Learn About the Many Benefits of Chinese Cupping Therapy

Learn About the Many Benefits of Chinese Cupping Therapy

Many of our readers are probably already familiar with some of the more popular modalities of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), such as acupuncture, massage therapy and herbal medicine. But did you know that there is another lesser-known TCM treatment protocol known as cupping therapy that can help relieve a host of maladies?

The protocol, which involves applying small cups or jars to the skin and suctioning it away from the body, dates as far back as 1500 B.C., when ancient Egyptians used it to treat fever, vertigo, menstrual imbalance, poor appetite, pain and a variety of other health conditions. Taoist herbalists later used cupping therapy to induce relaxation, expel toxins from the body and promote healthy blood flow, among many other uses.

Today, this simple and highly versatile technique is still beneficial for all sorts of health conditions, which makes it an excellent alternative to drugs and surgery for many people. Whether they are made of glass, bamboo or modern materials like silicon, these unique little cups have a confirmed track record of clinical efficacy that renders them worthy of further investigation.

How does Chinese cupping therapy work? According to the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine (PCOM), a TCM practitioner will first create suction inside the cups, one method of which involves applying rubbing alcohol to the bottom of the cups and lighting them on fire. When the flame is put out and the generated heat eventually cools, the air inside the cups contracts to create a natural suction.

The cups are then placed on the skin and either moved across it in a continuous motion, a process known as gliding cupping, or kept isolated and gently lifted. In both methods, the suction inside the cups lifts the skin away from the body to create negative pressure, as opposed to the positive pressure induced by massage. This negative pressure helps loosen muscle tissue, promote healthy blood flow and sedate the nervous system.

“Generally, cupping is combined with acupuncture in one treatment, but it can also be used alone,” explains PCOM. “Cupping is used to relieve back and neck pains, stiff muscles, anxiety, fatigue, migraines, rheumatism, and even cellulite.”

Cupping therapy combined with acupuncture can provide amazing relief

One of the reasons why cupping therapy is often coupled with acupuncture is that both treatments follow the body’s natural meridian lines, which are believed to be the pathways through which the body’s “life energy,” or “qi,” flows. Since it is traditionally used on the back, cupping therapy follows the back’s five meridian lines, which is meant to both align and relax the qi and open up all the channels through which energy flows.

“Cupping is one of the best deep-tissue therapies available,” adds PCOM. “It is thought to affect tissues up to four inches deep from the external skin. Toxins can be released, blockages can be cleared, and veins and arteries can be refreshed within these four inches of affected materials. Even hands, wrists, legs, and ankles can be ‘cupped,’ thus applying the healing to specific organs that correlate with these points.”

Cupping therapy has also been effectively used to treat lung and respiratory conditions, including asthma symptoms and the common cold. In fact, respiratory ailments are among the earliest recorded conditions for which cupping therapy was deemed beneficial.

Not intended for the treatment or prevention of disease, nor as a substitute for medical treatment, nor as an alternative to medical advice. Use of recommendations is at the choice and risk of the reader. PAID ENDORSEMENT DISCLOSURE: In order for me to support my blogging activities, I may receive monetary compensation or other types of remuneration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog.

Original article and pictures take www.lahealthyliving.com site

Laser acupuncture promises needle-free relief

Laser acupuncture promises needle-free relief

Scientists in Germany recently said they had proof that acupuncture works. Now, research shows that a new form of needle-free acupuncture can also ease certain conditions.

Laser acupuncture, a combination of modern and ancient medical treatments, has been found to help arthritis, post-operative pain, tennis elbow, depression, asthma and now tension headaches.

In traditional acupuncture, therapists insert needles into specific acupuncture points on the body.

The theory is based on the belief that we have a vital energy that circulates through invisible energy lines on the body known as meridians, each of which is associated with a different organ system.

An energy imbalance can result in disease, and the idea of activating the acupuncture points with a needle is to restore balance.

In laser acupuncture, the same traditional acupuncture points are stimulated but with a lowintensity, non-thermal laser light rather than needles.

But like needle acupuncture, it is believed to work by stimulating the release of pain-relieving endorphins, and by having a beneficial effect on the nervous system.

Research by Southampton University and University College London last month suggested that traditional acupuncture can have a similar effect to painkillers on patients with osteoarthritis.

The latest research shows that laser acupuncture can be highly effective for tension headache.

Fifty patients with chronic tension headaches were given lowenergy laser acupuncture for 43 seconds, or a dummy treatment.

Each of the patients had ten sessions over a three-week period. The placebo group was treated in a similar way except that the output power of the laser was zero.

The results show that there were significant differences between the two groups months after the treatment was given.

One month after the treatment ended, the laser-treated group had 15 days a month without a headache, compared to just two for the placebo patients.

After two months the laser patients were still getting ten days a month without a headache compared to no days for the other patients.

Jane Cooper, a 43-year- old mother of two from Reading used laser acupuncture to relieve pain caused by a prolapsed disc, when part of a disc in the spine comes out of place, pressing on nerves.

Despite surgery for partial removal of the disc, she has spent the past ten years with continual pain in the back, legs and feet as a result of nerve damage. But after laser acupuncture once a week the pain has gone.

‘It’s been fantastic. I feel nothing during the treatment, just a warm glow, and the next day the pain and inflammation have gone,’ she says.

‘I think the prolapsed disc was probably a sporting injury. I was a hockey goalkeeper when I was younger, and always throwing myself onto the floor. I am quite tall and skinny and apparently more likely to damage discs.

‘I had surgery to remove some scar tissue after the injury, but for ten or 11 years I’ve had a pain which never went away and made life difficult.

I tried lots of things, including osteopaths, chiropractors, physios, and none did any good. I then tried laser acupuncture and within two or three sessions there was a phenomenal difference.

‘I sit on a bench while the laser treatment goes onto my back. The laser seems to be having some kind of effect on the recovery and repair of tissue.

‘Now I don’t get the pain unless I do something very strenuous, like gardening for six hours at a time. Previously, the pain was there if I sat down or walked for even ten minutes.’

Original article and pictures take www.corespirit.com site