The history of cupping dates back as far as 5000 years. The earliest mentioned of this technique was found within the Ebers Papyrus from Egypt estimated date to be 1550 B.C.E (Priso, 200). Cupping has also been mentioned by Hippocrates in Greece around 400 B.C. The prophet Mohammad also refers to this modality in the Quran approximately 1400 years ago (Priso 18). China has cupping techniques mentioned as far back as 3000 years ago within their medical treatises (Priso 18).
A variety of materials used were glass, bamboo, or earthenware (H. Cao, X. Li, J. Liu 1). The issues that cupping can be treated for are pain, hypertension, stroke rehabilitation, hypertension, herpes zoster, muscle fatigue, fevers, and many other ailments.
Techniques
There are many different techniques with cupping. They are dry cupping, moving cupping, the combining of cupping and acupuncture, cupping and moxibustion, cupping and Gua Sha, cupping and Tui Na, and wet cupping. These various techniques are determined by the complaint of the client and the practitioner. There are also some of these techniques that are no …show more content…
It is rarely used as a standalone form of therapy (Priso 95). This technique involves applying suction cups over soft tissue (Markowski,). Variations of this technique are using an air pump to suck the air out of the cup or the use of fire by lighting a cotton ball soaked in rubbing alcohol in the glass cup to heat it up and create suction when place on the body. The cups remain on the body for approximately 3-5 minutes before being removed. The darker the bruising left behind the more analytical of that point the practitioner will become (Priso 116). Ventosa is the modern movement of moving the cups to release stagnation. This variation of dry cupping is followed by massage and is mainly used for relaxation and not necessarily for ailment treatment (Conrad