How Cupping Works

Cupping therapies have been the subject of much curiosity, speculation and subsequent research in recent years. Today we have scientific standards of measurement and proof of efficacy available, thereby offering some insight into why cups have been used for overall wellness throughout recorded history.

To understand how cupping therapies work, it is important to specify the mechanisms of action that occur on a physiological level. Research has identified three primary, physiological responses that occur simultaneously:

1. negative pressure
2. vasodilation
3. enhanced fluid exchange.

Once applied, cups lift the tissue and begin to take effect with negative pressure. This pressure creates a pulling action which offers decompression and allows for the separation of fused or adhered tissue. Cupping has been designated as “Myofascial decompression (MFD)” in current Western medicine cultures.

Similar to the pressure of massage, the applied negative pressure stimulates a local reflex response, promoting the release of vaso-activating chemicals (histamines, acetylcholine), which in turn encourages the lumen of blood vessels to dilate and allows for fluids to rush into or through an area more efficiently. Due to their suction pump effect on the body, cups stimulate and enhance the body’s respective fluid exchange processes.

The combination of negative pressure, vasodilation and enhanced fluid exchange allows for some incredible therapeutic reactions to take place.

Benefits of Cupping

Here is an overview of how cups affect the human body through various application:

Cupping encourage circulation. One of cupping’s most notable benefits is the encouragement of blood circulation, venous return and lymph fluid movements. The adjacent thermographic photos (see images) show how the person’s overall blood distribution has increased exponentially through gentle, non-aggressive cupping applications.

Cupping alleviate adhesions. Adhesions are defined as any two anatomical surfaces stuck or growing together that do not naturally connect. From cellulite to scar tissue, cupping offers improvement that is immediate, palpable and lasting.

Cupping clear congestion and stagnation. Anything stagnant in an otherwise healthy internal environment predominantly leads to dysfunction and disease. Cups help clear stagnation from the skin, muscles, bones, joints, organs and even energies (whether emotional energies from trauma, or in reference to ‘qi’ or ‘chi,’ as is used in Traditional Chinese Medicinal cupping applications).

Cupping can lift, rehydrate and manipulate fascia. Fascia is a connective tissue that benefits from manipulation, hydration and improved pliability. Cups force hydration into and through these fluid-rich structures, while the negative pressure allows for a lifting and stretching mechanism to occur; this provides an opportunity to create space and pliability where it may have been lacking.

Cupping can cause microtraumas in tissues. This is the point of much discussion surrounding a true cupping mark versus a painfully adverse reaction to cupping. Cupping can bring about beneficial inflammation to encourage deep-seated restrictions to clear and rebuild healthy tissue, thus encouraging the body’s own process of regeneration.

Cupping encourage neovascularization. Speaking of the body’s healing potential, neovascularization is the process by which new blood vessels form from already existing healthy vessels, bringing a fresh supply of nutrients and oxygen to previously deficient tissues. Cupping can stimulate this response in areas of injury or damaged tissue, which in turn can speed recovery.

Cupping helps alleviate excessive pressure on sensory organs in soft tissue, which leads to a reduction in pain. The benefits of cupping begin at the skin level, stimulating the various sensory receptors, which inevitably take effect on every adjacent structure. Some applications intend to affect the central nervous system by addressing the regional sympathetic nerves, plexuses, and the various organs innervated from the relative nerves. From superficial skin sensitivities like some fibromyalgia conditions to deeper levels of anatomy involved in musculoskeletal pain, the negative pressure of cupping has a positive influence on nociceptors, which in turn releases pain patterns, ultimately changing the peripheral feedback to the central nervous system.

Would you like to try cupping?

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