Cupping Therapy
Many forms of traditional therapies work on the principle of challenge. A normal body stays healthy by taking notice when any of its systems start to fail. This is known as the “Reactive Mechanism”. It includes systems like hunger, desire to warm up or cool down and even getting sleepy. It also includes the immune system. The job of all these interacting systems is to:
Notice a potential problem and
Do something to fix it immediately.
One of the jobs of a traditional doctor when examining a patient is to take notice if any of the body’s early warning systems are starting to go into decline. The next step is to introduce a challenge, give it a shake to wake it up. For example:
Acupunture works by challenging the electrical systems that control everything from moving around to maintaining normal blood flow
Massage works by physically moving the blood and lymph. This also triggers an improvement in the nervous system that is supposed to regulate the blood flow in the first place.
With cupping, we “wake up” the nervous system by deliberately stretching the blood vessels in the skin. The cups are applied to the skin using either heat or a suction pump to create a vacuum. They may be placed over various acupuncture points, over major organs or injured muscles. The Chinese have been doing this since ancient times by using heat to drive the air out of varnished bamboo cups. Even in Ireland there are still a few traditional healers who use a short candle over which they place the cup.
An interesting aspect of the nervous system is that those nerves which control blood flow split into two branches. One branch goes to the internal organs and another branch of the same nerve to the skin. So when we stretch and challenge the vessels in the skin by various means, we may also trigger an improvement of the circulation in the for example the heart, uterus or liver.