It sounds a little crazy, doesn’t it? But I am not joking, it exist a therapy called cupping therapy. 

1.      The cupping therapy uses hot air and cups to heal. The cupping Therapy isn’t new; It is not an invention of the contemporary alternative medicine, this kind of treatment for diseases had already existed before the modern medicine. 

2.      The cupping therapy has an ancient tradition in China. It has been used for two millenniums to cure any kind of people illnesses and not only by the Chinese culture also by the Arabs and the ancient Greek culture. 

3.      It has many applications to specific diseases threated by the Intern medicine and Neurology, without the using of surgery or any kind of invasive treatments of conventional medicine.  

4.      The cupping therapy is a kind of treatment for diseases which uses hot air and cups. The therapy uses a cup above the skin causing a focus congestion getting out the air of the cup releasing the flow of the Qì(vital energy) and the blood. 

5.      The main objective is to explain what is cupping therapy: 

Points to present: 

5.1.   The origins of the cupping therapy 

5.2.   The method of application 

5.3.   Kinds of cups 

5.4.   The Effectiveness 

5.5.   The Critics to cupping therapy 

5.6.   The Conclusion    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Body 

The cupping therapy has a very long history. When the Jin dynasty (265-420)  rise to the power in 265 B.C. The cupping therapy had already existed for many years probably since 206 B.C the times of the Han dynasty. The earliest records that date back to about 3,000 years ago document the use of cupping to cure pulmonary tuberculosis. 

The ancient arabs call this technique “Hijhama” and mixed the use of the cupping therapy with cycles of the moon. For example Avicena, the Muslim doctor, philosopher and scientist, used the cupping therapy. around the XI and XII century B.C 

The Egyptian civilization used to the cupping therapy. They documented the therapies in some engraving in low relief. 

In the Ancient Greece the most famous medical doctor of these times, Hypocrates, made a defense of the benefits of the cupping therapy for the health. 

What is the cupping therapy ? 

The most traditional way of using cupping therapy is taking -with tweezers- one piece of cotton previously impregnated in alcohol and turn on it. Without release the piece of cotton put in the interior of a cup circling, and then put the cup over an strategic point of the body. The point which you put the cup depends of the knowledge of the meridians that allows the flow of the Qí in the body. The Chinese culture believes that the Qí is an energy that allows everything including life, and of course, the right way of the life of a body is a healthy body. More or less after 10 minutes when you see the skin begin to shows near to color violet, you must take out the cup taking it with one hand and pushing the skin with the other hand to eliminate the vacuum. 

Also exist the cupping blood therapy, that suction the skin too, but the cups take some blood of the patient as part of healing treatment.  

There exists a great variety of kind of cups to make cup therapy. The modern cups are made of plastic with some bomb of aspiration or magnet bombs. The traditional cups are made in ceramic or clay m, but the most used are in crystal or bamboo. 

When the cups for cupping are cups of porcelain the technique is called “therapy of chinesse cups” 

The effectiveness 

If you learn cupping you will be able to cure cough, a cold, asthma, cellulitis, 
 dysmenorrhea, facial paralysis. Some athletes like Michael Phelps the Olympic World champion in swimming have used the cupping therapy for improving his sportive performance, so, the cupping therapy must be work If a high-performance athlete use it as a method to be the best. Also the actresses like Gwyneth Paltrow, the model Kate Moss, and the singer Chris Martin have used the cupping therapy for relaxing and unblocking certain energy points in their bodies. 

The critics. 

On the other hand, in the book: Trick or treatment? Alternative medicine on trial, Simon Singh an Edzard Ernst exposed there is no evidence of the benefits of the cupping therapy in any medical condition. I quoted” There is no scientific evidence available that supports the benefits of the cupping therapy to the human health” 

In 2012 some studies posted in PLoS ONE, a scientific magazine , said that some studies seem to show cupping therapy works against a series of medical conditions, but also said that the essays included in the article was evaluated with “high risk of slant” 

The Conclusion 

Cupping Therapy is a Therapy with a long tradition. It might be able to highlight some illnesses that conventional medicine can not. However, it must be mixing with the conventional medicine while there is no scientific evidence that supports its benefits, because that cupping therapy is something that relieves but it does not mean that the relief for an illness is the cure of the illness.