Struggling to Bend Over from Tight Hip Flexors?
A group of front leg muscles at the hips, the hip flexors provide certain leg motions at the hip. When you have trouble bending over at the waist, tight hip flexor muscles might be the problem.
Cupping Therapy: An Ancient Practice with Benefits for Today
One of the fundamental principles guiding chiropractic treatment is acknowledging that the body is the best healer, and that our role as practitioners is as supporters of that healing efficiency.
That’s why at Active Care Chiropractic & Rehabilitation we use additional techniques and treatments like cupping therapy, a traditional Chinese practice that uses suction to help the body heal itself. A drug-free manual therapy, cupping treats a range of conditions, including soft tissue injuries, inflammation, and pain by directing and stimulating blood flow, the delivery avenue for the resources of natural healing.
Today, we’ll look at modern cupping therapy, a technique we use to treat a wide range of ailments and conditions using negative pressure for deep tissue stimulation.
What is cupping?
Simply, cupping uses a cup-shaped device, made from materials like glass, plastic, silicone, or bamboo, as a chamber that holds a partial vacuum that stimulates your skin and the tissue below.
This negative pressure creates a physical effect called vasodilation, a widening of blood vessels to temporarily increase blood flow. Cupping is also strong enough to rupture tiny capillaries, creating a bruised appearance, though there’s no damage to muscle fibers as there would be in an actual bruise.
What should I expect from a cupping treatment?
Cupping isn’t painful. You’ll feel tightness on your skin as the negative pressure pulls on the treatment area. After your treatment, you may feel some mild discomfort, an indication of the suction working on your tissue. The characteristic skin discoloration may last up to two weeks in the treatment area, but it usually disappears in half that time.
Benefits of cupping
There are a wide range of potential benefits to cupping, though individual responses can vary widely between patients. Cupping is safe, and it doesn’t interfere with other aspects of your treatment, since it’s natural and drug-free.
Some of the potential effects of cupping therapy include:
- Increased blood circulation
- Reduced local inflammation
- Pressure point stimulation
- Boosted cellular immunity
- Mechanical stretching of underlying tissue
- Breakup of tissue adhesions
- Improved local anaerobic metabolism
- Removing toxin and waste particles too large for the lymphatic system
- Overall relaxation
- Increased pain thresholds
Placing cups on acupressure points can expand the benefits of your treatment as well as becoming a potential therapy for conditions like:
- Cervical spondylosis
- Facial paralysis
- Diabetes
- High blood pressure
- Asthma
- Shingles
- Disc herniation
- Carpal tunnel syndrome
There are few side effects associated with cupping, apart from the skin discolorations caused by the cups and negative pressure. There may be additional discoloration resulting from skin irritation from the cups’ rims.
There are situations where cupping is not recommended, such as when you’re taking blood-thinning medications, have a recent sunburn, or other wounds or skin conditions.
Learn more about modern cupping therapy by meeting with a practitioner at the nearest location of Active Care Chiropractic & Rehabilitation. Schedule your consultation online or by phone today.
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