Cup massage is a type of massage based on the local impact on human body with rarefied air. This method of therapy through the use of decreased pressure is a type of vacuum therapy, widely used nowadays for treating a variety of human diseases.
Cup massage is performed with medical cups, which have vacuum-sucking, thermochemical, and reflectory impact on the skin, hypoderm, muscles and nerves.
Cup massage lasts 10 to 20 minutes and is accompanied with the feeling of warmth. It can be slightly uncomfortable to the patient. The skin in the massaged area becomes slightly hyperemic and congested. Cup massage should be immediately stopped if the patient complains about the pain and discomfort and asks to stop it.
Cup massage can be performed on almost all areas of human body. Most often cup massage is used to massage back, chest, limbs, and even face.[1] The procedure starts and ends with classical manual massage techniques. Cup massage is known to leave marks on the skin for several days.[2]
Cup massage is shown to significantly help reduce pain intensity in adults dealing with chronic back pain. It has also been found with systematic review that dry cupping massage results in improved range of motion and has been found to reduce musculoskeletal pain.[3]
However, due to an overall lack of studies on the effects of cup massage, there is still a lack of efficacy findings on cup massage.There are also issues with a lack of safety for cup massage as there is still a need for establishing proper application protocols.