Category Archives: Acupuncture
Qi Gong For The Cure Of Anxiety
Pronounced chee-gung, the ancient Chinese holistic system of Qi-gong, is a combination of two words that mean:
• Qi: vital energy, breath, air, life force
• Gong: work
Therefore Qi-gong means “working the vital energy”.
Qi-gong practice incudes breathing, visualization, and gentle movements of the body to work (gong) the qi (vital energy) inside the body. It has its roots in China and is performed by millions of people throughout the world to enhance mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical health.
Chinese hospitals have adopted Qi Gong as a form of treatment and important Chinese universities are teaching it to their students. Qi Gong is a nationally recognized medical form of therapy in China. The healing art of Qi Gong is made up of exercises that are good for the body as a whole and exercises that are aimed at certain bodily systems. It can aid in the restoration and balance of the digestive, lymphatic, cardiovascular, and nervous systems. Aside from their self-healing and personal benefit, practitioners of Qi gong also use it to treat other people.
According to Taoist philosophy, physical and emotional disorders are tie to blockages in the flow of energy in the body. Based on this standpoint, Qi-gong is able to treat mental and emotional problems because it balances and removes blockages to energy flow in the body. Practitioners always benefit from Qi-Gong regardless if they believe it or not.
All people regardless of sex, age, and health status can practice this healing art lying on the back, sitting down, or standing up. One goal of this practice is to attain a calm and tranquil state of mind. You can do this by focusing on your breathing or focus on one point of your body. The more profound your peaceful state of mind is, the less you will be distracted by light, temperature, or noise. The body and mind is transformed into a sea of peace and tranquility. Its’ very hard to find someone who has reached this state of tranquility, but with perseverance and patience, you will be able to go deeper and deeper into it.
As with most things in life, a person should practice Qi Gong on a daily basis to obtain optimal outcomes. Majority of individuals do Qi-Gong in the morning, before they begin their everyday activities. This is excellent since this is the time when your body and mind are at their most relaxed making it much easier to focus on the exercise; in this time of day, Qi is at its best and air is at its freshest. People perform Qi-Gong at other times of the day. In the end, it will be up to figure out what time you feel is best for you.
Qi Gong exercise can take as short as just a few minutes (at least five) and take as long an hour to finish. Over-an-hour practice and you would have overdone the exercise. This healing technique is not meant to be a replacement to standard medical treatments, although it can be used as an adjunct to it. Your mind relaxes, your body slows down, your breathing slows and you get more focused. These outcomes get resolved by themselves with the decrease of anxiety. Consistent Qi Gong practice leads to a peaceful mind, and more vital energy in the body.
In combination with other therapies like visualization, physical exercises, and meditation, Qi Gong can result in a powerful way to curing anxiety attacks.
Emily Farish is a licensed acupuncturist in Spokane, WA with advanced training in modern acupuncture techniques and traditional Asian therapies.
La-Jing Therapy For Treatment Of High Blood Pressure And Physical Pains
A Chinese exercise for addressing shrunken tendons, La-Jing is used to address various ailments such as spasms; leg pain; back pain; waist pain; neck pain; hard to do physical activities; soreness or numbness of the knee, elbow, and hand; leg length inequality; and difficult kneeling or bending. Famed Hong Kong master and practitioner of TCM in Marlton, Cheng-Chiang Zhu, established a simple La-Jing technique based on 50 years of clinical experience. This technique is very inexpensive so much so that almost every person can easily avail of its use. It produces immediate results, easy to practice, and safe suitable for all people (female, male, old, or young) to practice. You can perform it at the office or home, maintain health, treat ailments, or prevent illness.
- Place a couple of flat and steady chairs at the side of a door or beside a wall.
- Sit at the edge of the chairs. Move your buttocks close to the door side or wall as near as possible.
- Lie down face up. Raise your right leg up against door support or wall pole while you bend your left leg at the knee with your right foot touching the floor. Raise your two arms flat on the chairs for 10 minutes. Let your left foot perform cycling exercises during this time. This will help loosen your hip joints.
- Transfer the chairs to the opposite side and do the same exercise this time raising your right leg up against door support or wall pole while bending left leg at the knee and left foot touching the floor. Do the cycling exercise for another 10 minutes.
Standing Up La-Jing Exercise
- Go to a door threshold. Raise your two arms upwards stretching your arms as much as you can on each side of the door support.
- Then bend one leg to the front while bending the other leg behind.
- Your body should be parallel with the door, with eyes looking ahead and your head straight and parallel with the floor.
- Maintain this posture for three minutes. Then change your position with the leg that was previously bended leg to the front now bending behind and the other leg previously bending behind now bending to the front. Maintain this posture for three minutes also.
This technique can pull the back and the connected ligaments and tendons, the shoulders, and shoulder blades. You yourself can use it at home to treat joint inflammation and pain, frozen shoulders, shoulder pain, etc.
La-Jing can even cure high blood pressure and arm pain.
Cautions
You can perform La-Jing in the area surrounding your back and its connected ligaments and tendons and the area around your shoulder and shoulder blades. This activity can also address shoulder inflammation and pain as well as frozen shoulder syndrome.
- If you are suffering from chronic physical weakness, osteoporosis, heart problems, or high blood pressure, you may first need to consult with your doctor to see if La-Jing is right for you. This may be necessary since La-Jing exercise can initially cause pain before its benefits can be attained. While you experience pain, your blood pressure may rise, and your heartbeat may also beat faster. You need to avoid break or bone splits if you have osteoporosis. People who are physically weak may faint from the pain. Sick and elderly should take it easy when performing La-jin. To prevent blood from rush to your head, you may need to put a pillow below your head. The benefits may manifest soon enough if you continue on a long-term basis.
- During the exercise, if you experience hyperventilation, cold sweats, coldness, numbness, or if your face starts turning blue, the best way to overcome these issues is to use a plastic or paper bag and breathe into it with your mouth or nose. The symptoms should be gone after five minutes, and you return to normal once again.
To ascertain whether you need La-Jing, bend typically and determine yourself whether your hands reach the ground. You definitely need La-Jing if the gap between the ground and your hands is more than 15 inches.
You can perform La-practically anywhere but its best if you practice it near your office wall, near a tree trunk, or on a park bench. You practice it without chairs on a room floor while elevating one leg straight on the wall and the other leg sliding to the side floor against an object for support.
La-jing is a holistic type of TCM body healing. It is quite dissimilar from the Western medicine approach of treating the feet for feet pains” or “treating the head for headaches. The La-Jing technique doesn’t require any understanding of acupoints. It is simply used to move and relax the energy channels. “There is blockage if there is pain. There is no pain if there is free flow.” La-Jing is a natural form healing that doesn’t have side effects and can eliminate various forms of pain naturally.
Stomach Cupping Therapy For Abdominal Problems
Constipation is a problem people don’t really like to talk about, and like to experience even less. In the realm of stomach problems, constipation may be just the tip of the iceberg. Other frequently occurring issues like diarrhea, distention, and IBS can all be addressed using stomach cupping. People will do all sorts of things with varying levels of success just to avoid these discomforts. The fact is many of these issues stem from avoiding certain foods, changing their diet, and adding other foods. On a case-by-care basis, some of these things can be good, but if you regularly consume caffeine, chocolate, sugar, meat, or processed foods, you may want to consider a safe and efficient therapy such as cupping that can enhance your digestion significantly.
All forms of cupping treatments have a few things in common. It involves the use negative suction or pressure that draws your skin away from your body. It increases blood flow to the treated areas, removes toxins in the body, breaks up fascial adhesions, and in the case of stomach cupping, boosts digestion. During a session of stomach cupping therapy, the practitioner will first apply oil to your stomach, then cups are placed and slid clockwise over the stomach where the intestines are located. This stretches and expands the organs in your stomach, and you may feel some discomfort and weirdness in the area of treatment, but pain is very rarely felt. In addition to increasing the movement of waste, the therapy also improves bile flow and encourages regular bowel movements.
How Does Stomach Cupping Work?
As you digest food, the process known as peristalsis enables it to go through the intestines. Peristalsis is a wave-like contraction of the muscles that moves waste. Massage can imitate this process by the administering a wave-like motion massage on the colon or large intestine. The massage may also involve compression, which isn’t always comfortable for the client. So, in addition to being very helpful, one can imagine how cupping can improve that movement by opening up the intestine to create more space. This is what stomach cupping can do.
Whether you’re in good health or not, if you regularly struggle with IBS or constipation or if you’re simply looking for a way maintain a healthy stomach, talk to a qualified Chinese medicine practitioner or acupuncturist in Cleveland to see if stomach cupping is appropriate for you.
Moxibustion Heat Therapy and Herbal Medicine Are Remedies To Consider For Uterine Fibroids
When you have a diagnosis of uterine fibroids, natural and alternative home remedies can be safe and simple ways to treat yourself.
Uterine fibroids also known as leiomyomas, myomas or fibroid tumors are growths of hard muscle tissue in the uterus. About 50 percent of all women over the age of 40 have them. The fibroids grow so frequently that they are deemed a typical irregular occurrence. Most fibroids (about 80 percent) remain small, about the size of a walnut although some fibroids can become huge (medical reports show one that was a hundred pounds!).
Fibroids are the biggest reason women in the US have hysterectomies.
While medical researchers have not determined what exactly causes uterine fibroids, they have established proof that estradiol, a type of estrogen, is responsible for their growth. Fibroids disappear after menopause. But since the level of estrogen levels can increase during the early menopausal years, previously symptomless fibroids may develop in the years just prior to the cessation of the menstrual cycle, leading to menstrual flooding and extreme menstrual pain, difficult evacuation, incontinence or urinary frequency, pain during intercourse, low back pain, a sensation of heaviness in the stomach and other symptoms.
Colored women are 3 to 9 times at risk of developing fibroids with their fibroids growing more rapidly than white women.
Generally, fibroid tumors aren’t cancerous. Tumors are not a malignancy or cancer, they are growths or swelling in the body. Less than 0.1 percent of all uterine fibroids are malignant.
When it is small, the fibroid eventually disappears on its own. Fibroids that are large are harder to deal with, although through natural interventions, they are not impossible to control.
The uterus is where the lowermost energy center or “root chakra” of your body is located. It is the area believed to house unexpressed anger and that any undesirable growths in these organs can be cleared by safely channeling or externalizing the anger.
A woman’s menstrual cramps and fibroids vanished within 3 months after she embarked on a rigid exercise routine. Irregular ovulation appears to exacerbate the fibroids; exercise ensures regular ovulation.
Eating at least three servings of beans or whole grains a day not only lessens the size of fibroids but also helps prevent the development of cancer in the endometrium and breast.
Trifolium pratense or red clover flower can help prevent fibroid development although when used during the menopausal years, it may increase the number of fibroids in the body.
Herbs such as yellow dock root, milk thistle seed, and dandelion can strengthen the liver and help metabolize estrogen out of the body, which helps reduce fibroids.
Twenty five to thirty drops of chasteberry tincture or Vitex two to four times a day, tend to reduce the size of fibroids within a couple of months. But outcomes emanate from long-term use (about two years and more).
A TCM (traditional Chinese medicine) practitioner in Fremont can administer moxibustion heat therapy over the area where the fibroid is located while you visualize the heat releasing the treasures in your uterus. What can you give birth to? What is hidden in this fibroid?
TCM treatments for reducing fibroids
Used externally as a stomach rub oil and internally as a tincture, one to ten drops of Phytolacca Americana or poke root can significantly relieve discomfort and pain caused by fibroids. Take note that poke is a poisonous herb and is usually not for sale. This is one solution you may have to make yourself to try.
Ginger compresses (hot ginger water soaked in a towel) and warm castor oil packs applied on the stomach can help reduce the size of the fibroids as well as alleviate pain.
Hormonal progesterone therapy is a controversial way of treating uterine fibroids in women. Some believe that not having enough progesterone in the body is the cause of fibroids while others believe that progesterone promotes fibroids. During pregnancy, when progesterone production is high, the size of the fibroid increase, and after menopause atrophy when progesterone levels plunge, they diminish. Time will tell what side will be proven right. In the meantime fibroid size can be reduced by eating more beans and whole grains because they alter progesterone/estrogen ratio the leads to the reduction of fibroids.
Decrease fibroids by minimizing exposure to estrogen: Eat organic foods, stay away from HRT/ERT and birth control pills, and avoid pesticides and herbicides and other estrogen-mimicking residues. Chlorine bleached tampons may imitate mimic the negative effects of estrogen as well.
The medication leuprolide acetate or Lupron induces “artificial menopause” by shutting down estradiol production in the body resulting in a substantial reduction in fibroid size within two to three months.
However, when intake of this drug is stopped, the fibroids grow back to almost their original size.
Significant developments in surgical operations have been made for fibroid sufferers. You can now have other options to consider besides uterus extraction (hysterectomy). These options include suprecervical hysterectomy, hysteroscopic resection, myomectomy, and uterine embolization. It may take time though to find a surgeon who is skilled in the procedure since these are fairly new procedures.
For women below the age of 60 who are suffering from uterine fibroids, hysterectomy can be a life-saving procedure. By the age of 60 however, many American women (a third of them) have decided to have their uterus removed surgically. If you have non-symptomatic fibroids in your body, this is not a good reason to undergo a hysterectomy. Some women who did their research before a getting a hysterectomy because of fibroids, fared much better after the operation than those who did not.
Except for a few women, a woman’s ovaries is a very important aspect of their health. So, keep your ovaries even if you decide to have a hysterectomy.
Start with the most gentle remedies first if you have a uterine fibroid that is problematic. When using a remedy, set a time limit for it. Except in emergencies, don’t advance to stronger solutions until you’re sure the safer ones don’t really work for you. You’re the best one to judge what works for you and what does not.
Uses Of Moxibustion Therapy
A form of heat therapy in Orlando, moxibustion involves burning of pieces of dried plant near or on specific areas of the skin. Moxibustion means moxa (mugwort plant) and bustion (burning). Thus moxibustion means the burning of moxa plant. Artemesia Vulgaris (Mugwort) is a common weed that can be found all around the world. For hundreds of years, it has been used for medicinal purposes in some countries especially in countries of East Asia where it is a very important procedure in treating a wide variety of diseases and ailments. Oftentimes, Chinese medicine practitioners combine moxibustion therapy with acupuncture.
The Aroma Emanating from Moxibustion Therapy
Moxa is chosen for its powerful healing abilities since the heat from dried moxa goes through deeper into the skin whilst providing the skin with gentle comforting heat. Moxibustion treats a small area of the body which helps enhance blood and energy (chi) flow along the meridians (energy channels) generating a change in temperature on different areas of the skin that, in turn, facilitates a flow. A significant rise in white blood cell count has been seen in regions of the body where moxibustion is administered.
How Moxibustion Therapy Is Done
Moxibustion can be used in a variety of ways. One way it’s done is through a process called direct moxibustion. In the method, the practitioner places a small piece of moxa on acupuncture points (acupoints) and directly burns it on the skin. Because this procedure may cause small burns, it’s only used in serious ailments and conditions. The practitioner may sometimes put salt, garlic, a piece of ginger or some other herbs between the burning moxa and the skin to protect the skin and enhance the impact of the treatment. In another technique called the warming needle technique, the practitioner will burn a small piece of moxa stick that’s attached to the topmost tip of an acupuncture needle. This procedure enables the heat to go deeper into the acupoints along the needle.
In the indirect moxibustion technique, the practitioner lights a piece of moxa stick and holds it very near the acupoints carefully avoiding the flame to burn the skin. He may move slowly the stick over the acupoints to give the heat the opportunity to go deep into the acupoints.
Uses of Moxibustion Therapy
Moxibustion can be used for a wide range number of conditions. Its most common usage is for the alleviation of symptoms caused by weak circulation and low energy. A lot of patients say that moxibustion feels like a gentle but profound warm feeling that deeply relaxes them. This is an experience that can never be felt with other superficial heating technique.
The most ideal use of moxibustion therapy is for treatment of “cold dampness pattern” that results in joint pain and ache like arthritis. Many aching and painful joint conditions get exacerbated under cold or humid climate. Because of moxibustion therapy’s warm nature, it is reputed to help tonify the yang energy of a person and treat such illnesses as spontaneous sweating, cold feet and hands, chronic fatigue syndrome, and low energy. It can also treat a lot of gynecological problems and in breech conditions, where it rectifies the position of the unborn baby. It also an ideal treatment for flu and cold; it’s more like getting a flu shot, except that it works regardless of the virus strain since it strengthens immunity.
Spokane Chinese medicine practitioners frequently combine moxibustion with acupuncture to boost and circulation to energize patients suffering from low energy. Give us a call to find out if moxibustion can help treat your condition.
Simple Qigong Exercises For Pain And Headache
Chigong, Chikung, or Qigong, are all the same activity and are all pronounced chee gung. It is a Chinese exercise and health system that goes back 4000 years into the past.
In the most primitive forms of Qigong, practitioners would teach laborers basic rudimentary exercises to help them better deal with their difficult lives. Later on, Qigong became an indispensable component of Chinese medicine in Winter Park. Herbal medicine and acupuncture are the two other components of Chinese medicine. A regular part of Chinese medicine practice is in using Qigong to manage headaches.
The Qigong practiced today is composed of three activities, visualization, movement, and breathing. Qigong was divided up into various schools in the early part of last century. These include Martial Arts Qigong developed to enhance stamina and power, Exercise Qigong with activities to strengthen and to improve flexibility and mobility and to strengthen the muscles and medical Qigong that comes with specific exercises for treatment of specific illnesses.
Medical Qigong was developed to alleviate and/or prevent headaches via gentle relaxing movements and special breathing techniques.
Since most headaches are due to muscle tension and stress, it is quite easy to alleviate the pain and even simpler to prevent the headache from occurring again.
Qigong is similar to Tai Chi, and if you’ve ever seen how this practice (Qigong) is done, you will have an idea of the fluid and slow movements of Tai Chi.
Method One – Lying down
Make sure your shoulders and neck are comfortable while lying flat on your back. Shut your eyes and count ten slow long breaths. Visualize the word relax on each breath. With each breath feel yourself relaxing more and more. Visualize your shoulder and neck muscles becoming as soft as gelatin and that you’re sinking lower and lower into your bed.
If you want to lie down, make sure you use a pillow to support your neck. This is a good idea when you already have a headache
Method Two – Sitting
Sit comfortably in a soft chair and repeat the same relaxing and breathing as when lying down. If your headache gets worse when you lie down, try sitting. Sitting can also be a good idea when you’re already suffering from a headache.
Method Three – Headache Prevention
While standing, keep your feet shoulder width apart. Inhale through your nose up to the count of three, and exhale out your nose again on the count of three. Begin moving your shoulders, arms, and feet slowly in a comfortable manner.
This exercise is known as spontaneous Qigong and needs no additional instruction apart from the fact that you move in order to identify soreness in your muscle. You then repeat gently the movement slowly once you locate the area of the sore muscles. This is designed to locate the muscles in your back, shoulders and neck, which because they’re tight are partly responsible for the headaches you’re feeling, and then relax and move them whilst breathing deeply into the muscles. Again visualize your muscles softening.
Moxibustion Therapy For Treatment Of Menstrual Cramping
The ancient fire heat therapy technique of Moxibustion is designed to stimulate pre-selected acupuncture points in the body. This therapy is one of many healing modalities that utilize heat for healing.
Moxibustion is sometimes used to address menstrual cramping, which is not only common but also extremely painful or uncomfortable. About three quarters of women suffer from menstrual cramping and it takes various kinds of drugs to treat it. The basic concept underlying all forms of moxibustion techniques is that heat has the ability to move stagnant energy in the body.
One other positive effect of Moxibustion is the promotion of better blood flow in the body. A lot of women have declared that this form of therapy provides prompt alleviation of painful cramping.
How Does Moxibustion Treat Menstrual Cramping?
Marlton Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practitioners use moxa sticks to treat menstrual cramps. The sticks are commonly sold as wrapped stick. They have to be carefully peeled off before use, so that the practitioner has enough peel on the stick to hold it comfortably. Some practitioners remove the whole wrapper and use a heat insulator or a clean cloth to hold the stick.
The open end of the stick is lighted with the help of a matchbox or lighter after the practitioner takes out the wrapper from the half of the moxa stick. The burning end of the stick is blown out so that the end starts to smoke. Because this stick will be used on the stomach region, wherein the cramping is felt, all forms of clothing on this body part should be removed.
The parts of the body that should be exposed are from the lower part of ribs to the pubic bone. The patient can seek help from others if she is having difficulty doing it herself. Then the stick of smoldering moxa is moved over the whole exposed stomach region. The stick’s smoking end should not touch the skin. It actually should stay ½ inch away from the skin.
While the moxa sticks are usually sold in the form of flattened sticks, you need to make sure that the stick is above the stomach area lying in a horizontal position, which means that the moxa should be held flat. The stick is continuously waved so that whole stomach region receives the heat.
The moxa stick is normally waved for about 15 to 20 minutes. Because menstrual cramping actually occurs in a region lying over the uterus, preference should be given in waving the smoldering stick of moxa.
The patient must see to it that movement of the stick is generating a warming effect on the skin. In certain instances, her skin may become slightly red due to the constant waving of moxa stick. Once the treatment session is done, the fire in the moxa stick is extinguished. The rest of the moxa stick can be stored so that it can be used it a later time.
Maximizing Moxibustion Benefits
To maximize the benefits of moxibustion, drink a cup of chamomile before undergoing therapy. Lots of patients who have tried moxibustion have found it an ideal way to get rid of menstrual cramping. Also, following a session, the patient should lie down and rest.
The Three Forms Of Cupping Therapy Commonly Used Today
First discussed in old medical textbooks in the Western world, cupping therapy is an alternative type of therapy and like acupuncture in Winter Park is better known as a traditional Chinese Medicine mode of treatment.
Cupping therapy was first practiced by the ancient Egyptians. Hippocrates has also given accounts of the use of cupping for the treatment of internal disease. The most commonly used cupping technique is fire cupping which is practiced all across Africa, Asia, and Europe.
Ancient cupping practitioners used hollowed out buffalo horns for their treatments of skin lesions, snakebites, and boils. This method was believed to draw toxins out from the body. The administration of cupping through the years has developed from the utilization of animal horns to cups made of bamboo, and to the glass cups, that we eventually use today. Healing cups made from silicone and earthenware are also used in lieu of glass cups. Silicone cups can withstand the high temperatures that applied during the heating process.
There a number of different cultures who also used cupping therapy as a way to resolve several maladies. In their surgical procedures, the Chinese were alleged to have used cupping as a way to alter the flow of blood from the site of operation. Some European and US physicians use cupping to address common illnesses such as the chest congestion and infection and the common cold.
The therapy mainly entails placement of silicone or glass on the skin of the patient to generate a suction effect to make the blood move toward to the skin surface in areas where the body needs healing. Practitioners of TCM or Traditional Chinese medicine focus on different meridians or energy channels of the body that are used to move energy from part of the body to another. According to them, the human body possesses a dozen of these meridians and treatment may be administered applied to each meridian for a variety of reasons.
A type of medical treatment used in place of mainstream treatments or modern scientific medicine and conventional practices, alternative medicine claims to generate healing benefits which other types of medicinal systems are unable to provide. This type of medicinal system is rapidly gaining more and more followers by the day since it has been shown to bring about the same healing effects as mainstream Western medicine minus the risk of side effects.
Different Forms of Cupping
The three most common traditional types of cupping used today are massage cupping, wet cupping, and fire or dry cupping.
- Massage Cupping
This method is a form of massage therapy in which the practitioner/healer glides and moves the cups around and across your skin. Massage Cupping is an effective way to reduce cellulite in your body and to lose weight. Silicone cups are usually the cups selected for this procedure as they are more flexible and softer making it easier for the practitioner/healer to smoothly move glide them across the body of the patient.
Massage cupping therapy, softens the muscles through the application of pressure. Pain can be much better managed by using negative pressure instead if the use of tissue compression. Through this method, the muscles, tissue, and skin, are pulled upwards instead to help manage the pain and to increase circulation.
Different oils are used in this form of therapy in order for the cup to smoothly glide and slide across the patient’s back. Massage cupping is a good and safe way to help relieve stress and ease tension, induce feelings of relaxation and help with the management of pain.
- Wet Cupping
Wet cupping creates a mild vacuum or suction and can be kept in place for up to three minutes. However, in this technique, the practitioner/healer will need to make a few small cuts on the skin of the patient. This is done through a sterilized scalpel and then the practitioner will need to perform a second cupping procedure to suction out some of the patient’s blood. After a session of wet cupping therapy, it may take 10 days more or less, for the skin of the patient to heal completely. To prevent the risk of infection, the skin should be cleaned before and after a wet cupping procedure.
To the Arabs, wet cupping is known as medicinal bleeding or Hijama. This therapy is commonly administered popular in many Muslim areas of the world and legend has it that it’s been used by the prophet Mohammed.
The cupping methods used by the Chinese are designed to treat respiratory conditions such as bronchitis and pneumonia, along with chest infections and the common cold.
Wet cupping involves some bloodletting in order to expel stagnant blood and heat, in order to alleviate pain. To prevent infection, to the areas of treatment, it’s vital that the clinical setting where this therapy is performed be sterilized and clean.
- Fire or Dry Cupping Therapy
In a dry cupping procedure, the glass cup is heated using flammable materials such as herbs or alcohol. As the fire weakens, the practitioner/healer places the glass cup on the skin surface of the patient.
The weakening of the fire causes the cup to cools down creating a suction or vacuum effect inside the cup. The practitioner quickly places the cup on the patient’s skin. The skin is drawn to the cup and will start to turn red. Usually, these silicone or glass cups are left in place on the skin for about 3 minutes although some procedures may need longer times and may last for up to 20 minutes.
This type of therapy creates a low amount of pressure and is much better used on the soft tissue in order to create a tight seal on the skin. The practitioner may first lubricate the skin with massage oil so the cups can be easily moved around across the body.
Craniosacral Therapy, A Powerful But Gentle Way To Of Heal Pain And Stress
CST or CranioSacral Therapy is a powerful but gentle style of healing. Your craniosacral system is a protective and deep layer of your body, and is where the cerebrospinal fluid that surrounds the spinal cord and brain as well as the structures or membrane that protect your central nervous system resides.
When you’re in pain or feeling overwhelmed or stressed, or simply feels like the “on” switch has been flipped on for too long, craniosacral therapy can help “reboot” your body and help you to relax and slow down. This restful experience is ideal for sorting your backlogged material, mostly a wide range of stressors, headaches, and pain signals. The therapy is so soothing and relaxing that most people feel as if they are floating on air or fall asleep during the session.
What Other Things Can CranioSacral Therapy Do?
Your body has to compensate when it has to deal with trauma and stress. This generates restrictions and tension across the body affecting the tissues that envelop the spine and brain. These conditions can cause your body systems, especially your central nervous system, to not perform at peak efficiency; by working gently with this system, that restriction and tension can be assuaged, giving your body a chance to experience ease and a new sense of balance.
What Happens During a CranioSacral Therapy Session?
You will lie on a massage table fully clothed during treatment, which involves gentle touch to assess and release tissues all the way from the bottom of the spine to the structures and sutures of your cranium. Your body’s rhythm, like working with a gentle tide or a wave form, will be treated to attain the profoundly relaxing response many people experience. Lots of people view CranioSacral therapy as a type of “head massage;” actually, the treatment can be used to work on any part of the body.
What are the Uses of CranioSacral Therapy?
CranioSacral is good for eliminating mental and physical stress habits. This means issues such as TMJ,
scoliosis, immune problems, headaches, fibromyalgia, emotional problems including anxiety and depression, digestive disorders, chronic pain including back and neck pain, and chronic fatigue respond well to this therapy.
CST works well in treating complex anddiseases that cannot be resolved by other therapies. Most people who visit a CranioSacral therapist have tried several forms of treatment just to relieve their pain and stress with little or no results. With just a few treatment sessions of CST, they are brought closer to balance and the pain in the body that have persisted for years are finally cured.