Cupping (Hijama) regulates the flow of Qi and Blood. It helps to draw out and eliminate pathogenic factors such as Wind, Cold, Damp and Heat. Cupping also moves Qi and Blood and opens the pores of the skin, thus precipitating the removal of pathogens through the skin itself. In my opinion, nothing moves Qi and Blood faster than cupping. From the very start of its application one can observe the blood moving in the direction of the cup. Where a patient’s energy is deficient this movement will be slow; if the energy is abundant it will be much quicker. One can actually observe this process if plastic cups are used.
Cupping therapy has been further developed as a means to open the ‘Meridians’ of the body. Meridians are the conduits in the body through which energy flows to every part of the body and through every organ and tissue. There are five meridians on the back that,
When opened, allow invigorating energy to travel the whole length of the body. It has been found that cupping is probably the best way of opening those meridians. Cupping has also been found to affect the body up to four inches into tissues, causing tissues to release toxins, activate the lymphatic system, clear colon blockages, help activate and clear the veins, arteries and capillaries, activate the skin, clear stretch marks and improve varicose veins. Cupping is the best deep tissue massage available. Cupping, the technique, is very useful and very safe.
As discussed earlier, cupping is particularly effective when the external pathogen still resides in the superficial energetic area of the body, the Defensive/Protective level (Wei Qi). Whatever the vessel used, the objective of the treatment remains the same, i.e. to remove the external pathogens from the body and restore the circulation of Qi, Blood and the Fluids, thus bringing health to the sick.
Below is a rare Japanese account on the subject of cupping therapy, taken from a Japanese cupping-set manual (no author is mentioned). The effect of this therapy can be classified into two categories: the general (Purification of blood, improvement of circulatory functions of blood and lymph, regulation and betterment of automatic nervous system, etc.) and the local (removal of pain, relaxation of stiff muscles, etc.). Medical perspective in understanding some mechanisms followed by the Cupping Operation to cure or improve a number of Hopeless Disease
- Purification of Blood
- Effects upon the skin
- Effects upon muscles
- Effects upon joints
- Spleen Disease
- Liver Disease
- Heart and Blood Thrombi
- Digestive System
- The Nervous System
- Especially the brain
- Diabetes Disease
- Kidney Disease
- Eye Disease
- Cancer Disease (Malignant Disease of the Time)
- Conclusion
Purification of Blood
Among the general effects, the most important is the effect upon the circulatory system. Professor Kentaro Takagi of Nagoya University says that the skin-stimulating therapies are significant in that they awaken the greatest responses in the circulatory system. His remarks were not necessarily directed towards cupping therapy, but I think it has much in Common with the skin-stimulating therapies he mentioned. Owing to the pull of low pressure, the flow of blood in the arteries and veins increases, although in the case of the latter, localized spots of congested blood appear and then disappear. It is possible to ease the interruption of blood circulation and congestion and to stop the inflammatory extravasations (escaping of bodily fluids such as blood) from the tissues. Therefore, facilitation of the flow of blood is the most important characteristic of this therapy. It is very beneficial for hardened arteries, stiff shoulders, etc.
Dr Katase of Osaka University suggests that this therapy may influence the composition of blood: it increases red and white blood cells and changes acid blood into alkaline or neutral. This leads to the purification of blood.
Effects upon the skin
According to one experiment on a 35-year-old male subject, fine hair on his back grew to thick hair of 1 to 1.5 cm long after about 140 applications of treatment by this method. This is because the direct physical stimuli on hair roots and the expansion of blood vessels of the skin, by means of the pull of low pressure, cause an increase in blood circulation, a rise of skin temperature, the promotion of metabolism within skin tissue, better functioning of sweat and sebaceous glands and of cutaneous respiration and sufficient supply of nutrition to the tissues. The essential point of ‘cupping therapy’ is not only to withdraw stagnant old blood within the skin but also to remove poisonous substances from the surface of the skin. This is why, when a doctor continues this therapy on a patient with his bare hands, they become yellowy. It accelerates secretion of salts and sebaceous matter and the excretion of water. Another important point is that it strengthens the renewing power of the skin and its resistance to various harmful conditions.
Effects upon muscles
The pull of low-pressure ‘cupping therapy’, the functioning of blood vessels within the muscles is activated in response to the stimulation of the subcutaneous capillary vessels. Thus the expansion of the blood vessels in the muscles facilitates the flow of blood and has a remarkable effect on a stiff shoulder, for example, removing congested blood. Moreover, this facilitates the flow of lymph. After the ‘cupping therapy’, the skin will be all aglow as a result of the rise in skin temperature and muscles by the increase of the blood flow.
Effects upon joints
Chronic joint rheumatism is one of the conditions for which ‘cupping therapy’ is effective. In this case the treatment is concentrated on the area of the joints concerned. When the condition is mild, an almost complete cure is possible, and this results from the better flow of blood within the joint, the activity and secretion of synovial fluids. In case of muscular spasms around the joints, they can be removed.
The effect of Hijama (cupping) on the Spleen disease
Splenomegalies may be due to the need of increasing the splenic work.
For example, some reasons which causes these Splenomegalies are ; Infectious inflammatory causes: It is believed that this kind of Splenomegaly caused by infectious inflammatory factor results from the increasing in spleen’s defensive activity, or due to the increasing need to refine certain compounds from the blood. And the congestive causes: this kind of Splenomegaly caused by the congestive causes results from the increase in pressure in portal circulation or in the general blood circulation.
The amplification may also be due to over productivity of reticals-endothelia cells for the spleen to withdraw the spoiled cells from the blood, or due to the myeloid metaplasia, or the amplification may be due to blood rubeosis, or infiltration lesion where the spleenphagias are filled with spoiled materials which accumulated due to the effect of these diseases.
We have found in this respect that the cupping operation is a must solution for such cases (Splenomegalies). Moreover, cupping can stimulate the reticuloendothelial cells to carry out its important immunity role against germs, parasites, fungi and protozoon’s. It is clear that cupping application according to its rules is a secondary spleen which forms a main assistant for the spleen in the blood filtration from all unwanted materials and spoiled and dead blood cells. So cupping Medicine is a very important protective of, and curing treatment in such cases of spleen problems.
The effect of Hijama (Cupping) on the Liver Disease
When cupping removes the spoiled and senile corpuscles and the impurities from the blood, and it increases blood flow in all tissues and oranges, consequently in the liver tissue. So, the liver cells will be activated and then the whole liver will be activated to perform its other functions in a complete performing. It will transform the cholesterol and the excessive triglycerides by its metabolic function, and stores the excessive sugar in blood with help from the pancreas in reducing glucose level to normal one in the diabetics. And the liver will be more active in rescuing the body from poisons, this activate all its systems including the brain and nervous system so the general health of body is better.
It also heightens the regeneration of spoiled tissues in the body because the liver is responsible for the production of the necessary protein for continuation of life and growth, it is clear that cupping medicine is a cure or main improving of all hepatic problems including all types of hepatitis, and prevents from or curing the hypertension of the portal vein and all resulting dangerous problems. Prof. Dr. A. G. Jabakji, the specialist in neuromicroscopic surgery from Holland, says, “The implementation of cupping as it has been recommended is an explicit and clear entrance to complete health and good recovery. It supplies man with great power and energy by way of opening and cleaning the fine blood vessels within which blood precipitates and forms residues on its walls, and such a case is one of the causes of migraine, heart and liver disease, and other ailments of the age.”
If we consider the hepatic Enzymes as a criterion for all treated cases where the levels of them are high, the findings are; after cupping they return to their normal levels.
The effect of the Hijama (Cupping) on Immunity System
The cupping operation increase the ability and activity of the immunity system due to the increased activity of the reticals-endothelial system, and the good blood flow through the tissues and oranges heightens the immunity of the body because that the pathogens in the body are more subjected to the immunity system unites.
Interferon is the quickest defensive line to be formed and secreted after the exposure of the body to any virus. Prof. Kanteel says,” That the leukocytes can produce interferon in a rate exceeding ten times more than the other body cells produce.” The test of cupping blood showed a presence of very slight rate of leukocytes in it in addition to its great effect in producing the immunity defensive cells as the phagocytes which destroy pathogenic agents. This development in the stem (initial ) blood cells go towards leukocytes formation, that the case of body demanding increasing in white blood cells in order to defend the body against the pathogenic agents. Here we can say: cupping keeps the leukocytes (there is just a very slight rate of leukocytes in cupping blood) and activates its production that helps in producing interferon in abundant quantities to face the hepatic virus or cancer cells.
This is what we have seen through the tests which the lab team has performed.
The effect of Hijama (cupping) on the Heart and Blood thrombi
In this era we hear every day about a sudden death and paralysis. These incidents are attributed to blood clots which are nothing but an agglomeration of red and white corpuscles, platelets and fibrin fibers crowded together at the ramifications of arteries to form a clot, its main happening is hypertension. The cupping operation has a great preventive role as it was mentioned in some of Hadiths that it prevents (hyperemia).
In the dictionary of “Lissan Al-Arab” hyperemia means “agitation and increase,” This description applies also on arterial hypertension and real increase in red corpuscles (poly Cythemia vera; Erythremia).
The disturbance of the cardiac system may be caused by ischemia or oxyachrestia. Also myocardia infarction is due to ischemia resulting from arterial stenosis (arteriosclerosis ) and the thrombi themselves when they are in these coronary arteries.
The angina pectoris is generated when there is a decrease in supplying the heart tissue with the necessary Oxygen. Because the fat precipitations have partly blocked up the coronary artery.Then the high level of arterial hypertension may lead to complications such as: cardiac insufficiency, angina pectoris and encephala vascular incident. The long arterial hypertension may cause heart enlargement, and atherosclerosis.
The effect of Hijama (Cupping) on the Digestive System
The blood stagnation in the veins of the stomach and the intestines destroys their secretive and absorption functions and that will to severe bleeding, especially the vessels of the stomach, the intestines, the esophagus and the rectum, and blood clots in the legs and feet, hemorrhoids, and severe menstruation” in women, all of what mentioned above leads blood pressure to go down.
So, Cupping medicine activates the blood flow and consequently prevents blood from the in the digestive system. Therefore we cupping prevents and treats all the above mentioned cases. Most patients have their problems with haemorrhoids come to an end after performing cupping. The heightening blood pressure with a sluggish blood circulation leads to harm the biliary tracts and increases the density of the bile. Here cholesterol and bilirubin start to crystallize and that hinders the circulation of the arterial blood. Whereas the compactness of the aged red corpuscles and their precipitation result in the impeded circulation in portal vein. Eventually, the tension of the portal vein heightens to push a part of the blood to the peripheral circulation round the liver through vessels anastomosis , consequently the spleen congests and enlarges and also does the venous vessels in the pancreas leading to its atrophy and its inability to do its functions. This is what we have seen. In fact, the cupping opretion is a prevention and cure for all these problems and saves us from the trouble.
The effect of Hijama (Cupping) on the nervous System, especially the Brain
Cupping therapy stimulates the sensory nerves of the skin. As demonstrated in a clinical experiment conducted at Kobe University, the inhibitory effects on hypersensitive pain are not limited to the area of direct treatment, but include the areas controlled by the relevant nerves. Treatment on the back is mainly directed to the central line (spinal nerves and parasympathetic nerves) and the sympathetic nerves beside it. The stimulation of these has, it can be said, a good influence not only on the automatic nervous system itself but also on various organs under its control.
Cupping therapy is, like massage, effective against the so-called syndrome of general malaise, such as chronic headaches, dizziness, languor, stiff shoulders, fatigue, etc. These are said to derive from anxiety, worry and bodily pain. It is also effective against endogenous chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, neuralgia and rheumatism. During treatment with this therapy on the back or the loins, for example, some middle aged or elderly patients fall asleep, snoring loudly. This clearly shows one of the effects upon the nervous system. The mechanism of its effectiveness will be clarified some day. Thus the general and localized effects of this therapy strengthen the healing power against diseases and, together with a healthy diet and psychotherapy, cure or prevent disease completely.
The effect of Hijama (Cupping) on Diabetes Disease
One of the factors of heightening the rate of sugar in blood is ischemic the case where the body is stimulated to liberate glucose in order to raise the activity of its organs. Unluckily, the cause is not in the burning or in the ability, but the ischemic meager. And this explains the secret of immediate recovery for diabetic people soon after performing the operation. The activity of the liver and pancreas share much in reducing the level of sugar in the blood. This is what we have seen while performing the operation.
The effect of Hijama (Cupping) on the Eye Diseases
Cupping, while playing its role in removing from the blood all that impedes its movement and prevents it from stagnation. In this way, it activates the blood circulation and improves the perfusion of tissues and organs, and at the same time, it raises the activities of the various organs and systems of the body in addition to what result from the rearrangement of the hormone secretion leading to raise the immunity and defense of the body and its systems, especially the brain, the optic nerve, and the retina improving, in his way, the general state of the eyesight.
The effect of Hijama (Cupping) on the kidney Diseases
The two kidneys usually do their duty of cleaning the body from nitrogen products, regulate the concentration of sodium, and metabolize the body liquids. They also concentrate the ions in blood and the balance of PH in the body, the deficiency of blood perfusion to the kidneys breaks down the kidneys from doing their elimination function and that may cause kidney failure, or to fall victim of Boliva disease which affects the brain and kills its cells.
Cupping eliminates the ischemia from the kidneys and encourages them to function their duties to the best and that will increase the resistance of the body against diseases in general.
The effect of Hijama (Cupping) on the Cancer Disease (Malignant Disease of the Time)
The accumulation of blood impurities will affect negatively the flow of blood, the perfusion of the tissues and organs will decrease, then the heart will exert more effort to secure their requirements. When the outpouring of blood lessens from the liver, the blood impurities deviates it from its most important duty in removing poisonous materials.
The function of the spleen will be lowered in its immunity level in producing antibodies and in straining the blood from strange elements. The work of the systems will reduce little by little. The person will not immediately feel these changes in his body until old age when situations worsen, the troubles appear, and diseases creep upon him.
For this reason we find that the rate of infection in cancer is greater in aged people than it is in others. All this is due to the absence of cupping. When the outside factors, such as chemical and radiological elements, and psychological impacts, the body becomes a prey for these aggressors. This is not all, for the body cells proliferated madly until they revolted against this body, and it was cancer. Any disturbance in the systems of the body leads to disturbance in the hormone disequilibrium with the outside factors. But the result was bigger than a weak immunity system weakened by ischemia. The organism recognizes the cancerous cells and considers them strange and forms antibodies against them seeking to control this tumor and trying to stop its diffusion, and the tumor appears when the equilibrium tends to the advantage of the cancerous cells.
Cancer has grown up when its cells overcome the immunity system, and the immunity system is linked with the systems and organs of the body, and the whole forms an integrated unity.
If the liver worked in a high competence and saved the body from poisons, and stored, analyzed and combined, and the spleen accomplished its turn by changing its immunity cells, the T-B phagocytes, into secreting cells for globulins, and the humeral immunity was strengthened, and the two kidneys were purifying and organizing the mineral salts in a high efficiency as the rest systems and organs of the body do, then the body will restrain all outside effects and remains safe and sound. Statistics have shown that persons, who took medicines to inhibit immunity when they performed renal transplantation operations, were more exposed to infection by cancerous tumors than normal ones in a rate that reaches (35) times more. Some cases were found in the Americans that (74%) of those people infected by cancer were complaining from viral hepatitis. The owner of a weak liver is more exposed to primary hepatic cancer. One of the studies showed that the rate of infection by hepatic cancer between males was higher than it was with females by (6) times. And this is the result of menstruation, that” Divine Cupping”.
Studies have shown that the tumor cells in the blood circulation, which saved them-selves from damage, become a malignant dissemination whose rate did not exceed one cell out of ten thousand cells from the total tumor cells because the effect of immunity was strong in the blood medium. For this reason doctors started using anticoagulins to stop spreading of the cancerous cells.
Conclusion
Cupping heightens the efficiency of the immunity system in general and save us the trouble, and of the spoiled corpuscles and of the blood impurities. It reduces the blood viscosity, and raises its liquidity in a normal way without artificial induction, and the induction of bone marrows to produce more immunity cells.
This is what the lab studies have proved and were affirmed by our lab team. The spleen concentrates itself to practice its immunity role, and the systems of the body are rehabilitated, and heightened their capacities by cupping operation and in bettering the patient’s situation or a certain recovery of this malignant disease.
The cupping operation improves the eyesight resulting from insufficiency of perfusion and lesson clottinf of blood by removing the extra congestive blood and eventually it lessons brain clots, and in reducing arterial pressure, it lessens occurrence of brain hemorrhage, and in strengthening immunity, it also lessens occurrence of neuro-immunity lesions. In no doubt, science will discover other advantages for cupping in advance of time to show that it is an excellent helpful device in treating a number of diseases.
