If you might want to consider trying Chinese cupping therapy if you’re experiencing pain in a certain part of your body. This technique is often included by acupuncturists as a complement to acupuncture treatment or as an alternative to it.

In ancient China, cupping was originally called “horn therapy.” Today, you can find variations of this procedure in Eastern Europe, Italy, France, Greece, and Turkey. Even today, cupping is seen as a valuable home health remedy in several European families.

Oftentimes, the cups used are made of plastic or glass. They can be used in various ways. Some cups are connected to a pump that creates a vacuum by sucking air out of the cup. One other common application technique is to heat the glass cup with a burning taper. Oxygen is consumed by the heat generating a vacuum effect that causes the cup to easily stick to the skin. The patient’s flesh and skin are pulled up into the cup, stimulating both the underlying musculature and the flow of blood.

Oriental medicine practitioners in Japan need a licensed to practice cupping, moxibustion or cupping; however, they are not authorized to simultaneously use the three modalities unlike the practitioners in the United States or Australia. Because Japanese cupping practitioners can only provide cupping to their patients, they need to resolve every possible condition only through this technique. Being the ever resourceful people that they are, these Japanese cupping practitioners have developed some extremely all-encompassing cupping strategies.

The cups are applied on the shoulders and the back with extreme efficacy to relieve shoulder and back pain. In especially severe instance of blood stagnation, the tight and painful part of the body is extracted with a drop of blood, and a cup is used over that area. A suction effect is generated when the air is pumped out sucking out black stagnant blood from the punctured area and into the cup. Once the black old blood has been extracted, the body automatically refills the painful area with fresh blood. The clean fresh blood washes out the debris that has been slowing down the uninhibited movement of energy (known as Chi) to the area. For most patients, this therapy leads to a major alleviation of their pain.

This treatment, however, also comes with certain contraindications; therefore, it needs to be conducted by a trained practitioner or acupuncturist in Palm Harbor. It is hard to perform cupping on hairy areas of the body like the head or a hairy back, because in these areas, a perfect seal cannot be created on the skin. Generally painless, cupping almost always leads to improved flexibility in the painful area of the body and a feeling of lightness in most patients. Still, this technique does leave a spotted bruise that can be visible for a week or so (based on the magnitude of the blood stagnation). So if you are a fashion model or going swimming, you need to keep this in mind if you are considering undergoing this therapy on an exposed area.

Some of the health conditions that can be treated with cupping therapy include:

• Stiff Shoulders
• Vertigo
• Sciatica
• Liver Disorders, Gallbladder Conditions
• Kidney Disorders (including urgent/frequent urination)
• Intestinal Disorders
• Intercostal Neuralgia
• High Fever
• Arteriosclerosis, stroke, and high blood pressure
• Hemorrhoids
• Gynecological Disorders
• Gastric Disorders
• Diarrhea
• Dermatological Conditions
• Constipation
• Bronchial asthma

So, if you have an existing medicinal problem that does not respond to conventional Western treatments and if you have a fear of needles, you might want to consider trying cupping therapy.