. You receive local pain relief, muscle relaxation, and improved energy flow as a result. For this reason, numerous athletes in the 2016 Rio Olympics used cupping.
Cupping therapy has been used by mainstream hospitals in China since the 1950s, as Chinese and former Soviet union acupuncturists confirmed its effects through research. Cupping is a highly individualized treatment, with different types of cupping, cup sizes and treatment times (from 5-20 minutes) used depending on your needs. Sometimes, a sliding cups technique is performed on the back for pain and muscle spasms, with the assistance of massage oil to allow the cups to easily glide over your skin.
To find out more how cupping therapy can improve your condition call us at 847 – 724 -1777.