These are real cups that are applied to the skin and are part of the external therapies used in the complex and articulated world of traditional Chinese medicine.
We see the cupping closely , how and when it is practiced and what benefits it gives .
The practice of cupping
Among the external techniques of Chinese medicine, that is, those that do not include the intake of herbs or specific preparations or do not include work on internal energy through movement, as in the case of qi gong, we have cupping, together with tui na massage and moxibustion.
Also known as cupping, it implies a real aspiration on the skin at the local level through cups, which often resemble real yogurt glass containers with a more rounded shape; sometimes they are also glass, bamboo and ceramic cups. It is also used in India, Korea and Japan and was brought to the West by the Austrian doctor Bernard Aschner.
The application usually has a duration that goes from 5 to 20 minutes and not beyond because it actually creates a very strong stimulus: the cups are applied on the so-called reflex zones of the body. What does it mean? That in our body the areas of the back or of the foot or face host specific points that connect energetically to certain internal organs; in doing so it acts on the internal organ and on the part that shows a state of general disorder.
With cupping, excess "humors" are removed and blood, phlegm, yellow bile, black bile can be treated, according to the ancient oriental tradition that is so similar to "ours" by Paracelso.
There are two ways to operate: in fact there are hot cupping and cold cupping :
- in hot cupping, flames are heated inside the cup: this reduces the volume of air and sucks.
- in cold cupping glass bells are used with a valve at their apex to which a rubber balloon is applied. The effect of the latter is generally sweeter and slower.
