Edinburgh Natural Health Centre

Cupping in Edinburgh

What is Cupping?
Cupping is a very ancient art, not confined to China. Indeed one of the main experts on cupping comes from Turkey, and in many countries, including China, it is a therapy that can easily be learned and applied to one another by members of the family! So, as long as you know what you are doing, it is very safe.

However, it is also a powerful therapeutic system which can work on its own or with other therapies.

First if necessary, your skin is cleaned and may have oil gently massaged into it - olive oil perhaps, or a medicinal oil, which helps the cups grip better and may also provide therapeutic benefits. Cups are placed open-end down on your skin. (Or mugs, or special bamboo segments: almost any container will do as long as its edge is smooth and not sharp.)

Traditionally, before the cup is placed there, a lighted taper is briefly placed inside the cup, heating the air there so that when placed face-down on your skin, a vacuum is created as the air cools, so pulling the tissues up into it. Whilst this method is still often used, many practitioners now use specially made cups with rubber spheres which when compressed produce the vacuum as they try to regain their shape.

What does cupping do?
As the tissues are pulled in, it initially causes a kind of bruise in the area which encourages blood to flow into the area underneath, so cupping encourages blood flow and warms the area.

The effect, from the point of view of Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), is that it helps to move stagnation, one of the main causes of disease. Stagnation can occur with various concepts in TCM, such as 'qi', 'blood' and phlegm. It can move energy along meridians, help your organs - such as your lungs - work better, relieve breathing congestion, ease joints and much more.

And it can bring damaging pathogens (forces of illness) to the surface, helping your body in effect detoxify itself. For example, someone catching a cold might be sneezing, feeling chilly and beginning to cough or snort out phlegm. These are diagnosed in Chinese medicine as being due to 'invasion of wind-cold'. This 'invasion' blocks the meridians, builds up phlegm and causes the discomfort.

If the condition is caught early, cupping on this person's back 'opens up' the acupuncture meridians and moves the congestion, and a few minutes of cupping often sends the cold on its way: it just doesn't develop as had been expected. Or it might lead to a strong sweat after which the fever/chill sensation goes, and the cold with it.

For someone who has grown up with the idea that germs or viruses cause illness and once your body has 'caught' an illness, a whole process has to take place in which your body produces white blood cells that destroy the invader, meantime giving you the pleasure of a fever, a headache and a rotten week of feeling wretched, this is inexplicable. But when you see it work, the alternative viewpoint of TCM seems equally unassailable. Cupping works!

In TCM what does cupping do?
So overall, what does cupping do in terms of Chinese medicine? Bear in mind that the aim of Chinese medicine is to enable 'qi' to flow freely through the body, and for that 'qi' to manifest through healthy blood, organs and a spirited attitude to life. In effect, if you have pain, TCM would say that it is due to either too much, or too little qi, or the wrong kind of qi.

What is 'qi'? you ask. Energy manifests in your body as bones and blood, sinews and brain. But it also shows itself in heat and cold, dampness and dryness, in feeling 'good' or 'dispirited'. The Chinese concept of qi is an attempt to give a name to what you feel and see: so you can have an invasion of 'wind' when you'll feel shivery, itchy, hot and cold, restless and unsettled - just like the leaves on a tree in a wind. So they called it 'wind'.

If you have an invasion of 'damp' you'll feel heavy and probably find your limbs or joints where it hurts (a heavy ache, or stiffness) a little swollen.

'Heat' is easy: you'll feel and look hot, red, perhaps sweaty, and you'll be thirsty. There are other external invasive forms of qi called 'cold', and 'dryness'.

All these are different forms of 'qi' - in the case of wind, damp and heat, they are unpleasant, invasive forms which can make you ill. To defend yourself you have your own defensive energy or 'wei qi' which circulates just under your skin, with the intention to keep out external 'evils' like 'wind' and 'damp'. The stronger your defensive 'wei' qi is the less easily will these external pathogenic (illness forming) energies invade you.

Keeping the defensive 'wei' qi nourished and in order is the 'qi' that runs along in your 'meridians' of acupuncture, bringing life and energy to your limbs.

So in Chinese medicine, everything is seen as a form of 'qi', even blood and how spirited you are. And if you go to see someone who practises Chinese medicine, or a classically trained acupuncturist, as you chat away to them they'll be quietly assessing the levels and types of 'qi' that you have.

Sounds a lot of nonsense? Maybe, but once you have eyes to see it, it makes a lot of sense and traditional Chinese medicine is at least one system of medicine that bases much of what it does upon this concept - energy: 'qi'!

So where there is illness or pain, by definition the qi has become either deficient or blocked, or out of balance. This may be due to trauma, emotional stress, or some kind of illness. Cupping helps qi and blood move and by doing so it regulates how healthy and pain-free you are.

Cupping can also bring unwanted energies, like those of a cold, to the surface of your body, helping your body expel them. So it not only improves your circulation, helps improve your blood and your nervous system, it can help remove pain, and relax you, your muscles and your joints - so can be good for arthritis!

Many people like cupping as a regular treatment to keep them relaxed and fit, a bit like a massage - which they might have just before. But cupping has been out of fashion for nearly a century, powerful though it is as a therapy.

Is it painful?
Less than a strong massage, but actually most people quite like it.

Does it leave a mark?
Yes, sometimes there is a bruised mark the shape of the opening of the cup. Unlike other bruises, these marks usually go within a few hours after the second and subsequent treatments, because your body tissues become healthier and heal faster.

But after the first cupping treatment, the bruise-like marks can remain for a few days, even up to a week. So don't have cupping for the first time if you plan on wearing a bareback or strapless gown, or a holiday on the beach in just your swim-suit. People might notice!

Does cupping combine with any other therapies?
Yes: with Chinese herbal medicine and with acupuncture for example. Indeed, there is a Chinese saying that with cupping and acupuncture together, 'more than half the ills of the world can be cured'.

But it combines with other hands-on therapies including aromatherapy and many forms of massage and manipulation.

From this you can see that it is a powerful therapy - but not a cure-all. There are illnesses which are too deep for cupping, though perhaps if cupping had been used earlier, that disease would not have occurred.

What happens during a cupping session?
Cupping doesn't work through clothing or on very hairy areas, so once you've had the initial consultation to decide what sort of treatment is appropriate, when you receive cupping the area of the body being cupped must be available for direct contact and not too hairy.

If cupping is being done on your back, for example, you would normally lie bareback face down, or sit the reverse way in a chair, leaning forward.

First you may receive a gentle massage in the area, just to loosen you up, and perhaps some massage oil to smooth your skin.

Then the cups are placed in position, sometimes by using 'fire' cupping, which uses a lighted taper to heat the air in the cup so that as the air cools a vacuum is created, or using rubber spheres on the top of the cups.

When the cups are in position, they may be left in position, or slid across the skin.

Sometimes cupping is combined with acupuncture as it can accentuate the action of the needles.

After a period of time, the cups either fall off naturally, or are released.

The area is cleaned and wiped down after the session, and then you get dressed. But don't rush! You may be feeling drowsy, so take your time to get up. And depending on where the cups were put, you may feel hungry: have a light meal.

Appointments
Almost every modern acupuncturist is also trained in cupping and as such, most tend to think of cupping as a secondary therapy. But rightly used, it is so powerful that it can attain primary position sometimes.

If you want to try it, ring us on 07950-012501 or 0131 346 8186, or email us using the form on our contact page.

Cost
Cupping sessions take up to 45 minutes and cost £45 except at the initial consultation which is charged at £45 per half-hour. If used with another form of therapy at the same time, there is no extra charge for it.

We ask that you pay by cheque or in cash.

Jonathan Clogstoun-Willmott has practised cupping on his patients for almost 30 years. He works at

The Edinburgh Natural Health Centre
GP Plus
1 Wemyss Place
Edinburgh EH12 6HD

07950-012501
0131 346 8186

Email: info@enhc.co.uk