Cupping. What is does and what it doesn't

Cupping has always been a tradition in natural therapies and sports. It’s very common to see world level athletes have circular red marks during competition. Cupping has been widely used then and now but the reason why has always been an individual understanding. Is there science behind cupping?

The original cupping started out with the “fire cupping”. It’s the method of cupping where they use fire to heat up the cup and create a pressure difference that will vacuum the skin inside the cup. Traditional thinking says it will suck out toxins from the blood and detoxify the body. It will also increase blood flow. Natural therapists has connected with this concept so much that they have even developed wet cupping. A method of cupping where they puncture the skin with needles before using the cups. The vacuum will draw out the blood, Or dirty blood, or bring blood to where it needs to be. Depends on who you ask.

But does this make sense? Well, It sounds like it does. However, it will lose its sense as we focus on the characteristic of each contributing factor.

Can it detoxify? What is detoxifying? Most of the body’s detoxification is done by the liver. A chemical process where the body spends its resource to eliminate toxins. Sweating detoxifies the body too. In theory, cupping can take out local toxins, the only way to know is to measure the level of toxin in the skin and the blood before and after. For sure it can lessen superficial toxicity in the skin. But is it a net positive? Is manual suction of bodily elements worth the inflammation and “normal blood” that is already doing its job of detoxifying? More often than not, no.

Can it increase blood flow? Yes, it can. The pressure in the cup is enough to make a physiological difference to bring in more fluid to the local area. But this is an unnatural intervention. Normally, the body has its own priorities on which part the blood has to go first. It can be a good idea to assist the body in healing what you want it to heal first, but not always. The body has an intelligent makeup and only in rare instances will it need redirection with how it handles self maintenance.

Now that two of the most common reason for cupping has a grain of salt, let’s bring in the other reasons that isn’t always the go to explanation.

Introducing Fascia. Fascia is that thin membrane that separates the muscle group from each other and from the skin. Fascia was discovered much later than traditional cupping. But where does fascia fit into cupping? Well, fascia, apparently, has proprioceptor that detects its positions and informs the brain. When the cup sucks the skin inside it, it moves the fascia along with it. When it does this, it has two possible consequence: one, it stresses the normal range of the proprioceptor which would produce pain, then if you leave it for awhile, the brain will reset its tolerance and accept this level of change as normal, and when you release the cups, the brain will send signals of relief and “freeness” relative to the cup restriction. The second one is that moving the fascia will redistribute the local electrolytes and allow the brain to have a continues flow of electrical signal and interpret it as better awareness of the local area, similar to a myo-fascial release massage technique.

Whether it’s For a high level athlete that needs maximum awareness or for the layman who wants the feeling of relief, cupping, in all its explanations, often feels rewarding for the receiver. But what it actually does in the body relative to the dysfunctions it is applied for is a hit or miss with little objectivity that can’t be done with other more efficient form of therapy.