Traditional Chinese medicine believes that cupping can help to regulate the body's meridians and balance the yin and yang.
Diseases are caused by imbalances in the body's yin and yang, as well as disruptions in the body's qi circulation and organ functions. When the body is exposed to external factors such as wind, cold, heat, dampness, dryness, fire, toxins, or internal factors like emotional disturbances, it can lead to imbalances in organ functions and the production of pathological substances such as blood stasis, qi stagnation, phlegm, food stagnation, turbid fluids, and pathological heat. These pathological substances act as factors that cause diseases, traveling through the meridians and acupoints, disrupting the normal qi circulation and stagnating in the organs. This ultimately leads to various symptoms. Cupping creates a strong suction force through the vacuum negative pressure, which acts on the meridians and acupoints. It opens up the pores and causes skin congestion, allowing the pathological substances to be drawn out through the pores, thus promoting the circulation of meridians and regulating organ functions to prevent and treat diseases.
Traditional Chinese medicine believes that cupping can promote the circulation of meridians and regulate the flow of qi and blood.
The meridians have physiological functions such as promoting the circulation of qi and blood, nourishing the yin and yang, strengthening tendons and bones, and promoting joint flexibility. When the meridians are blocked, the qi and blood circulation is hindered, resulting in inadequate nourishment of the skin, flesh, tendons, vessels, and joints. This can lead to atrophy, stiffness, and degeneration. Cupping, through its suction effect on the skin, pores, meridians, and acupoints, can guide the flow of nutrients and vital energy, stimulate the circulation of meridians and blood, nourish the organs and tissues, warm the skin and hair, and at the same time, invigorate the weakened organ functions, unblock the meridians, and regulate the body's yin and yang balance. This helps to adjust the circulation of qi and blood and achieve the goal of health promotion and disease prevention.
From the perspective of Western medicine, cupping therapy creates a negative pressure inside the cup, causing local capillaries to become congested or even ruptured. This leads to the rupture of red blood cells, congestion in the epidermis, and the release of substances such as histamine and histamine-like substances that circulate throughout the body, stimulating various organs and enhancing their function and activity, thus improving the body's resistance.
Western medicine believes that the stimulation from the negative pressure of cupping can cause local blood vessels to dilate, promote local blood circulation, improve congestion, enhance metabolism, change the nutritional status of local tissues, increase the permeability of blood vessel walls, and enhance the phagocytic activity of white blood cells. It also enhances physical fitness and immune function.
Western medicine also believes that the suction and release of pressure during cupping can accelerate blood and lymph circulation, promote gastrointestinal peristalsis, improve digestion, and speed up the elimination of metabolic waste products by muscles and organs.
