Cupping Therapy
Ever heard of cupping therapy?
Maybe you’ve seen the infamous red circles it leaves on the skin?
Let us tell you what all the buzz is about!
Cupping therapy has become quite popular in the world of sports and rehabilitation these past couple of years. And I bet most of you have seen those big bruise looking circles left on the skin after receiving cupping therapy. The marks look painful, gross, etc. But what are they from and how did they get there?
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What is cupping therapy? It’s an ancient form of alternative medicine that can be performed as dry, wet, or even fire cupping. We only do dry cupping in our office. Cupping therapy works great when paired with the chiropractic adjustment. Chiropractic focuses on diagnosis and treatment of the musculoskeletal, and cupping helps by directly affecting the muscles and nerves. Is it used with every patient? No. Is it ever done by itself in our office? Typically not, however, it varies case by case. Now let’s dive more into what it is!
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So what does cupping therapy do? It’s been shown to improve blood flow, reduce inflammation, loosen adhesions under the skin, as well as providing relaxation. By pulling the skin away from the muscle and underlying structures with the suction cups, it quickens and promotes healing by bringing in new blood and nutrients to the area. Additionally, cupping therapy also provides detoxifying capabilities which brings impurities to the surface.
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How is it done in our office? There are two different ways we use (both shown in the video below). The first way is when the cups are left in one place for the entire duration of the treatment. This is when you’ll typically get those circular red marks on the skin after treatment. The other way we perform cupping is using lotion and moving one cup at a time while it is suctioned to the skin. This is a more dynamic way of providing cupping therapy and you most likely won’t walk away with those welt looking skin marks afterwards. Either way, you will lay or sit depending on the area of skin we need to expose. Whether we do it before or after your adjustment depends on your current condition and is at the doctor’s discretion.
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Does cupping hurt? Although at first you feel a high amount of tension/pinchy feeling on the skin when the cups are first placed, once they sit there for a few minutes you get used to the feeling and it becomes numb and relaxing.
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How long do they stay on for? From anywhere from 5 minutes and up to 15 minutes depending on if you’ve had treatment before, how big the area is, if we’re doing rehab with the cupping, etc.
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What does rehab with cupping look like? This is when I place cups statically on an area, such as the shoulder, and I have the patient go through a series of movements while the cups are on. This is included but not limited to performing active range of motion, banded resistance exercises, and open and closed chain exercises. It all depends on where the patient is in their recovery journey.
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How often is cupping done? It depends! It depends highly on the patient’s condition and how they are presenting that day. However, when cupping therapy is paired with the chiropractic we practice, eventually your muscle tightness should not keep reoccurring since we do everything we can to help fix your function. Therefore, cupping should never be a long term treatment. That is unless you are a high performance athlete and really like using it for recovery after such intense and high volume muscle use.
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So how do you know if you need cupping therapy? In office after we assess your musculoskeletal issue we may suggest trying this as an adjunct to your chiropractic care. If you haven’t been suggested cupping therapy but are interested to try it, talk to us at your next visit and we will see if it is something that you could benefit from!
