Cupping Therapy and Animal Research: The Progress

• Published in: Journal of acupuncture and meridian studies 2018, 11(3), 53, pp.81-82
• Main Authors: Aboushanab, Tamer, AlSanad, Saud
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 한의학
• ISSN: 2005-2901; 2093-8152
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jams.2018.04.005

Although cupping therapy is one of the oldest traditionalhealing practices, there is a lack of sufficient clinical trialsthat have been conducted to examine its safety and efficacy[1]. Animal studies have a great impact on the medicalcommunity’s understanding of various mechanisms of ailments,but they cannot replace clinical trials [2]. The resultsof five examples of animal-based studies on cuppingtherapy are presented in this article. The first study wasconducted by Shekarforoush et al (2012), who reported thesignificant cardioprotective effect of cupping therapy [3]. The second study was conducted by Lee et al (2013), whoreported the efficacy of cupping therapy to reverseinduced cognitive impairment after hemorrhage [4]. Thethird study was conducted by Roostayi et al (2016), whoreported an effective reduction of skin stiffness by cuppingtherapy [5]. The fourth study was conducted by Subadiet al (2017), who reported the expression of heat shockproteins (HSP70) and b-endorphin as a possible mechanismof action of cupping in terms of pain reduction [6]. Finally,the fifth study was conducted by Koh et al (2016), whoreported a significant increase of preconditioned flapviability and tissue perfusion after cupping [7]. Interestingly,a human study conducted to obtain epithelial graftspreconditioned by cupping reported approximately thesame results [8] Fig. 1. In conclusion, there have been a few animal researchstudies conducted in the field of cupping therapy. The fewconducted animal studies reported some promising effectsof cupping therapy. More studies are recommended KCI Citation Count: 0