What is cupping in massage?

Cupping is sometimes performed with acupuncture treatments. For best results, you may also want to fast or eat only light meals 2 to 3 hours before your cupping session.

During a cupping treatment, you can expect the following:

Cups are most often applied to the:

Generally, the back is the most common area for cups to be used. If you’re receiving facial or cosmetic cupping, cups will be placed on your face.

The cup is often heated with fire using alcohol, herbs, or paper that’s placed directly into the cup. The fire source is removed, and the heated cup is placed with the open side directly onto your skin.

When the hot cup is placed onto your skin, the air inside the cup cools and creates a vacuum that draws the skin and muscle up into the cup. Your skin may turn red as the blood vessels respond to the change in pressure.

Some modern cupping practitioners have shifted to using rubber pumps to create suction versus more traditional heat methods.

With dry cupping, the cup is kept in place for a set time, usually between 5 and 10 minutes.

With wet/bleeding cupping, the practitioner makes a small incision to draw blood before intentionally pulling stagnant blood out of the incision with the suction of the cup.

Running cupping usually involves the application of oil before the use of suction. Then the cups are slowly moved around the area, creating a massage-like effect. Depending on the kind of service you’re receiving, your session could last anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour or more.

Description Cup massage is a type of massage based on the local impact on human body with rarefied air. This method of therapy through the use of decreased pressure is a type of vacuum therapy, widely used nowadays for treating a variety of human diseases. Wikipedia

Cupping therapy is one of the oldest and most effective method of releasing the toxins from body tissue and organs.[1] [2]It is also known as vacuum cupping, hijama cupping, horn treatment etc. It is a practice in which the therapist puts special cups on the skin to create suction. This causes the tissue beneath the cup to be drawn up and swell causing increase in blood flow to affected area. Enhanced blood flow under the cups draws impurities and toxins away from the nearby tissues and organs towards the surface for elimination.[3][4]

Cupping is a treatment that has been used for a number of ailments for thousands of years. Over the centuries, cupping techniques and styles have often been influenced by their geographical location, as well as by the materials used in that area: animal horns, bamboo, ceramic, glass, metal, and plastic have all been used in this procedure found in Ancient Egyptian, Chinese, Unani, Korean, Tibetan, and Latin American cultures, whose purpose has been to assist the body in self-healing. Eber's papyrus (1550 BCE) is the first documented instance of this therapy in North Africa. A cup refers to the Egyptian glyph for doctor. According to Ge Hong (281-341 CE), animal horns were used to drain body fluids in Asia during the Jin dynasty. Additionally, it was popular during the Greek Bronze era, when bronze cups were used.[5]

As prescribed by Al-Qanun Fi'l-Tibb, Canon of Medicine (1025 CE), cups are often used to treat conditions related to menstruation in Arabic and Islamic countries. It is reported that Prophet Muhammed used it and advocated its use.

According to Galen, the principle of indication for blood lenting is to eliminate residues or divert blood from one part to another.

The Daoist model of holism informs the practice of cupping and other similar therapies in Chinese medicine. The holistic philosophy maintains that systems and their properties can only be understood as a whole and not as parts. According to Daoist philosophy, no individual could exist unless it is connected to nature. This is because it is influenced both by natural phenomena, such as the seasons and climate and by internal states, such as emotional stress. An imbalance in the body is caused by climate, emotions, and/or trauma, according to this concept.[6]

Since Chinese medicinal researchers focus on observable principles of balance examined in living bodies, their traditional medicine practices are considered “alternative” by the dominant medical systems, despite having been practiced for centuries in cultures and countries around the world.

As defined by the Alternative Medicine Association, alternative medicine refers to practices that are unproven, disproven, impossible to prove, or excessively harmful relative to their effects. Unfortunately, medicine has been viewed solely from an epistemological standpoint, particularly Western allopathic medicine. By defining justified beliefs and opinions, this framework establishes a theory of knowledge. As a result, evidence-based medicine has been adopted, predominantly relying on anatomical dissection for diagnostic and/or therapeutic purposes.[7]

Modern Cupping as western based cupping uses the plastic, silicon or glass cups with a vacuum seal to influence the myofascial tissue physiology.

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Cupping therapy is indicated for both healthy patients (anti ageing treatment, rejuvenation purpose) and those suffering from ailments. Localized ailments that benefit from cupping therapy include a headache, lower back pain, neck pain, and knee pain. Systemic illnesses that have seen benefits with cupping therapy include hypertension, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes mellitus, mental disorders, heart disease, hypertension, infections.[20][21] It can be used to treat skin diseases, respiratory, musculoskeletal, digestive, reproductive, and allergic conditions,

Cupping is a low-risk therapy. The side effects will typically occur during your treatment or immediately after. Lightheadedness or dizziness, sweating or nausea may be experienced.

After treatment, the skin around the rim of the cup may become irritated and marked in a circular pattern. There may be risk of Infection after undergoing cupping therapy and it can be avoided if practitioner follows the right methods for cleaning skin and controlling infection before and after the session.

Cupping is easy, very safe modality to practice. It is completely unregulated, and therefore it can be performed by anyone. If it is practiced within a regulated health practice, it must adhere to the contraindications and legislation indicated within the scope of practice. If the therapist/practitioner don't belong to a college or association, or not sure, the therapy cannot be performed until satisfactory response is found. If therapist/practitioner have not had training in a modality, or are not taking extra training to treat certain conditions, then precaution must be taken.[27]

A Physiotherapist utilizes a rubber pump to create a vacuum and this causes the skin to rise. The blood vessels will expand and is used to create a massage effect. [28]

The sites are selected according to the treated ailment. The cups are commonly placed on areas with abundant muscles.[29] The back is the most common site of application, followed by the chest, abdomen, buttocks, and legs. Other areas, such as the face, may also be treated by cupping.[30] According to research studies, it is recommended that cups should be on the skin for no more than 5-10 minutes.The residual marks left from cupping disappear in 1-10 days.[31]

(Refer the videos below for more information)

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The 2016 summer Olympics had its share of exciting performances, upsets, and photo finishes. But for days after Michael Phelps’s first appearance at the games, it seemed all anyone could talk about was "cupping." It’s an ancient therapy that left multiple circular discolorations on his skin. During "dry cupping," suction is applied to the skin for several minutes; sometimes it is combined with massage, acupuncture, or other alternative therapies. ("Wet cupping" is similar except that blood is removed by making small cuts in the skin.)

Cupping is supposed to draw fluid into the area; the discoloration is due to broken blood vessels just beneath the skin, much like a bruise. Cupping has been popular in Egyptian, Chinese, and Middle Eastern cultures going back thousands of years, but increasing numbers of people worldwide have been adopting it. Celebrities and athletes have popularized it in the U.S. in recent years.

What is cupping supposed to do?

According to its advocates, cupping is supposed to promote healing and has been used extensively for sore muscles. But that’s only the beginning. Cupping has also been used for

And there are many others. If cupping does help with these problems, it’s worth asking: how? From a biological perspective, it’s not clear how the application of suction and drawing blood into an area under the skin would provide all these benefits. A recent review of the treatment describes cupping as a treatment that can strengthen the body’s resistance, restore balance between positive and negative forces, remove disease-causing factors, and promote blood circulation. But exactly how is unclear.

Does cupping work?

A number of studies have examined this question, but unfortunately don’t seem to have  convincingly answered it. In fact, a 2015 review of the evidence found that cupping might provide some relief for chronic neck or back pain, but that the quality of the evidence was too limited to draw firm conclusions.

One problem is that it’s tough to perform a high-quality study on cupping. The best studies are "blinded placebo-controlled trials" in which neither the patient nor the researcher knows which treatment (real or placebo) has been given to a study subject. When medications are studied, coming up with a placebo pill is not difficult; it can be much more difficult to create a convincing placebo comparator for cupping. In addition, pain can be a difficult thing to measure and the placebo effect — improvement related to an expectation of benefit — can be quite powerful.

Still, there have been studies comparing actual acupuncture with convincing but fake (or "sham") acupuncture.  Similar studies of cupping could be possible. And if cupping truly helped, you may not care if it’s due to the placebo effect.

Are there risks involved with cupping?