Cupping - anyone tried it?

[JoCannon]

Has anyone tried cupping? Was it painfull, uncomfortable, bearable? What benefits did you get from it?

[JustSia]

Tried it. Was brought up with it. Now it is more a question of fetish.

Like any other alternative treatments it is questionable. There aren't many known benefits of it. Although its practitioners would argue with it and say oh, it draws out the badness from the inside (the evil inside moi disagrees) especially if coupled with letting blood. The main point of cupping seems to be an alternative way to detox.

There are more complications with it when not done properly than benefits, which you have to be very careful about. First, there is always a chance of burning. As you have to create a vacuum inside the cup the fire has to be put inside, taken out and the cup stuck on within a matter of couple of seconds, which means it has to be held very close to the body. Use correct creams. And never NEVER put cups on the areas where heart, kidneys, spinal cord are. Make sure you don't suffer from any serious medical conditions, especially if your blood doesn't clot properly (I know when are you supposed to use it then? my mum used it on me when I had chest infections).

As to how it feels, like a really really massive love-bite. It feels strange because you don't know what's going on and because the skin is stretched under the cups. It's not painful at all. Uncomfortable, yeah. Weird definitely. And after a while very very interesting;0).

S.