Cupping Therapy is effective for headaches

By Dr Tamer Shaban
Are you feeling stressed out by life's pressures? Perhaps you recently suffered from a headache or migraine. If so, you are certainly not alone! But don't suffer in silence - here is one of the best natural therapies you can try to treat your headache. Recent studies confirmed the effectiveness of cupping therapy in headache treatment.

Headache is defined as a pain in the area of the head or neck region. And this pain has varies in intensity, duration and the area affected. There are mainly two types of headaches: primary and secondary. A primary headache is the most common type of headache and the most common example of this type is migraine. Migraine is a pain in half of the head and is characterized by a throbbing pain associated with nausea, vomiting and visual disturbance. The secondary headache is caused by a problem or a disease in the head and neck. The most common causes are haemorrhage, thrombosis, inflammation, fever and raised pressure in the head and neck region.

Headaches are the most common problem of the nervous system. According to the World Health Organization, it affects two thirds of men and 80% of women in developed countries. Migraine is the nineteenth most common cause of disability worldwide, and it reduces the social life of people who suffer from it by about 60% and may become a lifelong disability(1). The prevalence and incidence of headaches in the United States of America is very high. About 90% of men and 95% of women have at least one attack of headache every year. Americans spend about two billion dollars every year on headache medications (2).

The best natural solution for this condition is cupping therapy, defined as a healing by using cups. The most common types of cupping therapy are dry cupping, wet cupping and massage cupping.

Research has proved that cupping therapy is an effective treatment for headaches. The first research study was published in 2008 in The American Journal of Chinese Medicine. The aim of this research was to evaluate the effectiveness of wet cupping therapy in the treatment of tension headaches and migraines. Wet cupping is one of the oldest recorded medical modalities in the world and it was called (Al Hijama) in Arabic. The researchers treated seventy patients who were suffering from tension headaches. The patients were evaluated before and after treatment, and 66% recorded a decrease in the severity of their headaches. The researchers stated that there were clinical relevant benefits for these patients (3).

The second research study was carried in 2010 in World Family Medicine Journal. The aim of this research was to evaluate the role of cupping therapy in the treatment of chronic headache and chronic back pain. There were eighty-six participants in this trial, but only thirty-seven of them were treated because they were suffering from chronic headache. The patients were evaluated pre- and post-therapy according to the visual pain scale. The results were excellent as the pain severity decreased significantly after one session of cupping therapy. This study revealed the positive effect of cupping therapy, especially that cupping is a good and effective treatment for chronic headaches (4).

References:
1-World Health Organization- Headache disorders- Fact sheet-March 2004
2-Jim Meeks, PA-C -AFPPA 2003: Headache Management -- Evaluation and Treatment: Headache Prevalence -http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle...
3-Ahmadi A, Schwebel DC, Rezaei M., The efficacy of wet-cupping in the treatment of tension and migraine headache. Am J Chin Med. 2008;36(1):37-44.
4-Mohamed M. Reslan Hssanien, Mansoura Fawaz S., Abbas F. Ahmed, Samar Al Emadi, Mohammed Hammoudeh , Effect of cupping therapy in treating chronic headache and chronic back pain at Al heijamah clinic HMC, World Family Medicine Journal, April 2010 - Volume 8, Issue 3
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the author Dr Tamer Shaban