Cupping Therapy with your Chiropractic Treatment
During your chiropractic treatment at Optimal Movement there are a variety of therapies included. Aside from manual adjustments, these therapies help to improve your treatment results. One of the therapies is cupping.
During your visit the most important thing to me is getting results. Ideally, improvement right now. Whether that is improvement in pain, range of motion, or tightness, etc. Ideally we see improvement in all of those factors. That is the goal and always will be. In our clinic we don’t do long expensive contracts. We are only interested in you getting better as soon as possible.
Benefits of Cupping, Dermal Traction, Myofascial Release
What issues do these therapies help with?
- Reduced rang of motion of most joints; shoulders, hips, knees, ankles, the spine
- Superior cluneal nerve pain; pseudo-sciatica; radiating pain, tingling, burning to the butt cheek, groin, outside of the hip/leg
- Low back pain, standing low back pain, low back pain with extension/bending backwards
- Sacroiliac pain (SI pain)
- Plantar fascitis, tingling into the lower leg/foot
- Headaches/migraines
- Neck pain/shoulder pain
- Pain over bony areas of the body
- Nerve pain
- Nerve compression
- Muscular pain
- General “tightness”
- Poor circulation
How do these therapies help?
- Improved Circulation
- Increased Rang of Motion
- Reduced pain, radiating symptoms (pain, tingling, burning)
- Reduced feeling of “tightness”
- Breaks up scar tissue
- Decompress nerves, blood and lymphatic vessels
What to expect with Cupping
I use the traditional method of cupping, in which the cups are used to create suction onto the skin. So in another way, this therapy can be called skin traction for simple understanding. It can be used in various areas all over the body, depending on what needs to be addressed. Unlike traditional cupping, I also apply range of motion or movement along with the cupping. By doing this I merge cupping with two other therapies. Dermal traction and myofascial release. The cups help provide the traction or tension for these soft tissue therapies.
What is Dermal Traction
When applying dermal traction, we are working on a couple very important things that are often overlooked in most treatments. First is the superficial fascia. Second is the nerves, blood and lymphatic vessels, that run with that fascia all throughout the body.
The superficial adipose tissues primary purpose is to help resist compression from trauma/injury, sitting, or anything that exerts pressure onto the skin. Over bony areas in the body like the spine, iliac crests, shoulder, face, etc, the superficial adipose tissue is nearly completely absent. In these cases the superficial tissues strongly adhere to the deep fascia, which is located right next to the muscle. These bony areas are particularly prone to compression injuries which compromise the nerves, blood and lymphatic vessels. This can cause pain and radiating symptoms of burning, tingling, numbness, and pain. By using the suction action with cupping we can effectively decompress the nerves, lymph and blood vessels and help restore their proper function.
Any past trauma or injury to the fascia can create scar tissue and also compromise the entire fascia movement and protection abilities. Scar tissue often prevents the skin and muscles from sliding separately from one another as they should. Dermal traction helps make sure the fascia and muscles can move separately from one another. By doing this we accomplish a form of myo(muscle)- fascial release. Therefore, cupping used with range of motion helps us to accomplish the many benefits of both dermal traction and myofascial release. Just another way to help any spinal or extremity adjustments to hold longer, making each treatment more effective for a longer period of time.
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