Posts Tagged ‘acupuncture points’

Focus on Remedial Massage: Cupping Techniques by Katherine Lynn & Cherice Day

Tuesday, March 30th, 2010

Chinese Cupping Techniques:  by Katherine Lynn & Nathan Leach

What can Chinese Cupping Techniques be used for…

Respiratory Diseases: For chronic bronchitis and asthma

Digestive Diseases: For dysentery, early morning diarrhea, and acute and chronic gastritis

Pain Syndromes

· Shoulder blade

· Loins

· Head

· Soft tissue injury: treating local pressure pain points and area of swelling

Gynecological Disorders

· Infertility and irregular menstruation

· Leukorrhea

· Uterine cramps

Common cold

Insomnia

Cupping is an ancient Chinese practice where the cup is suctioned, applied to the skin, and the pressure in the cup is reduced (by using change in heat or by suctioning out air), so that the skin and outer layers of the muscles are drawn up and into the cup. Sometimes the cup may be moved while the suction of skin is still active, causing pulling of the skin and muscle (gliding cupping).

This treatment has similarities to other massage techniques, such as the rapid skin pinching along the back. In that practice, the skin is pinched, sometimes at specific points (e.g., bladder meridian points), until a redness is generated. Cupping is applied by acupuncturists to certain acupuncture points, as well as to regions of the body that are affected by pain (where the pain is deeper than the tissues to be pulled).

When the cups are moved along the surface of the skin, the treatment is similar to sand scraping, a folk remedy of southeast Asia which is often carried out by scraping the skin with a coin or other object with the intention of breaking up stagnation. Movement of the cups is a gentler technique than sand scraping, as a lubricant allows the cup to slide. Still, a certain amount of bruising is expected both from fixed position cupping (especially at the site of the cup rim) and with movement of the cups (up to 2 weeks of bruising should be expected after cupping massage techniques).

Traditional cupping, with use of heated cups, also has some similarity to moxibustion therapy. Heating of the cups was the method used to obtain suction: the hot air in the cups has a low density and, as the cups cool with the opening sealed by the skin, the pressure within the cups declines, sucking the skin into it. In this case, the cups are hot and have a stimulating effect something like that of burning moxa wool.

Kinesiology Definition

Sunday, November 22nd, 2009

Kinesiology: the definition of kinesiology is a little tricky since there are so many forms, developed with different processes in mind.  In general kinesiology is about muscle movement and muscle testing, therefore we use muscle testing to find out what’s going on inside the body.  We use different ‘muscle testing’ techniques depending on who we are treating and what we are treating them for.

Kinesiology was developed originally in the 1950’s by renegade chiropractors in the U.S., who were sick to death of treating the same condition week in, week out.   George Goodheart went to China and learned acupuncture philosophy, so acupressure and acupuncture meridians, points, and emotions are highly integrated within most kinesiology models.

Physios used ‘kinesiology’ techniques in the 1950’s as well to find out how damaged a persons muscles were after a bout of polio, or after the polio vaccines, so we add in the structural muscular knowledge from this side of medicine as well.  Richard Utt, Gordon Dickson ND & Charles Krebs PhD all developed various kinesiology processes which have created the overall process now known as LEAP (Learning Enhancement Advanced Acupressure) system which helps people with learning problems, memory issues, behavioural problems such as ADHD, ADD, Aspergers, Autism and more. 

Carl Ferrari D.C. combined chiropractic with Touch for Health and other modalities to develop N.O.T. (Neural Organisational Technique) which is fabulous in re-booting the nervous system from head to toe, supporting long-term issues such as whiplashes, jaw and hip problems, scoliosis and more.  Both Linda Hoggard ND and Madonna Guy ND have been using N.O.T. since 1996 and have found it invaluable in treating long term health problems such as chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia.  Jacqueline Dekoke ND is the primary practitioner dealing with finding allergies, dealing with sensitivities and helping overcome long term immune system issues with the Endocrine and Immune Balancing processes.

All of our kinesiologists are also naturopaths so we utilise our knowledge within both spheres to ensure people get the most out of our treatments.  The types of kinesiology that we do are very non-invasive: we may find a time-line that’s important to clear (ie, father unwell at 8 years old, creates a fear pattern in our brain around loss or lack of security for example) but we don’t delve on these old patterns very long, we simply store the information and move on, clearing the stressors as we find them.