Monday, December 3, 2012

Cupping

Cupping is something that I wanted to have done in Cambodia, but somehow never got around to. My host father was a nurse/x-ray technician, so they were much more into western medicine than traditional medicine.

Cupping is where they take little plastic shaped cups and create suction either with the use of fire or a mechanical device. They put the cups on your back and they suck up some of the skin. You leave them on there for say maybe 15 minutes....and then you release them from your back and you have nice purple poka dots on your back for a week or so.

It's traditional medicine that comes from China. They use it most often when someone has a cold. They believe, and there is some stuff to back it up, and it increases the circulation and releases toxins and gets your lymph nodes going. You can read more of the scientific stuff here.

Hal's mom is really into natural medicine and before she even knew that we were sad we never got cupped in Cambodia, she had bought a cupping set to try out. So what did they do after filling our bellies with pie on Thanksgiving? They decided to cup Hal.



I guess he did have a cold at the time and now he's all better, so perhaps it did help. Hal says he felt a lot better after this. Either way, it was a very cool thing to try.

There's been more talk recently of people using cupping for pain relief and to obtain relief for a number of problems. Such as this article from the Wall Street Journal says. So hey, maybe it's worth trying after all, and not just for the experience.

P.s. I linked up here



9 comments:

Selma @ Crazy Little World Of Mine said...

Oh WOW. it kinda looks like he has little cakes on his back. lol and it's so weird to see all of this...but hey, if it helps it helps.

xoxo

Jessi said...

Wow that's kind of odd looking! Haha it almost looks painful? Never heard of this before, thanks for sharing.
-Jessi
haircutandgeneralattitude.blogspot.com

Marlen said...

That looks like it'd hurt haha it's an interesting idea though. I like learning about natural medicine, and most of the time I feel like it does the trick just as well as western medicine.

Why Girls Are Weird said...

That is so strange... it looks like it would hurt!

Kell said...

Maybe that looks really weird.. but it also looks like something I'd try. I don't know why it doesn't seem painful to me.

Anonymous said...
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Torrie said...

Wow, I've never heard of this before. Not gonna lie, it looks a little scary! All those little skin lumps look painful! But at the same time, a tiny part of me wants to try it out just to see what it's like, too...hmmm...

Crazy Shenanigans-JMO said...

I've actually had this done!!! I went once after someone recommended it to help my neck and back pain after a wreck. I had those huge bruises for like TWO weeks on me but it did help!

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