Cupping is ancient, but is it effective?
If you haven’t heard of cupping, the premise is simple – small cups are attached to the skin by creating a vacuum underneath them.
This sucks the skin upward into the cup. It’s as simple as that.
You might have seen evidence of cupping on the backs of celebrities and sportspeople. The marks are essentially huge hickeys; it looks like they’ve been getting jiggy with a giant squid. And, it looks a bit sore.
This is the second in a series of articles where I try out unusual treatments and report back. The first involved being frozen to -80°C with my boss. I hoped this wouldn’t be quite as extreme.
What’s cupping supposed to do?
Cupping is used to treat pain, ease scar tissue deep within muscles and connective tissues, and reduce swelling and muscle knots. Also, like many complementary treatments, cupping is supposed to minimize circulating toxins by drawing them into the skin where they are more easily removed.
Although this treatment has only recently risen to celebrity-fueled fame, it has an ancient pedigree stretching back through the mists of times. According to traditional Chinese medicine, cupping improves the flow of qi (your vital life force) and can help treat colds, bronchitis, and even pneumonia.
Cupping was practiced as part of ancient Persian medicine; according to a paper on traditional Persian medicine, cupping “evacuates the morbid materials from the compromised organs.”
The Ebers papyrus, written more than 3,000 years ago, mentions that cupping was commonplace in at the time. In fact, cupping was even recommended by Muhammad.
However, it’s important to remember that just because a practice has a long history doesn’t mean it does what it is alleged to. I aimed to find out.
I’ve got a number of ongoing ailments I hoped to relieve: I’ve had a bad back for months, I’ve got a cold that I just can’t shake, I’m fairly sure my qi is way out of whack, and I could certainly do with evacuating morbid material from my compromised organs.
I’m only having one session, though, so I can’t expect to be entirely fixed; I’m predominantly interested in seeing how it feels.
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