What Is Cupping Therapy?
Cupping therapy is an ancient form of alternative medicine where a therapist puts special cups on your skin for a few minutes to create suction. The idea is to draw blood to or away from parts of your body. People get it for many reasons, such as pain and inflammation relief, relaxation and well-being, and as a type of deep-tissue massage. It is also called Hijama ( Arabic) and in Arab countries Hijama is the most common, traditional and efficient way of treatment.
Cupping therapy is putting suction cups on your back to help with pain, inflammation, and other health problems.
The cups may be made of:
- Glass
- Bamboo
- Earthenware
- Silicone
- Plastic
Types of Cupping Therapy
The two main types of cupping are:
- Dry
- Wet
For either type, in the traditional method (fire cupping), your healer puts a flammable substance such as alcohol, herbs, or paper, inside a cup and sets it on fire. As the fire goes out, they put the cup upside down on your skin.
When the air inside the cup cools, it creates a vacuum. This causes your skin to rise and redden as your blood vessels expand.
A modern version of cupping uses a rubber pump instead of fire to create a vacuum inside the cup.
Dry cupping therapy
Dry cupping is simple and is the preferred method in the West because it's easy to do and doesn't involve blood. The therapist just applies the cups to your skin, compressing them with their hands, a pump, or a flame if using glass cups. (They may apply lotion first). They leave the cups in place for 5-10 minutes. You can have this therapy done as often as once or twice a week.
Dry cupping may be combined with a massage. This is called massage cupping or running cupping. Your therapist puts lotion or oil on your skin and moves silicone cups back and forth, up and down, or in circles on your skin for a massage-like effect.
Dry cupping is meant to increase blood flow while removing fluids and toxins from the area being treated. The fluids are said to have high levels of substances related to diseases.
Wet cupping therapy
In wet cupping, your therapist first creates a mild suction by leaving a cup on your back for about 3 minutes. They remove the cup and use a small scalpel to make light, tiny cuts on your skin. Next, they do a second suction to draw out a small quantity of blood. They might leave those cups in place for 10-15 minutes.
The idea is the cuts attract inflammatory cells and cause the release of natural pain relievers and mood enhancers called endogenous opioids. These help your body fight infections and maintain immunity.
You might get three to five cups in your first session. Or you might just try one to see how it goes. It’s rare to get more than five to seven cups, the British Cupping Society notes.
After treatment, you'll get an antibiotic ointment and bandage to prevent infection. Your skin should look normal again within 10 days. You can repeat wet cupping every 4-8 weeks.
Wet cupping can also be done in a two-step version where your therapist doesn't start with suction but first makes cuts in the skin and then applies the suction cups.
Benefits of Cupping Therapy
It's not exactly clear how cupping works to ease pain and cure diseases, though there are several theories. There haven’t been many scientific studies on cupping.
One report, published in 2015 in the Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine, notes that it could help with acne, herpes zoster, and pain management. But the researchers said many of the studies they reviewed could have been biased and that better studies were needed.
Cupping therapy is used to treat:
- Blood disorders such as anemia and hemophilia
- Rheumatic diseases such as arthritis and fibromyalgia
- Fertility and gynecological disorders
- Skin problems such as eczema and acne
- Back pain and other types of body pain
- High blood pressure
- Migraines
- Anxiety and depression
- Bronchial congestion caused by allergies and asthma
- Varicose veins
The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health says there's not enough high-quality research to determine whether cupping can be used for all these conditions.
Cupping for pain management
The "pain-gate" theory says that the touch and pressure from cupping stimulate large nerve fibers, which results in the blocking of pain signals to the brain sent by other nerves. The gate control system is in our spinal cords. So, activating these nerve fibers can block pain transmission.
Does it work? One 2023 review of existing studies found that cupping seemed effective for managing chronic pain, knee osteoarthritis, low back pain, neck pain, chronic back pain, and herpes zoster. But the studies were all of low to moderate quality. In general, experts see cupping as something that should complement conventional medicine rather than replace it.
Cupping for acne
In the immune system theory, cupping can reduce inflammatory substances and increase the production of substances to improve your immune system. Cupping may also boost your body's antioxidant processes. So, cupping might be able to help with skin conditions. One Iranian study compared two groups of people. One got acne medicine along with wet cupping, while the other got acne medicine and "sham cupping" (a device that felt like real cupping but had a tiny hole). The group that got the medicine and the wet cupping showed more improvement than the control group.
Cupping with acupuncture
Some people get "needle cupping," where the therapist first inserts acupuncture needles and then puts cups over them. The idea is that the cupping loosens muscles while the needles relieve the pain. One study showed that ear acupuncture combined with cupping therapy was more effective in treating chronic back pain than treatment using only ear acupuncture.
Cupping Points
You can have cupping on any part of your skin where suction cups can be applied. The most common areas are the:
- Back
- Chest
- Stomach
- Buttocks
These all have a lot of muscle. Less common areas include the chin, the crown of the head, thighs, neck, and shoulders.