Cupping has become very topical ever since Michael Phelps showed off his cupping marks at the 2016 Olympics in Rio. Of course, cupping is a very old form of Chinese medicine that has been around for thousands of years and has been used by various cultures around the world. Historians believe that cupping is, in fact, the oldest technique in Chinese medicine, predating acupuncture.
What is Cupping?
Suction is applied to the skin with glass, rubber, or plastic cups. In ancient times, doctors used bamboo. The vacuum action quickly facilitates the release of rigid soft tissue. It loosens and lifts connective tissues, breaks and drains stagnation, and increases blood and lymph flow to the skin, muscles, and connective tissues. It does all of these things much faster and more effectively than any other type of therapy, including acupuncture, massage therapy, chiropractic adjustments, medications, and sometimes even surgery.
What do the colors mean?
The color change in the skin after cupping indicates many different things. Sometimes it turns orange or purple and for others it can turn red. The marks usually last from three days to a week; sometimes more if a person is very sick or sedentary. The color change in the skin after cupping also helps to determine the nature and location of a disease but, for a healthy person with healthy skin, the color of the tissue does not change at all after cupping.
Since you can use cupping on almost any part of the body surface, except for areas where large blood vessels pass through, such as in the groin, you can check for internal problems from outside the body. In areas where dead blood, lymph, cellular debris, pathogenic factors and toxins are present in the body, cupping will leave marks indicating that stagnation has moved from the deeper tissue layers to the surface. The color and pattern of the markings depends on the level of stagnation in the area. If no stagnation is present, there will only be a light pink mark that disappears in a few minutes to a couple of hours.
Sites where there is prior trauma or injury may require multiple cupping treatments to remove all stagnation. Patients will find, in follow-up treatments, that the markings will become increasingly clear as the pathogens are systematically eliminated from the body. Cupping marks are not bruises and are usually not painful. Although the cupping treatment itself can be somewhat uncomfortable and the marks can look dramatic, the presence of color in the cupped areas ensures that the patient will feel immediate relief after the treatment.
Who should do cupping?
Although cupping therapy is a simple technique, it should only be performed by an experienced physician. Although some massage therapists, chiropractors, or estheticians offer cupping therapy, they generally lack the in-depth training and experience required to safely and effectively apply cupping therapy. At best, cupping therapy performed by an untrained physician will be ineffective. At worst, it can cause burns, blisters, or scar tissue that cause more pain instead of relief.