Bruise - As A Treatment

As A Treatment

Folk medicine, including ancient medicine of Egypt, Greek, Celts, Turks, Slavs, Mayans, Aztecs and Chinese, has used bruising as a method of treatment for some types of health problems. The methods vary widely and include cupping, scraping, and slapping. Fire cupping uses suction which causes bruising in patients. Scraping, (Gua Sha), uses a small hand device with a rounded edge to gently scrape the scalp or the skin. Slapping, (Pai-Da Therapy), is performed using two to five fingers or the whole hand mostly against joints such as shoulders, elbows, knees, wrists and ankles. For healthy people these procedures applied to a healthy part of the skin should cause redness which disappears in minutes or hours. For patients with pain, soreness or stiffness, the same procedure will typically cause bruising or blood blisters that lasts days. Each of these methods of treatment is repeated by the health practitioner or the patient himself over a number of days or weeks.