Traditional Chinese Medicine emphasizes personalized diagnosis and treatment based on individual constitution. Observing skin color and odor after cupping provides insights into current health status and constitutional traits. Below, we explore how to interpret skin color changes post-cupping.
Since ancient times, cupping has served as a therapeutic method for disease prevention, treatment, and physical strengthening, standing as a vital component within acupuncture therapy.Cupping therapy uses cups as tools, creating negative pressure through methods like fire or suction to adhere them to specific areas on the body. This stimulates meridians and acupoints, achieving health preservation and wellness. Cupping is commonly used for preventing and treating conditions such as colds, neck/shoulder/waist/leg pain, obesity, headaches, heatstroke, acne, epigastric pain, and chronic fatigue syndrome.
Cupping therapy offers benefits including inducing perspiration to expel pathogens, promoting qi and blood circulation, reducing swelling and alleviating pain, and warming meridians to dispel cold. In summer, cupping not only relieves summer heat and dampness but also addresses issues arising from air-conditioned environments—such as blocked sweat pores and trapped internal heat—which can lead to various summer-heat-cold-dampness syndromes.The vacuum pressure created by cupping on acupoints along meridians draws open pores and induces skin congestion. This process draws pathological substances from the body through the skin pores, thereby unblocking meridian qi and blood flow, regulating organ functions, and achieving disease prevention and treatment objectives such as expelling dampness, relieving summer heat, and dispelling cold.
Post-Cupping Skin Color Assessment
1.If no marks appear after removal, or if marks vanish immediately with skin returning to normal, this indicates generally healthy conditions or mild pathogenic factors.
2. Dark purple-black marks: Typically signifies insufficient blood supply, stagnant circulation, and blood stasis.
3. Purple marks with patches: Generally indicates cold-induced blood stasis syndrome.
4. Scattered purple dots of uniform depth: Indicates qi stagnation and blood stasis syndrome.
5. Bright, vivid red marks: Generally indicates yin deficiency or deficiency of both qi and blood.
4. Scattered purple dots of uniform depth: Indicates qi stagnation and blood stasis.
5. Bright crimson marks: Typically signifies yin deficiency, deficiency of both qi and blood, or yin deficiency with excessive heat.
6. Dull red marks: Indicates high blood lipids and the presence of heat pathogens.
7. Grayish-white marks that feel cool to the touch often indicate deficiency cold or dampness.
8. Bluish marks suggest a cold syndrome.
9. Extensive dark purple marks after sliding cupping indicate exposure to wind-cold.
10. Skin patterns or mild itching on the mark surface indicate wind or dampness.
11. Condensation on the inner wall of the cup: indicates dampness in that area.
12. Blisters forming on the cup mark: signifies heavy internal dampness. If the blisters contain bloody fluid, it reflects damp-heat toxin.
Purple marks on the skin after cupping typically fade within two weeks.