Feel the Burn: Discover the benefits of fire cupping
The earliest form of “fire cupping” began thousands of years ago in China by creating a negative pressure inside cattle horns and was primarily used to withdraw pus and blood for the treatment of boils (sounds delightful). Another method was to create a hole at the top of a horn and physically suck the air out to create the negative pressure. The length of the horn would be the only protection for the practitioner. Since then, various forms of cupping have been adopted by many cultures and are still used today.
Wet cupping
Luckily, we have come a LONG way with hygiene and clean practices, so there will be no cattle horns or sucking, just glass cups and sterile cotton balls. Thank god.
Just like ordering BBQ, there are two types of cupping, dry and wet. In dry cupping, no blood is removed and a vacuum is created within the cup and applied to the skin causing the skin to swell. Wet cupping involves small incisions being made in the skin and placing a cup on top of the incision to collect blood. As barbaric as this might seem, wet cupping is incredibly effective at reducing heat in the body and moving stagnant blood.
What are the benefits of fire cupping through the western and eastern lense?
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the skin is influenced by and under the direct control of the Lungs. When the energy of the lung is strong and abundant the skin is glowing and healthy. Lungs spread the Qi and fluids all over the body through the skin and therefore the health of the skin depends on the health of the lungs. Cupping therefore helps support the lungs via moving qi and blood supporting what we call our Wei Qi ( or defensive qi).
From a Western lens, the lymphatic system comes into play and is made up of blood vessels, and lymph nodes that extend throughout the body. The lymphatic system acts as a personal assistant maintaining the balance of fluid in the body draining the excess fluid from tissues and returning it to the blood system. The lymphatic system serves as one of the body’s major defense mechanisms by generating antibodies, filtering out bacteria, and producing disease-fighting lymphocytes ( white blood cells)!
When we spend most of our days sitting at office jobs, getting little movement in our day-to-day lives, things start to stagnate via lymph, qi and blood. Cupping can be an incredible tool to help reduce pain and boost your immune system!
