Cupping therapy is the ancient Chinese method of using cups made from glass or plastic to create a vacuum to exert pressure causing blood to arrive at the site and assist in healing. Cupping therapy is targeted at the Chinese belief in Meridians and the body’s energy force or ‘Qi’.
This alternative therapy, which is thought to be 3,500 years old, is also thought to help release toxins from the body, cleansing the circulatory and lymphatic systems. Cupping is thought to assist in treating common ailments such as colds and the flu and can also help alleviate muscular and other tissue pain.
This video offers a practical demonstration of the cupping therapy, for which one needs glass cups, cotton balls, surgical spirits, locking forceps – kits of the equipment required for cupping therapy are available at acupuncture stores.
Cupping therapy is performed by holding the cotton ball in the forceps, dipping it in the spirit (just enough to soak the cotton ball but not so much that it drips), and then setting it aflame. This is then inserted inside the cup to burn out the oxygen and create a form of vacuum.
