It was a big surprise and news when people saw some round ‘purple’ marks on the back and shoulder of the American swimmer, Michael Phelps, and other athletes at the ongoing Olympic games three days ago.
This drew the attention of many people around the world especially so when there are different claims of un-healthy environment relating to the water condition as some people were thinking if it was as a result of reaction whiles others where saying the athletes slept on their medals.
Making it clear some media institutions such as the ‘China Daily’ where I am presently doing my internship, thought it fit to do a research and explain in details to the people about the process and its health benefit which is now available of their Facebook page.
As journalist who is curious to know more about the process on how it operates, I volunteered together with colleagues from Ghana and Zambia (David Teteh and Mwazi) respectively and also the Deputy Director of International News Department, Su Qiang, to have a try.
Cupping therapy as a form of alternative medicine in which a local suction is created on the skin is believed by practitioners to have the potential of mobilizing blood and psychological balance in order to promote healing of the body.
The cupping therapy can be done in two ways, it can either be dry cupping or bleeding/wet cupping with wet cupping being the most commonly used around the world.
According to history, the first document of use is found in the teaching of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad (Peace be up him) who approves of the Hijama Cupping treatment, which has survived in Muslim countries around the world.
The Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) cupping is a method of creating a vacuum on the patient’s skin to dispel stagnation ‘stagnant blood and lymph’ as its improves flow to treat respiratory diseases such as common cold, pneumonia, bronchitis and it can also be used on back, neck, shoulder and other musculo skeletal condition.
Watching my colleague from Ghana going through the process and recalling the coverage on some other media about the American swimmer and other athletes made me excited to experience it too.
The process of fire cupping which we experienced starts by applying a massage oil on the back with slight massage by the expert then wet a cotton with some flammable liquid which she clamped by a pair of forceps and lit with a lighter and the flaming cotton ball was then placed into a cup, then quickly removed and the cup was placed on my back and then covered my back with a towel for more heat.
About eighteen (18) cups where placed on my back and the process lasted for about 13 minutes as the experts said it should not be more than 15 minutes.
The fire heat inside of the cup and a small amount of suction was created by the air cooling down again and contracting with the help of the oil which creates a better seal as well as allow the cup to glide over muscle groups which will create round circles which if appears black, means the skin is having some problem but if pink then the skin is okay.
After removing the cups, some slight massage was again done on my back to help the skin relax and was advised not to swim or bath with cold water until after six hours to allow free and smooth blood flow across my muscles.
Upon completion of the entire process I felt completely relaxed and my whole body felt light and I found out I could move freely and actively. It was indeed a great experience that was worth trying for health reasons.
By Alhaji M Kamara in Beijing
Thursday August 11, 2016