The Benefits of Cupping
There are many benefits of cupping. The different variety and techniques of this holistic practice allow it to provide many different benefits. Reach out to your practitioner to see what kinds of cupping they offer and their benefits.
Cupping promotes healing in several different ways:
Relaxes muscle tension
Relieves stress and “According to the American Institute of Stress (AIS) reducing stress can make you feel better immediately and long term”
Reduces pain associated with tight muscles
Improves mobility
Improves circulation of the 3 major fluid systems of the body
Circulatory system
Interstitial fluid that transports the cells with oxygen and nutrients
Lymphatic system.
Cleanses the body of toxins
Promotes weight loss
Cupping targets these particular areas and promotes specific healing benefits in these areas.
Muscle relaxation
Circulation
Cellulite breakdown
Fascia manipulation
Aid the body in removing toxins
Weight Loss
Muscles
Muscle tension refers to the condition in which muscles of the body remain semi-contracted for an extended period. Muscle tension is typically caused by the physiological effects of stress, bad posture, and/or repetitive motion.
Muscle tension can constrict blood vessels, reducing blood flow to the soft tissues, including muscles, tendons, and nerves. This process causes a decrease in oxygen and a buildup of biochemical waste products in the muscles, resulting in more muscle tension, spasm, and pain. Serve and prolonged muscle tension can misalign joints, pitch nerves causing mobility problems and chronic pain.
Circulation
When people think of circulation, most think of the circulatory system. However, here at Stone International Wellness Center, we take into account the circulation of the body fluids as a whole system.
For example, our body fluids can be divide into two main types Intracellular and Extracellular. Intracellular fluid is the fluid contained within the individual cells of the body. An average person has about 78 trillion cells containing approximately 28 liters of water altogether. The function of the intracellular fluid is to move oxygen and nutrients within the cells to nourish the cells and move waste by-products created by the cells metabolize out of the cells.
Extracellular fluids include the intravascular fluid (blood in the blood vessels), interstitial fluid (the fluid that surrounds all the individual cells), and lymph (fluid within the lymph vessels, lymph nodes, and lymph ducts). An average person has about 5 liters of blood coursing through their body and 3 liters of which is water. With the remaining 2 liters being blood cells, plasma proteins, and others. The body contains on average about 11 liters of interstitial fluid that is mostly water and around 2 to 3 liters of lymph.
Only 90% of the fluid from the bloodstream is reabsorbed by the bloodstream. The remaining 10% of the fluid must be moved into the lymph system and into our lymph nodes. Inside our lymph nodes is a network of collagen fibers that helps slow fluids. Our lymph nodes also contain white blood cells, lymphocytes, and macrophages, that detects and kills harmful bacteria and virus found in the lymph fluid before it transported back to the large blood veins to be carried to the liver, spleen, and kidneys.
This continuous flow of fluid is moved through the body by hydrostatic pressure created by the pumping of the heart and osmatic pressure which is caused by the difference in the concentration of the fluid. Fluid flows towards the areas with less pressure or less concentration and away from areas of greater pressure or greater concentration.
In short when the body’s fluids circulate correctly everything is good. But when the body’s fluid circulation slows and becomes stagnant nutrients and oxygen do not reach the cells sufficiently. Excess fluid that contains the cells’ waste by-products, dead cells, malignant cells, harmful bacteria, and viruses cannot be expelled.
So how does cupping help circulation, by placing the cups properly along the body’s meridian and acupressure points along with the correct lymph node positions? The cupping practitioner can manipulate the different pressures moving the bodily fluids bring fresh nutrients and oxygen to the cells and helping the body get rid of harmful waste. This allows the body’s own natural defenses not to be overwhelmed and the body can heal itself.
Now let us take a trip through the body. We eat food and we drink fluids daily. The food and drinks are digested and nutrients and water are absorbed into the bloodstream where it can be carried around the body along with oxygen that is absorbed in the lungs.
The circulation of the blood is a result of a living pump within our body’s heart. As the nutrients pass through our smallest blood vessels the capillaries. The absorbed nutrients and oxygen is moved through the capillary walls through the spaces between the epithelial cells of the capillaries into the interstitial fluid that surrounds the individual cells.
Once the nutrients and oxygen are in the interstitial fluid it is readily available to be absorbed by the cells. In return, the cells pass their waste products into the interstitial fluid. The interstitial fluid is partially reabsorbed into the capillaries and transported to the liver, spleen, and kidneys where the waste products can be filtered out and removed from the body.
Cellulite
Approximately 80% of women are affected by cellulite in various degrees ranging from mild to server. A very low percentage of men are affected by cellulite. Cellulite results from an interaction between the connective tissue in the dermatological layer that lies below the surface of the skin, and the layer of fat that is just below it. In women, the fat cells and connective tissue in this layer are arranged vertically. If the fat cells protrude into the layer of skin, it gives it the appearance of cellulite. In men, the connective tissue has a criss-cross structure, which may explain why men are less likely to have cellulite than women.
With proper cupping techniques, our practitioners can manipulate the connective tissue smoothing its appearance and breakdown fat cells that can be flushed from the body through the lymphatic system.
Fascia
Fascia is a thin layer of connective tissue that surrounds and holds every organ, blood vessel, bone, nerve fiber, and muscle in place. Although fascia looks like one sheet of tissue, it’s actually made up of multiple layers with liquid in between called hyaluronan. It’s designed to stretch as you move. But there are certain things that cause the fascia to thicken and become sticky. When the fascia is stressed due to injury, repetitive motion, poor diet, or dehydration it tightens up and can become constrictive. The following can occur when fascia tissue becomes too constrictive.
Tightens around blood vessels and lymph vessels slowing the flow of blood, lymph, and interstitial fluid, reducing the effectiveness of the body’s fluid systems to deliver oxygen, nutrients, and remove waste and other harmful by-products to and from cells in the body. This can affect the immediate area of constriction or further down the body where constriction occurs.
Tightens around nerves blocking nerve signals causing pain. This can affect the immediate area of constriction or further down the body where constriction occurs.
Tightens around muscles and tendons reducing mobility, reducing flexibility, cause muscle weakness and left unchecked causing misalignment of joints and create postural changes.
Toxins
In today’s society, we are overwhelmed with materials that are or can be toxic in sufficient concentrations to our bodies and wellbeing. There are approximately 80,000 synthetic chemicals used in today’s everyday commerce items. These synthetic chemicals can be found in everything that is manufactured, the medicines we take, the food we eat, the air we breathe, and our water supply. Let’s not forget that there are naturally occurring toxins created by some bacteria, molds, fungi, and algae. We also consume plant foods containing naturally occurring toxins. For example, plants found in the Knight Shade family such as tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and others have trace amounts of an alkaloid called solanine.
When our bodies are healthy and functioning properly our bodies can effectively deal with a fair amount of daily toxicity. However, it is when a toxic overload occurs and/or our bodies are not functioning correctly problems start to occur. Toxins in our body can cause minor to server symptoms such as:
Fatigue
Weakness
Mood swings
Depression
Brain fog
Weakened immune system
Enhanced allergies
Joint discomfort and pain
Poor digestion
Cancer
Organ complications
Organ failure
How our body and health react to these toxins can vary greatly from person to person. A lot depends on how well our body is able to naturally detoxify itself. In other words, the ability to remove insufficient quantities of toxic substances from the body. Improved circulation of the body’s fluid systems greatly increases the body’s ability to prevent toxins from building up to harmful concentrations within our bodies.
Weight Loss
Cupping improves your metabolism by removing stagnation in your blood. As we age, our circulatory system weakens, which interferes with the movement of blood. In traditional Chinese terms, we refer to this as blood stasis or “dampness”.
Stagnating blood interferes with the delivery of fresh blood to cells, tissues, and organs. Over time, this causes them to become metabolically more inefficient. Cupping therapy loosens up connective tissue and opens up capillaries, allowing newly oxygenated blood to pour into the area of application. This helps your cells grow, repair, and in the process accelerate your metabolism. At the same time, this process flushes out the stagnated blood through the lymphatic system, carrying waste and ruptured fat cells along with it. What makes cupping so special is that it can affect tissues up to four inches beneath the skin. This makes it one of the best deep-tissue therapies available since it can even remove visceral fat nestled around your internal organs.