Ancient medicine Fire Cupping Therapy…3000 years old

In my early years of my childhood I was always involved with all sorts of contact sports, which always lead me to injuring myself.  My grandma, ofcourse always had an ancient treatment or medicine for all my pains or ailments . Heated cups or fire cupping therapy was one of my favourites since it would always relieve my back pain, sore muscles, joint pain, and most day to day ailments that everyone deals with. It also dates back 2500-300 years, all the way back to ancient egyptian times.

Fire cupping is a type of acupressure therapy; that is pressure applied to acupuncture points on the body. Specially designed glass cups are heated in such a way that when they are applied to the body a vacuum is created and the skin is gently pulled up into the cup.

Although the origins of fire cupping remain a mystery, the earliest recorded use of the procedure was in a book called: A Handbook of Prescriptions for Emergencies by Ge Hong, a Taoist alchemist and herbalist. Mostly it was used to drain the toxins out of snake bites. Back then fire cupping was still fairly primitive and instead of the pretty glass cups you see today, people back then had to make do with animal horns.

As time passed by and fire cupping matured into a popular way to treat various diseases, people started making the cups out of better materials. For awhile bamboo and pottery were popular but the pottery cups broke too easily and bamboo cups fell apart after a few uses. Brass and iron were used for a time but the invention of glass cups quickly made them obsolete. Glass is now the preferred medium for fire cups because it is durable and allows the practitioner to see the skin through the cup.

In its simplest form, fire cupping is a type of deep tissue massage that promotes stress relief and relaxation. As a medicinal therapy, though, cupping has been used to treat a variety of diseases such as chronic bronchitis, asthma, colds, digestive diseases, musculoskeletal pain and some gynecological disorders.

How is Fire Cupping done?

The aim of fire cupping is to get the cups to suction to the body of the patient. This vacuum created by the cups is thought to draw out impurities and balance the body’s chi. In ancient times, creating this vacuum was done by holding the cup over an open flame and then quickly attaching it to the body. One had to be very careful, though, to avoid heating the cup itself lest it burn the patient.
More modern techniques include swabbing the inside of the cup with rubbing alcohol and setting fire to it before placing the cup on the body. The vacuum created by the cup cuts off the fire’s oxygen causing it to burn out quickly. Some practitioners use kerosene instead of alcohol citing that kerosene’s ease of ignition produces a greater vacuum in the cup.

Another technique involves putting a cotton ball soaked in alcohol on a small leather pad which is then placed directly on the skin. The cotton ball is lit and the glass is placed on top of the whole thing. How quickly the flame extinguishes depends on the size and shape of the cup but, as you can imagine, the chance for getting burned is pretty high and not too many people use this method any more.

Luckily, cups are now made with a small crank or pump which is used to create the vacuum effect. Not only does this alleviate the dangers of using fire, it also allows the practitioner to control just how much suction is created in the cup.
Ofcourse these are ancient and traditional methods that may or may not be approved by government health standards but the real question is if its been practicied 3000 years than im sure there is no real threat!

Always consult with your family doctor or a health pracitioner before trying any of these methods described above.