What is cupping therapy and how does it work?

Cupping isn’t a new health trend—it’s actually been around for thousands of years and is a technique used in traditional Chinese medicine. Proponents of cupping therapy believe it can help boost blood flow to speed up your body’s natural healing process.

Here’s how it works: I will place a cup onto the surface of the skin to create a vacuum effect. “This sucks the skin and fat layer off the muscle, and sometimes even moves muscle layers off each other,” Sometimes the cups are left in place and other times they are moved along muscle fibers to help relax tight muscles.”

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What are the benefits of cupping therapy?

People who turn to cupping therapy often do so to improve mobility and ease muscle soreness, pain, surgery recovery, and arthritis.

“The two biggest reasons cupping is used is to decrease pain and increase your range of motion,"

I treat many people for back pain, neck pain, and joint stiffness. And if you have had surgery and now have scarring, cupping can be very helpful for scars that have adhered to tissue deeper below.”

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But how does that tight suction supposedly heal your body?

“Cupping creates pressure on the surface of skin,”

This causes inflammation of the suctioned skin and boosts blood flow to that area, which signals to your body that is should start its repair processes.

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Are there any cupping therapy side effects?

You’re probably aware of the biggest side effect: massive, purple bruises. “The bruises are formed from bursting capillaries from the suction which causes pooling of the blood under the cup, creating the characteristic bruise,”

 They typically resolve in three to seven days.