GET CUPPED!
Published: July 27, 2004
Section: DAILY BREAK, page E1
Source:
Lisa Gutierrez, Knight Ridder News Service
© 2004- Landmark
Communications Inc.
THEY WERE the hickey marks seen round
the world.
Photographs circulated around the
globe of actress Gwyneth Paltrow at a movie premiere in a black strapless top
with big, dark, circular marks marching across her back. A beating? A weird skin
condition? Had she been mugged by an octopus?
Nope.
She'd been cupped, and lots of other
folks are walking around with similar marks on their bodies.
Cupping is an ancient Chinese procedure
performed by acupuncturists to treat everything from lower back pain and
arthritis to lung congestion, even infertility. Think of it as an intense,
vigorous massage - with a whole lot of suction action.
During a cupping procedure, heated cups are
placed over the skin and left there for anywhere from a few minutes to as long
as 30. As the air inside the cup cools, the skin and underlying tissue is
"sucked" up into the cup - thus the marks - increasing blood
circulation to the area.
Helen McCollum, a licensed acupuncturist in
Virginia Beach
, has practiced cupping since 1998.
"In this area, I end up treating more
pain than maintenance," she says, adding that it works well on pains like a
knot in the back or shoulder or a charley horse.
McCollum usually pairs cupping with
acupuncture for a treatment. Certain acupuncture points, such as the liver, are
excellent areas for the cupping technique, she says.
Alternative BodyCare in
Virginia Beach
offers a similar technique using a massage therapist's bare hands. Picture two
hands cupped, as if they are holding water, and then turned upside down. A
hollow, percussion sound is created when the hands drum on a patient's back and
ease lung congestion.
Gale Gervais, owner of Alternative BodyCare,
says actual cups seem like they would create a similar effect to the hand
massage stroke.
"It forms like a little vacuum. It
doesn't just affect the skin. It goes deeper than that," she says.
One way of applying cupping involves heat. A
patient lies face down on a massage table, stripped to the waist. An
acupuncturist dips a cotton ball or swab in alcohol and sets it afire with a
lighter. Next she picks up a small glass cup shaped like a tiny fish bowl.
She pushes the cotton torch inside the cup,
pulls it out and swiftly plops the bowl onto an acupuncture point on the
patient's back.
Because the heat depressurized the air inside
the cup, creating a vacuum, the cup sticks tightly to the back. Within seconds,
the skin underneath the cup begins to slightly darken as blood rushes to the
spot.
Cupping doesn't always involve fire.
Another method of suction involves cups with valves. A small, hand-operated pump
attached to the cup's valve is used to suck the air out.
People who've been cupped say that it doesn't
hurt, that it feels like a gentle squeezing, or tightening, of the skin.
"It feels like a wonderful
massage," says McCollum.
In
Kansas City
, acupuncturist Kathleen Coleton finds that cupping is most beneficial for
people with muscle aches, especially on the back and across the shoulders. She
likens the suction treatment to grabbing onto a muscle and not letting go of it
until it relaxes and releases its tension.
"I don't think cupping is appropriate
for every part of the body," says Coleton, a member of the Missouri
Acupuncturist Advisory Committee, which licenses and regulates all
acupuncturists in the state.
For instance, cupping wouldn't work on
something like Parkinson's disease, because "it doesn't affect the
neurological system," Coleton says. And someone with fibromyalgia, who may
be physically weak and especially achy, "a lot of times can't take a real
aggressive treatment" of cupping, she says.
"And at certain points of the body
there's not enough muscle. You probably wouldn't, but could, do it on the face.
And you probably wouldn't want to do it on the front of the neck ... but on the
back of the neck where people get tension headaches."
Depending on how many cups are applied, a
procedure can take anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour. McCollum charges $60 for
one treatment, which lasts at least an hour.
As Paltrow knows, the procedure can
leave marks, which typically disappear after three to six days.
McCollum says she often limits the amount of
time that the cups are applied so they don't leave marks behind.
"I haven't met too many people in this
area who would like to walk around with red marks on their back."
Gwyneth Paltrow's cupping marks are
evident as she attends a
screening of "Anchorman, The
Legend of Ron Burgundy."
© 2004- Virginian-Pilot
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