“Slow and Warm”: How to care for your body after Cupping & Gua sha, by Jaay (Jade) Kulhawy-Bartlett, R.Ac.
One of the things I try to reinforce for every new patient after their first cupping & gua sha session – and periodically bring up as time goes on and the seasons shift – is how to care for their bodies in the few days following a treatment. After care is one of the most important pieces of the treatment, as it can help to ensure that the positive effects of your treatment get a chance to develop. Since we only get a few minutes to debrief between treatments, I thought I would share on the Heart & Hands blog a bit more in depth about the ins and outs of post-treatment care. So here are 4 of the main suggestions I have for after-session care!
Drink water
I thought I would start with the least controversial point first – drink plenty of water after your treatment! Similarly to acupuncture, cupping and gua sha modulates many of our body systems, including the lymphatic system with its job of transporting the waste products from your cells and getting them out to the circulation and filtration systems to remove them from the body.
During cupping and gua sha treatments we are actively stimulating fluid flow around your cells, and between layers of tissue, breaking up the various causes of stagnation, and even promoting the rupture of capillaries. All of these waste products need to flow somewhere. Ensuring that there is enough water available to transport them out to be filtered by your liver or kidneys will go a long way to completing the circuit of system-wide healing that we are starting on the treatment table. So stay hydrated, before and after!
Cover up
This one can be a challenge for many of us, especially during the hot summer months, but it’s one of the more important pieces of your post-treatment care. In Chinese Medicine, colds and flus often invade through the channels on our bodies that circulate closest to the surface of the body.. The invaders are known as climatic pathogens – wind, cold, heat, dampness, dryness – and which pathogens invade influence what pathology you might experience (i.e. fever, chills, headache, congestion). One of the most vulnerable areas is the back of the neck, although invasions on other areas can cause other local pathologies like skin issues or joint pain. When working with cupping and gua sha one of the major benefits of these tools is their ability to open up the channels and allow for venting of stagnation through mechanisms like opening the pores of your skin.
After treatment the channels remain ‘open’ for a period of 24 – 48 hours, and therefore susceptible during that period to potential invasion. Covering up with a scarf and at least a light jacket will help keep those areas protected from the elements. Of course in the summer this might not seem as crucial, but things can still get quite windy on the coast, even when it’s hot. The best bet is to be sure to keep something light on hand so you don’t wake up the next day unable to turn your head!
Avoid extreme temperature therapy
This could be considered a sub-point of the previous one, but given the greater Victoria area’s range of interests, I figured some specificity was in order. One of the things I have fielded specific questions about is cold water exposure like ocean dips, especially in winter. To this I would reply with an even more emphatic ‘no!’ than I would to going out with wet hair in the winter.
The extremity of the temperatures and the exposure, while undoubtedly beneficial for some people’s systems, are not a great idea within that day-or-two window after treatment. The same could be said for extended time in a sauna or steam room, or even a really hot hot-tub. And conversely, cold plunges/exposure which has been gaining popularity in recent years. In the case of regular participation in any of these kinds of therapeutic environments and experiences, it would be best to either postpone for a little while, or better yet, do those things before coming in for your session. Coming for a treatment after extreme temperature exposure is a great way for us to ensure none of that cold (or heat) gets retained.
Rest
This one might be the most challenging of all the recommendations for most clients. In an ideal world, after acupuncture or cupping & gua sha, one would retreat to the comfort of home, eat a nice meal and drift gently into sleep. Obviously life is much more chaotic and demanding than that for most of us, most of the time, so I’ll add the qualifier ‘as much as you can’. Too much exertion post-treatment can be a detriment to the proper rooting of the therapeutic benefits. We don’t need you to live in a bubble for these therapies to work, but medicine that relies on modulation of your own systems can be sidetracked by excessive alternative stimulus. Or, put more simply, too many instruments playing at once makes it hard to pick out the individual melodies! Try your best to do less, and do it more slowly and with more purpose. These will be the frameworks that will help you get the most out of each session.
Hopefully these have helped flesh out some of the major suggestions I have for people as we’re debriefing the session. I’m sure there are many more things I could cover to help satisfy the endless curiosities, but now that we’ve got these covered you’ll just have to bring those into your next session!
Cupping & Gua sha are gentle, non-invasive, and effective treatment methods for a wide variety of conditions. Book in with us if you have some aches and pains that need attending to!
