Cupping Therapy: Alternative Medicine for Pain, Immunity & Digestion

Hi, Dr. Josh Axe here, doctor of natural medicine and founder of draxe.com. In this video, I'll be talking about cupping therapy, an ancient traditional Chinese medicine practice that has great benefits for helping you get rid of pain, improving circulation, overcoming bronchitis, and a number of other health conditions I'll be covering today.

Now, cupping therapy got really popular several years ago when Olympic athletes including Michael Phelps and other Olympic swimmers started doing this to really support recovery. Now, they noticed and you'll notice that you'll get these sort of black and blue marks on different areas of the body and that's from what cupping therapy does.

It brings fresh blood and platelets and growth factors actually to an area improving circulation. And so this is one of the reasons why it can be healing in different ways, it really moves blood and growth factors from one area to another. Yeah. Supporting that area in healing. So let's talk about what cupping is specifically. Cupping uses suction cups.

Now today, oftentimes people will use a plastic cup, but traditionally glass was always used. And typically what would be done is they would take a lighter of some sort or flame and just put it in the glass first so I could pull it off and then put it right down on the skin. And what that would do is it created a suction.

Sucking action to where the skin was brought up in the area and then blood flow started going to that area. Now, think about this. If you would ever— if you've ever done this, sprained an ankle, what will tend to happen is you'll notice that there'll be swelling and oftentimes there's bruising, right?

So blood flow goes to an area and that's what— cupping essentially, there's none of that inflammation that happens in a sprained ankle, but it is moving blood from one area to another And we know blood is full of plasma, it's full of growth factors that actually help an area of the body heal.

So again, cupping therapy is just essentially improving circulation to an area and improving blood, bringing blood to an area to support it in healing. Typically done with glass cups, sometimes today a plastic-like material, and it really focuses on the surface of the skin, pulling all that blood flow to an area. Okay. A surface.

And this can be done dry or wet, and again, a very common practice in traditional Chinese medicine and done by acupuncturists today. So let's dive right in and talk about the many benefits of cupping, a few of them which may surprise you. Number 1, it helps reduce pain. Again, it does this by— if you— and I'll give you an example for myself personally.

The first time I ever went to an acupuncturist, one of the reasons I went for was was because I had this muscle spasm in the back of my shoulder. I was having some shoulder pain and aching with my teres minor muscle. And so you may have had this or maybe you lacked range of motion. I'd get my arm kind of here and it would catch a little bit because of a hyperextension injury I had in my shoulder.

And I'd done other therapies and nothing was seeming to help. I got cupping done and immediately I was able to move the area. What happens in cupping is it really— imagine you've got a tight and tense muscle, it creates this sort of sucking action on that muscle to where it's kind of like a deep tissue massage and they did it for about 30 minutes.

And finally, when you pull it off, it just releases and that muscle completely relaxes. At the same time, pulling blood to the area which actually supports that muscle if there's an injured tissue in that area, supports it in healing. So number one benefit of cupping, it can help reduce pain and muscle spasm. In most areas of muscles and tendons. Number 2, it really promotes relaxation.

I talked about that earlier. Now, this is commonly used both in— for athletes as well as in traditional Chinese medicine in the trap area, okay?

Especially if you ever get pain and tension in your shoulder areas, in your traps and upper back area, this is a great therapy to use because again, it's kind of like a deep tissue massage to where it really sort of pulls in that muscle and when it lets go, that muscle completely relaxes. So again, it's great for promoting relaxation especially of shoulder tension.

Number 3, it really boosts skin health. Again, oftentimes what can happen is we can lack circulation area or maybe you have an area of your body that, let's say again, a sprained ankle or a sprained— well, let's use a sprained shoulder for example.

Your body went through a healing process of having inflammation, it brought blood flow there, and it did it one time, but maybe that area of the body was only healed 70%, not 100%, so you're left with kind of chronic issues.

What can happen in cupping is it's essentially like restarting the healing process for a second time, bringing new blood into an area, maybe allowing that part of the body to go from 70% healed, maybe up to 80% or 90% and beyond. By improving that circulation and blood flow through an area.

So again, in terms of skin health, if you have an area of your skin that's not getting enough blood flow or didn't get enough, cupping can bring blood to the area, really allowing that area to regenerate and heal through the power of plasma and platelets. In fact, you may have heard of a therapy called PRP, platelet-rich plasma.

It's about 6% of your blood is really high in healing and growth factors. Okay. And so anyways, kind of similar thing here, we're getting that blood to the area to support healing. Now, another really common practice with cupping is using it to support respiratory issues and colds.

So what practitioners of Chinese medicine will do or other people that practice cupping is they'll go to the upper back and middle back area right where your lungs are and they'll do cupping in that area. What that does is it really helps improve circulation of the lungs. Yeah. And really moving stagnation.

What can happen sometimes when we have bronchitis or any type of respiratory issue or cold is we can get stagnation, which means things aren't moving. You may have mucus or phlegm just sitting there in the lungs.

Well, cupping helps break that up and really helps increase that flow and that circulation in your lungs, helping you recover from a cold and flu more quickly and helping break up some of that mucus and phlegm that could be sitting there in your lungs. And number 5, it can relieve digestive trouble. Again, one of the issues a lot of people have today is stagnation.

Stagnation means something is sitting there and it's not moving properly. Your body should always be moving. You should be having strong blood flow and digestive motility. Your liver should be releasing bile and cleansing and detoxing. If your body is stagnant, you're not in full— your body is not able to fully heal.

So again, using cupping therapy in different areas to really support the stomach, the small intestine, and colon in moving can actually really help the body in healing. That's another big benefit of cupping. And so here's a few things to know about different types of cupping. Number 1, you can do dry cupping or fire cupping.

Now, this is the cupping that I personally use most often with actually my personal acupuncturist. And with the patients that I've referred to acupuncturists over the years. There's also moving cupping. Now, dry cupping, they'll typically put the cup in one area and leave it there. Now, in moving cupping, this acts even more like a massage and this can be very good for muscular tension.

They'll take the cup, put it on the area, not just leave it in one area, they'll actually continually move it around actually allowing a larger area to be massaged. To receive those benefits and actually, again, this is very, very good especially for people with muscle spasm and tight tendons.

Wet cupping and bleeding cupping, this is the cupping that was used in a lot of ancient Chinese medicine especially when somebody had a skin condition. Again, if somebody has a stagnant skin condition, even things like eczema and psoriasis, they can use this in certain cases as well. Bleeding cupping, and bleeding cupping was again often used if there was a lot of edema or swelling in an area.

Sometimes they would pierce the area with a little blood and that would allow even more flow of that blood and really helping get rid of swelling out of an area if there's a lot of swelling or chronic swelling. Now, cupping versus acupuncture, again, both are part of Chinese medicine. Both can promote optimal qi, and qi essentially means in Chinese medicine, it's essentially your body's energy.

If you see somebody who's kind of worn out and tired all the time, they'd say that person has low qi versus if somebody is really bright-eyed, you know those people, they're just sort of glowing, they're full of energy, it's overflowing, they would say in Chinese medicine that person has a lot of qi. It's just a lot of energy. Both draw energy and blood flow from different areas of the body.

Both dispel stagnation, really improving circulation in the body to help fight disease. Both promote relaxation, boost energy, relieve tension. Acupuncture uses needles to really improve circulation and movement in the body, whereas cupping is doing it with the cups. Acupuncture is dry and acupuncture penetrates the skin where cupping does not. Now, here are some precautions.

You know, avoid cupping if you have skin infections in an area. Now, if you have an infection, you don't want to move that, right? You don't want to get throughout that throughout the body and move it. So you wouldn't want to use cupping if you have an infection in that area. Not recommended for pregnant women, just being overly cautious there.

And also, cupping is considered a safe practice, but find a well-trained licensed practitioner. It's typically going to be an acupuncturist. Or sometimes it's going to be a certified, whether it's an athletic trainer or somebody who does this and who has been properly trained. So here are the big benefits of cupping therapy and where you may consider using it.

Number one, if you have chronic pain in an area, especially muscular or tendon tension, promotes relaxation, boosts skin health, can improve respiratory issues, especially if you have a lot of stagnation in the lungs, and release. Digestive trouble.

And again, this is a practice that's literally been done for thousands of years, has great benefits by harnessing your body's own blood to improve healing and circulation in an area. And hey, if you've enjoyed this live training video on cupping, hey, make sure to subscribe here to the YouTube channel.

You know, I've got a lot of great videos coming up more on Chinese medicine, herbal remedies, essential oils, and a whole lot more. Also, hey, if you want to learn more about cupping, you can do a Google search online for Dr. Axe cupping. I've got a lot more information out there on traditional Chinese medicine and herbs. Guys, hey, thanks for watching. Hi, Dr. Axe here.

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