Cupping Therapy
Cupping is an ancient therapy that was popularized in recent Olympics and is now used by athletes around the world. It’s used to help reduce pain and inflammation, improve blood flow, and relax your muscles.
Cupping In The 21st Century
In our clinic we will use a modern form that avoids the traditional glass and fire in exchange for suction-based plastic and silicone cups. To maximize your pain relief we will use the cups in a variety of ways; placing them in key points and allowing them to release the tissue, moving them around the body to massage the tissue, or placing them on the painful muscles while you perform specific movements.
Cupping is recommended for a wide variety of conditions including:
- Arthritis, including Rheumatoid Arthritis
- Back Pain
- Some Respiratory Issues
- Neck Pain
- Shoulder Pain
- Sciatica
- Headaches & Migraines
- Golfer’s/Tennis Elbow
- Chronic Pain
“When people are suffering from physical pain, that means that inflammation has increased locally in that area. Cupping, then, improves blood circulation in that area by attracting immune cells to that location to increase the repair and recovery process, so that the swelling can go down,”
Dr. Chiti Parikh, M.D.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are cups right for you?
It completely depends on your personal preferences and any contraindications you may have. By performing a thorough history and exam we’ll make sure that cupping is a completely safe treatment method for you before we perform it. However, it is extremely likely that cupping will leave bruises on your skin, the degree of which is individualized depending completely on your skin type and likelihood of bruising in general. If you’re not comfortable with having bruises, then cupping may not be the treatment for you!
What makes cupping different from other treatment modalities?
Almost every other treatment modality we have access to provides some sort of compression or pressure to the soft tissue. Cupping is one of the only therapy modalities in our toolbox that provides de-compression to the tissue allowing for separation of different anatomical layers and improving blood flow to an area.