Have you ever heard of "cupping"?

Nurses General Nursing

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I just got back from my doctor's office and she did a cupping technique on my back. (I had pulled a muscle in my back from cleaning.) I had never heard of such and thing or seen anything stranger. She placed different sized glass bottles (they looked like small fish bowls) all over my back to help with the pain and stiffness. The bottles formed a suction on my skin "help" fix my back. IT WAS SO COOL!!! After 15 minutes with the cups on my back she removed them and my back is starting to feel a little better. Hopefully with some meds my back will be back to normal soon.

The only down side is that my back looks like I got in a fight with a large octopus and lost. My DH says that it looks like I have a bunch of really big hickies (sp) on my back.

After this appt. it got me thinking of other ways western medicine could be improved by working in other eastern (or ancient) traditions, medicine, etc.

What other forms of eastern medicine have you seen or heard of that aren't used very often here in the states but could benifit our medicine? My MD is also a medically trained in accupressure and acupuncture.

I thought I would share my learning experience with all of you and see if I'm the only one in the world that has never heard of "cupping"

Erin

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Specializes in Government.

I had to take a cultural awareness class in this once! It seems that the Hmong people in my area use cupping as a treatment and the hospital was afraid we'd report the parents for child abuse if we saw the welts. Didn't hear much about effectiveness but I'll never forget the class.

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Specializes in Cardiac.

Yeah, we actually learned about this in Nursing school. I guess some people have seen the marks left of a person's body and thought it was abuse or weird. So we got to learn about it and a whole lot of things from different cultures.

Did she use fire, or did the cups have a turn mechanism on them?

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Specializes in ER,Neurology, Endocrinology, Pulmonology.

I am from russia and it is a vast practice among reagular people to do this at home. I remember my parents doing cupping for bronchitis on my sister. They used an alchohol "torch" to heat up the cups and then stuck over a dozen of them on her back. I also saw a show about cupping used in chinise medicine.

It has to work because when i was growing up antibiotics were not popular, so we used all sorts of remidies to fight off disease. when i had laryngitis I had to go to a clinic for UV throat therapy. Cured without antibiotics.

I had a duodenal ulcer as a child - cured by natural remedies.

Interesting how it works.

Natasha

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

There was actually a female celebrity that did this last year, I can't remember who though. Anyways, the day after she had it done she wore a backless dress to some big event and it looked like she had bruises all over her back. The paparazzi had a field day with that one! Anyone remember who I'm talking about?

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Cupping, coining, sucking on the umbilicus of babies....we see all that here.

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Specializes in psych, rural, palliative care,oncology.

The physiotherapist my mom sees uses this technique as well as acupunture as part of her practice. My mom has had good success with both these techniques as well as more "traditional" physio techniques.

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There was actually a female celebrity that did this last year, I can't remember who though. Anyways, the day after she had it done she wore a backless dress to some big event and it looked like she had bruises all over her back. The paparazzi had a field day with that one! Anyone remember who I'm talking about?

I think it was Gwenyth Paltrow.

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Yeah, we actually learned about this in Nursing school. I guess some people have seen the marks left of a person's body and thought it was abuse or weird. So we got to learn about it and a whole lot of things from different cultures.

Did she use fire, or did the cups have a turn mechanism on them?

She used the turn kind in 2 spots and for the other 3 she used the cups and fire.

I'm glad to hear that others have heard of it. From my experience, they seem to help with my pain. That combined with the meds she gave me are really helping.

Erin

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I had to take a cultural awareness class in this once! It seems that the Hmong people in my area use cupping as a treatment and the hospital was afraid we'd report the parents for child abuse if we saw the welts. Didn't hear much about effectiveness but I'll never forget the class.

We also learned about these techniques in nursing school, but I didn't realize it was to distinguish medical treatments from abuse. Thanks for that information! I will definitely pass it on.:coollook:

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The movie Zorba, the Greek, which starred Anthony Quinn, had a scene where they did this.

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After this appt. it got me thinking of other ways western medicine could be improved by working in other eastern (or ancient) traditions, medicine, etc.

What other forms of eastern medicine have you seen or heard of that aren't used very often here in the states but could benifit our medicine? My MD is also a medically trained in accupressure and acupuncture.

Erin

Cupping is a part of oriental medicine and is taught in acupuncture schools and some shiatsu schools. I'm an FNP student who also does Zen Shiatsu and shamanism and I intend to incorporate all their in my practice. Interesting that we have quite a few physicians and psychologists training as shamans in our classes.

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