Cupping Therapy

Cupping Therapy

Cupping Therapy is ancient form of alternative medicine in which a therapist puts special cups on your skin for a few minutes to create suction. People get it for many purposes including to help with pain, inflammation, blood flow, relaxation and well-being, and as a type of deep-tissue massage.

Cupping Marks Michael Phelps 

When people see the cupping marks on Michael Phelps they wonder why he has "bruises" on his shoulders. Cupping utilizes a glass cup specially designed to create suction through the application of heat or a vacuum.  What happens is when the heat or vacuum draws the tissue into the cup it increases the circulation drawing the blood into the area.  This will increase healing and help the body recover from an injury or a trauma in a case of an athlete or speed up recovery from workouts.  Michael Phelps focuses utilizes a lot of shoulder movement therefore would focus on the rotator cuff for treatment to increase function and break up adhesions.  Unfortunately the technique does cause bruising as everyone noticed. 

Cupping Alternative

A better alternative to cupping is a therapy called microcurrent. All athletes and Olympians should look into microcurrent technology. What microcurrent does it takes a voltage and specific frequency of current in microbursts to apply to the body through your skin.  It’s not painful at all. In fact, it actually feels good. A microcurrent is a electrical device used to send electrical signals into the body. Such devices apply extremely low level electrical currents to cells, nerves and tissue using electrodes places on the skin or the device. These frequencies are specific to the types of cells you are treating.  The current increases the cell wall voltage and then also increase the mitochondria activity in the cell.  This is the part of the cell that makes ATPO which is your "cell gas".  When the cell has enough energy it can finally heal.  When it loses energy that is what causes damage and pain.  There is also a biofeedback mechanism that reads what tissue has lost function and determines how long the treatment takes to restore normal voltage to the cells.  More information can be found on this by searching my name, Dr. Darcy E. Brunk and microcurrent.