Cupping Procedures in cupping therapy

1. When proceeding cupping therapies, doctors should choose cups with different caliber according to the size of cupping site.

2. Cups should be disinfected with alcohol before cupping. Click here to learn Joint tuberculosis in TCM.

3. For the people who are weak, nervous, old or receive cupping for the first time, doctors should choose the posture of decubitus and use small cups for shorter time as possible.

4. Generally speaking, in order to avoid air leakage and cup falls, the sites which are full of muscle, full of flexibility, with little hair or bones, no accidented joints will be selected for cupping.

5. For any diseases, neck and nape should be cupped first if needed. Cupping principles require doctors to follow the following procedures, cupping from head to back, then to the chest and belly and last to the four limbs and joints if needed.

6. When we are doing cupping, the movement should be fast and gently, moderate, accurate, gently and fast, to be exact.

7. Generally speaking, we usually sustain the cups for 10 to 20 minutes, and then remove the cups when the cupping site is engorged. If the suction is too strong due to large cups, it is proper to shorten the cupping time to avoid causing bubbles. Click here to learn Rheumatic Arthritis in TCM.

8. When removing the cup, doctors holds the cup with lift hand, presses the sites beside the cup with thumbs or index of right hand to fill the cup with air and then gets it up. Doctors should not pull the cup up roughly which may results to skin injury.

9. It is good to drink a glass of water to eliminate toxicity after receiving cupping treatment.

10. The interval time of receiving cupping depends on the condition of ecchymosis, state of an illness and constitution of the patient. Generally speaking, the interval time should be reduced for those, whose ecchymosis disappears fast and who are strong or suffer the acute diseases. Otherwise, the interval time should be increased. Common interval time is 3 to 7 days, 7 to 10 times for one treatment.