Trying something new is always exciting. Just like the other day when I tried Cupping for the first time. My mom has been telling me to try it for a long time but I am quite skeptical with the practice. I certainly prefer conventional medicine but I think there is no harm in exploring new ways to heal my body. Since I mentioned that I have been struggling with excruciating pain almost everyday, my mom mentioned that I should try cupping as going to the GP did not help at all.My mom said that cupping will help with easing my pain and I would feel better instantly. Since I will go on a long adventure, fixing my pain is a priority as I do not want to go with full body pain and inflammation. Anyway,technically with my skepticism, I thought it was placebo but I ended up having a nice conversation with my paternal cousin about traditional chinese medicine and its practices. In this post, not only will I talk about my personal experience but I will also share some valuable things that I learned today.

My cousin is a Chinese medicine practitioner and so is his family. They’ve been practicing this for years and are quite reputable. From them I learned that there are schools that specialize in that just like a conventional medicine would. And my cousin went to one of those schools to become a practitioner. Though I know a bit of traditional medicine, knowing it from the expert clears up some of my doubts and taught me a thing or two about my body and health in general. However, the main thing that I did was cupping. What you see below is the suction tool and also the cup.

With cupping itself, from what I saw, the practitioner in this case my cousin, will put something like a cup to suck the skin, then use small needles, cup the area and blood will come out of it. This is something that he refers to as wet cupping. Before the process, he checked my blood pressure and asked me to point out the painful area in my body along with my tongue. After that, he performed a massage and mentioned that I have not drunk enough water and I have something called Dryness which makes some of my joints painful especially around my calf and legs. During that conversation, he also mentioned that he would advise his patients to;

• Fix their nutrition
• Stress management
• Breath work
• Last resort would be therapy either acupuncture or cupping.

Anyway, the conversation sort of flowed and I tried writing what I remembered from those four points.

Fixing Nutrition

Fixing nutrition is a preventive work and according to him, it is best to do some fasting to reset our body. He mentioned doing it around twenty one day to normalize everything. However, if we can’t then limit our food vices that are quite harmful to our symptoms. For example, I need to consume “hot” food whereas my dad would need “cold” food to ease his pain. It depends on the person but today I learned that food can be categorized as hot and cold in TCM(Traditional Chinese Medicine). Since I mentioned my other problem, he said that I also have to avoid noodles, bread, and anything with flour. But most importantly, water is something I need to drink more and have coffee but only hot one, not an iced coffee and without milk and sugar.

After talking about the nutrition, he eventually performed cupping and during the process, he mentioned that I have circulation impairment which made me have the issues that I described to him. My mom also saw that in the lower back of my body, the blood was quite thick and a lot. He was worried that if I continued with my lifestyle and the way I live without enough water, I would have a serious problem with my liver and kidney. He further mentioned some of the symptoms and I think that both of those are affected but it’s not as intense that it would require any medical assistance. However, a preventive measure would still help. I suppose the takeaway is that, watch what you eat, drink a lot of water. I know that it sounds like common sense but you never know if you actually do that and are deficient in nutrition.

Stress management

He also touched on meditation and yoga, those two are something that he advised that my mom and I should do. It actually aligned with my goal this February that I am doing meditation for 30 minutes a day. He said that those practices could also help us feel better and that at least, a preventive measure to illnesses. This also goes well with the breathwork. We mentioned that our exercise is basically swimming but apparently, he still advises to do Yoga and meditation.

Acupuncture and Cupping

The last thing that would help is either acupuncture and cupping. I have seen my other family members do that and the key is actually continuous therapy. My cousin said that he saw improvement with my dad and that his body is getting better. I was relieved to hear that as he often does cupping alongside the conventional medicine that he took. Meanwhile for me and my mom, it seems that we need a lot of work especially when there are so many things to repair in my body and health.

When he performs cupping, it feels really tense and a bit painful but after it’s all done, some heaviness is lifted from my shoulders. He also advised that people like me shouldn’t go to any strong massage therapist but rather a simple spa, relaxation massage. After the cupping session finished, he also adjusted my neck and I could hear the crack sound pretty loud. Not only my neck but also my body which was interesting and actually pretty satisfying to hear.

The meeting got me thinking about many practices that I did in the past that I’ve not done in a while. From drinking more water, fasting, and even drinking hot water rather than cold water. He also got me interested in reading about yin and yang, hot and cold in TCM. I wished I could have asked more but because he and his family were in a rush and it was pretty late, there are many things that are left unanswered and maybe I’ll ask next time when I do it again. But again, the main takeaway was nutrition that I think is huge and is something I realized that I have to take care of once again.

Have you ever tried cupping?

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	𝘔𝘢𝘤 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧-𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘺𝘦𝘥 𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘫𝘢 & 𝘤𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘰𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘶𝘳 . 𝘈 𝘵𝘺𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦, 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴, 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘯𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘺. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘨, 𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘭𝘦𝘥𝘨𝘦. 𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴, 𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘴, 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴, 𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘺, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵. 𝘖𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘣𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘰𝘯, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘪𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘺. 𝘚𝘩𝘦'𝘴 𝘢𝘯 𝘰𝘤𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘧𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘪𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴. 𝘍𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘫𝘰𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯! 𝘋𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘱𝘷𝘰𝘵𝘦, 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬. 𝘈 𝘳𝘦-𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘨 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰𝘰.