Cupping is making a big comeback thanks to top-notch Olympians, like Michael Phelps, practicing it, but the art of cupping has been around for centuries. The therapy involves placing cups on an affected area using suction—as in a cup is placed on the skin, a vacuum is created, becoming a kind of massage (only pulling instead of pushing on tissue). The suction thus created helps mobilize blood flow in the body and boosts the healing of a number of medical conditions.
Depending on the practitioner, cupping therapy may be administered on its own, or be combined with other alternative practices.
The benefits of cupping therapy start even before the procedure is actually administered for healing any sort of aliment. This is because it is a practical and impressive way to understand the problem. The procedure can be used to determine whether the problem is a muscle spasm, toxin build up or some other condition. Likewise, cupping can also be indicative of the severity of the problem. This can be identified by the color of the blood drawn. Stagnation of the blood ranging from mild to severe can be established by the coloration or discoloration of the blood extracted.
Perhaps the foremost reason individuals turn to cupping therapy is to seek relief from joint and muscle pain. This is particularly specific to individuals who face lower back issues. In instances where deep injuries occur within the muscles, internal bleeding, bruises and edema also happen. This can all lead to a stagnation of blood in the affected area. Cupping therapy is carried out in these cases to stir the non-circulating, old blood and bring it to the skin surface so that free circulation of oxygenated blood may be restored and the associated pain relieved.
Since cupping circulates blood, it can also be used to remove toxins and other waste material from the body. After all, a number of ailments and diseases are brought on by improper or impaired circulation of blood around the body or when organs fail to perform when blood is loaded with toxins and other impurities.
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