Treatment for the Sick #3_Cupping (Feb. 20th, 2013)

To end our 3 hours together I asked Dr. Song if she would do the cupping treatment, since it's a great treatment to use when someone is sick. For those who don't know what cupping is, it's basically a medicinal treatment in which suction cups are placed on the body to draw stagnated  or "stuck" blood to the surface of the skin. The bruises that result usually last a few days. The are a few ways cupping is applied it can be used with bamboo or glass cups and fire and most recently plastic cups and a mechanism that extracts air. During the treatment Dr. Song first started with the plastic cups which were first placed on my back and the mechanism was used to suck the air out and basically suction my skin. Since I'm more of a traditionalist I asked Dr. Song if she could use glass cups and fire. She agreed to it and started the fire cupping process. She lit the glass cup and on fire, which extinguished and she attached them to my back after a few mins she started to move the cups up and down my back and as she moved the cups she immediately saw red forming on my back. Of course it was a little painful because the glass cup was sucking my skin and she pushed the cup up and down my back, but after the treatment I noticed a tremendous difference in my breathing. So to finish off my hour I left the Doctor's office with bruises on my back (still deciding whether or not to post the pictures), relaxed and more informed on acupuncture and the sub practices of it.