Gua Sha, Cupping, Hijama

[Captain_Coconut]

Thread is not for the squeamish.

Anyone here do this? I have done gua sha in the past and always noticed it helps with pain a good amount. I am interested in wet cupping (hijama), particularly the concept that the blood that is pulled out is somehow full of toxins. Is there any evidence to support this concept?? It is interesting because within under a minute, much of the blood which comes out can be congealed and thick, without having much time to be exposed to air or to clot, it does not look to be the same kind of blood one sees from a small wound. It is also interesting since the vacuum effect of the cup would mean there is not a lot of air available to form clots anyway... In my experience clotting usually takes about 15 minutes to even see the first stages of congealing. I tried it out today for the first time, and also took aspirin before, which would prevent the clotting, nonetheless after just a few minutes of bleeding there was a thick jelly like mass. The other interesting thing I noted is certain spots only release clear normal looking blood, where as other spots, which also happen to be my areas of muscle tension / chronic pain - these spots all have let out a good deal of that thick nasty looking stuff... yum!

 

[Captain_Coconut]

Is it possible to remove heavy metals from the body by wet cupping therapy (Al-hijamah)?

http://nopr.niscair.res.in/bitstream/123456789/35259/1/IJTK 15(4) 700-704.pdf

Hmm

 

[Fractality]

I looked into this a while back and spoke with a practitioner who said I would have to sign liability waivers to do the wet cupping which put me off trying it. I suppose the main risk is infection. She typically only offers dry cupping. I might have to revisit this.

 

[Captain_Coconut]

I looked into this a while back and spoke with a practitioner who said I would have to sign liability waivers to do the wet cupping which put me off trying it. I suppose the main risk is infection. She typically only offers dry cupping. I might have to revisit this.

It was really easy to do on myself. I made sure to swab everything with rubbing alcohol. I used one of those 1.5mm derma-rollers to make the punctures, which I store safely in alcohol. Sometimes the skin is a little thicker and I have to use a pin, which is a little painful. The roller is not painful.I tried it again today and already the blood looks far more normal, far less of the jelly looking stuff. Obviously hard to reach parts of the back would need an assistant. I found my upper back, upper side, and shoulder area to be the areas that showed the most stagnation. I had similar experiences with doing gua sha, all the stagnation was in same areas.

Interestingly, doing the suction on my legs produces barely any bruising at all, even after leaving the suction on for 15 minutes. And the blood in my legs and all these areas where there was no bruising all came out looking normal, brighter and more liquid.

 

[Fractality]

It was really easy to do on myself. I made sure to swab everything with rubbing alcohol. I used one of those 1.5mm derma-rollers to make the punctures, which I store safely in alcohol. Sometimes the skin is a little thicker and I have to use a pin, which is a little painful. The roller is not painful.I tried it again today and already the blood looks far more normal, far less of the jelly looking stuff. Obviously hard to reach parts of the back would need an assistant. I found my upper back, upper side, and shoulder area to be the areas that showed the most stagnation. I had similar experiences with doing qua sha, all the stagnation was in same areas.

Interestingly, doing the suction on my legs produces barely any bruising at all, even after leaving the suction on for 15 minutes. And the blood in my legs and all these areas where there was no bruising all came out looking normal, brighter and more liquid.

Cool thanks, the videos of hijama I've seen they use what look to be razor blades. How did you use the suction cups on yourself?

 

[Captain_Coconut]

Cool thanks, the videos of hijama I've seen they use what look to be razor blades. How did you use the suction cups on yourself?

5 minutes dry cupping, then make the pokes, then wet cup for 10 minutes. Swab everything with rubbing alcohol before and after. I definitely wouldn’t use a blade on me, far to risky.

 

[Fractality]

There is a video demonstrating it. You can see how viscous that guy's blood is. I wonder if this also helps in de-ironing the body? How did you apply the cups to your back without assistance?

 

[Captain_Coconut]

There is a video demonstrating it. You can see how viscous that guy's blood is. I wonder if this also helps in de-ironing the body? How did you apply the cups to your back without assistance?

It’s bizzare seeing the goop that comes out, and I observed it comes out that way immediately, not like it cures a few minutes later. Doing the cups on the exact same spots on my left or right it was also interesting to note that sometimes one side had much more of this sludge than the other. Some spots have none at all as well. The more I observed it truly does appear to be something toxin related.

I am able to reach most of my upper back pretty easily. I mostly focused on arms and shoulders though.

There are some papers that support it lowers ferritin and iron. I am not sure how often one would need to do it for that. My main reason I am doing it is to see if it can help to fix these areas which always seem to feel painful even after doing everything right. It hasn’t been enough time for me to decide how helpful it is, in the short term I definitely feel more relaxed and flexible in these areas.

 

[IVILA]

It’s bizzare seeing the goop that comes out, and I observed it comes out that way immediately, not like it cures a few minutes later. Doing the cups on the exact same spots on my left or right it was also interesting to note that sometimes one side had much more of this sludge than the other. Some spots have none at all as well. The more I observed it truly does appear to be something toxin related.

I am able to reach most of my upper back pretty easily. I mostly focused on arms and shoulders though.

There are some papers that support it lowers ferritin and iron. I am not sure how often one would need to do it for that. My main reason I am doing it is to see if it can help to fix these areas which always seem to feel painful even after doing everything right. It hasn’t been enough time for me to decide how helpful it is, in the short term I definitely feel more relaxed and flexible in these areas.

It's mentioned in many religious narrations and is said to work for those wth iron overload and removing pathogens in the blood as well. I would give it a shot.

 

[Mauritio]

It's also interesting to notice that when you do cupping (without stitches), you can see that some areas become pink , red or almost blue.

I suppose that the blue area has the least amount of circulation and blood supply ,which usually is the area with the most pain and tension that the patient describes .

 

[Blue Water]

I did this the other day. I'm a bit worried because they used glass cups during wet cupping. There's no way to verify they sterilized it properly. There are some suggestions it could spread Hep C or at least is a risk factor in some countries...