Cupping therapy is an alternative medicine that is used to address different health issues. At this therapy, the doctor puts a special cup on the skin around the targeted area to create suction. This helps promote blood flow, reduce inflammation, and more. For this reason, cupping therapy has become so popular worldwide.
Below are 8 health benefits of cupping therapy you need to know about.
1. Improve circulation
In cupping therapy, special cups are placed on your skin to create suction, improving the blood flow to a particular area of your body. This helps ease many issues like muscle soreness and promotes cell repair. Improved circulation may also help you strengthen connective tissues and reduce the appearance of cellulite.
2. Promote relaxation
If you need relaxation, give cupping a try. Cupping can assist in relieving physical discomfort and calm the central nervous system, giving you a feeling of complete relaxation. It helps relax muscles within the body and relieve tension. What’s more, it can help protect you from anxiety and improve your mood.
3. Relieve inflammation and pain
Cupping is a natural and safe way to relieve pain. It helps decrease swelling, reduce muscle knots, and ease scar tissue inside muscles and connective tissues. Just like many other alternative therapies, cupping reduces circulating toxins by drawing them into the skin, where they may be eliminated easily.
4. Help treat varicose veins
Cupping therapy can help in the treatment of spider and varicose veins. Varicose veins are a condition when bulging and bluish veins appear just under the surface of your skin. In most cases, this condition affects the legs and feet. It happens when the valves inside your legs become weaker and cannot work properly. As a result, only a part of the blood returns to the heart, while the other part of the blood congests and makes them bulges.
Cupping improves blood circulation and can help the blood return to the heart. It helps improve the appearance of spider and varicose veins. If you have a mild form of varicose veins, you may see improvements after the first visit to the cupping therapy specialist.
5. Reduce anxiety and depression
Cupping therapy involves moving cups within your body. This stimulates your parasympathetic nervous system, helps your body get rid of toxins, and promotes the production of endorphins (feel-good hormones). All these improve your overall well-being and help relieve the symptoms of anxiety and depression.
6. Help treat breathing problems
Cupping can be used to relieve congestion (the accumulation of fluid in your lungs) associated with different health problems like a cold, bronchitis, or even asthma. It transports oxygen-rich blood and lymph to your respiratory system, helping to break up and remove congestion from your lungs.
To treat breathing problems the doctor can place cups both on your back and on the chest. The therapist can leave cups in one place for several minutes or gently move them to promote the movement of the lymph fluid.
7. Reduce stretch marks and scars
Cupping is good for your skin health. It increases the blood flow to your skin. This promotes the regeneration of the targeted tissues and boosts the synthesis of collagen. Regular cupping therapy can help you reduce the appearance of stretch marks and scars on your body. It improves skin elasticity and may prevent skin sagging.
8. Improve digestion
Cupping stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, increasing the blood flow to your digestive tract. Abdominal cupping therapy stimulates your digestive organs and promotes peristalsis (contractions that drive food through your digestive tract). This helps prevent constipation, promotes the movement of blood and bodily fluids through your organs, and relieves indigestion.
