Cupping for Back Pain

(Newswire.net — August 10, 2020) DARIEN, CT — By now you probably heard about cupping. It is the in-treatment these days. Athletes and movie stars walk around showing the red marks as proud as if they were showing off a new tattoo. The red marks are really petechial hemorrhaging, you may also know this as a hickey. The tiny blood vessels swell up and cause reddening of the skin. The redness is harmless but can look bad if you plan on attending a wedding and want to wear a backless gown and had your shoulder just treated. Other than a few stares at the redness, the process is very helpful in getting your over-worked muscles to function better. 

Let’s explain how it works then we can get into the why it works. Your muscles rely on glycogen as a fuel source. Glycogen is the primary carbohydrate stored in the liver and muscle cells of animals, is broken down into glucose to provide immediate energy and to maintain blood glucose levels during fasting. When glycogen is broken down by glucagon into readily available glucose there is an end product ATP adenosine tri-phosphate but there are by-products that need to be removed. The garbage has to be taken out just like in your home. The cell membrane’s permeability can be negatively impacted by using too much energy(glucose), creating a back up of waste needing to be removed.

So what happens to waste when it backs up? In the cellular world, your muscles become dysfunctional, for our purposes the low back pain muscles.  The waste takes up too much space. Now a muscle that is already working overtime has to work harder. Cupping uses reverse pressure to help draw waste products out of the cells of the muscle tissue. It may be a little uncomfortable at first then the back pain subsides. Most people report a significant decrease in pain as well as greater mobility immediately after treatment.

The muscles of the lower back tend to be quite small so they will fatigue easily when over-worked. Using Cups to relieve the muscle of waste products will allow the muscle to work more efficiently with less pain. There are very few side effects of cupping. The biggest concern if someone is taking blood thinners. They should not be cupped at all, I hope you try cupping for your back pain.