Cupping Therapy - How it works & Safety

I’ll never forget my first clinical shadow shift as a 1st year Naturopathic Medical student. I walked into a treatment room and saw cupping being done on a patient’s back. I had never seen anything like it and I was so repulsed! In that moment - and remember, I came from a conventional pre-med undergrad education - I seriously questioned the career path that I had chosen.

Fast forward to present day, and here I am, having sought out additional cupping training (two 21 hr workshops) in addition to the my basic curriculum because I absolutely love the therapeutic benefits of cupping and want to keep learning new techniques.

Here’s the issue with cupping - it isn’t regulated. Meaning, various practitioners can offer this as a service with very minimal understanding of tissue response, technique, and lymphatic physiology. This can actually cause bruising and harm to patients so I want to shed light on the safety considerations, in addition to the physiological tissue responses.

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