My bucketlist has many things on it that some people wouldn’t ever try or attempt. Then there are others that wonder why it such a Passion for me to even place it on a bucketlist, like they do these things all the time. Cupping is one of those things that for me, and many others, is a little out there. But I was curious, I wanted to know more and give it a try. So I placed Cupping on my bucketlist in 2010.
I would come close to the opportunity to try Cupping, but just never had the guts to go through with it. As you can tell my the picture here , it looks rather painful. On my recent trip to Malaysia, I sucked up my fears and went for it! Getting Cupped wasn’t near as painful as I thought and I offer you some information here so that you can better understand the process. After reading this blog, you may be intrigued and consider trying Cupping as opposed to other forms of treatment and medications you may be using now.
What Is Cupping? : Many people may mistake Cupping as a torture process. Looking at the above picture, it is easy to understand where you may think that. Cupping is the application of cups that facilitate a vacuum stimulation at various pressure points of the body. This causes the release of congested blood.
Cupping dates back as one of the oldest forms of Ancient therapy for many illnesses in both Arabia and China. Each country has it’s own name for this process such as the Arab name is ‘hijama’ and the Malay name is ‘bekum’. It is also called body cupping, fire cupping and the horn method.
2. Is Cupping safe?: The body’s tissues are affected up to four inches areas and will leave a temporary bruise, however it is safe. Cupping helps release toxins, fire start the lymphatic system, clear any blockage in the colon blockages, clear arteries, capillaries and veins.
3. Does cupping hurt? It isn’t as painful as I had always thought and the marks left behind afterward look as though you were beaten. At first is is sort of uncomfortable, but after a couple of minutes you don’t feel anything. As the cup is placed on the surface of your skin, the begin to expand like crazy bubbles. While it’s insane now looking it, but that’s it.
4. Is all cupping the same? As all good things come in three, so does cupping. There are three sorts of therapy:
- Air Cupping: This is the one I have tried, and it the most common one around and also easiest to learn. Like all ancient therapies, it helps a range of aliments, from preventing disease to treating pain, sore throats and indigestion, etc through release of air and gas in your body. It is applied for no more than 10-15 minutes and can be used every day if you could like.
- Aggressive Cupping: This is not for everyone, its targeted for serious chronic cases from diabetes, cancer, and kidney disease and more. People who used this basically go through an intense flush of the system where they are doing loads of cupping. The treatment basically cleans the blood and encourages the red and white blood cells to get access to encourage the circulation of oxygen and nutrients to better equip our bodies fighting off infections, healing of wounds and even killing cancer cell. They complement their therapy with pure salt intake, daily exercise, healthy food, healthy diet and drinking loads of water. The sessions are pretty aggressive for around an hour or two a day for a maximum of 2 months, often leaving for up to year.
- Blood Cupping: This treatment can help remove congested blood which reduces healthy blood cells. So basically cells are oxygenated and nutritious. This process helps remove unhealthy blood cells which have high carbon dioxide and waste. As we get older the congested blood in our body grows, getting our cells to weaken and we feel pain and lower efficiency in our body. This basically works through performing this treatment every 2 to 3 days for existing disease and on a weekly basis to prevent disease and for health maintenance.
5. Does Cupping Work?: It’s said that cupping success rate is around 80% for treating any kind of illness. But as everything for better results you need to move towards a healthier lifestyle of eating better, doing exercise and drinking more water. As I mentioned it feels a bit uncomfortable at first, but then it’s smoothing in a way.
6. How Does The Process Work?: There are 14 cups placed on specific pressure points on your lower back and neck. The degree of bruise on your back indicates where the problems are. For example in my case, I had only one dark bruise on the left hand side. Although I am pretty healthy although apparently I need to improve my blood circulation.
7. What Is The Minimum Age For Cupping?: There is no minimum age to try cupping, you can try it at anytime, but for better therapeutic results it would be for patients older than the teen years., as the congested blood cells increase as we get older.
8. Who Is Cupping Recommended For?: Anyone with the exception with people who generally have inflamed skin or bleed easily because the treatment inflames the skin and this can cause some problems for them. As well as women who are expecting should not be cupped on their stomach and lower back.
