A HEALTHY Chinese New Year from Ahealth.co.uk!

A HEALTHY Chinese New Year from Ahealth.co.uk!... as we look further at the links (and differences!) between Hijama (Cupping) and Acupuncture

A Happy Chinese New Year of the Ox to all!

As mentioned in my last post, I was surprised to learn that cupping (hijaama) and acupuncture seem to be linked in some ways. At the same time there seem to be some major differences!

So as a comparison, I will now attempt to list in simple terms, both the similarities and the differences as I (an ordinary Joe Blog(!)) understand it:

SIMILARITIES BETWEEN HIJAMA AND ACUPUNCTURE:

1) Both therapies are classed as 'alternative' therapies not understood or recognised by 'conventional' Western medicine.

2) Both hijama and acupuncture seem to be using the same Meridians and Acupoints Charts (see image).

3) Therefore, both therapies believe in the strange Meridians-in-the-Body Theory where 'invisible' energy is supposed to be flowing.

However I think that's where the similarities end (if you know of any more, please leave a comment). So now for the differences:

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN HIJAMA AND ACUPUNCTURE:

1) First and foremost, and the most obvious: Hijama is Arabic / Muslim, while acupuncture is Chinese.

2) Hijama involves removing 'bad blood' (ie a detox) from the body by using suction cups on incisions made around the acupoints while acupuncture involves inserting needles on the acupoints to manipulate and fine-tune energy flow in the meridians to rebalance the energy in the body.

3) Preferred or optimal time to have hijama therapy is on or near full-moon (ie on or around the 15th of the lunar calendar), which seems to be related to the effects of the moon's gravity on the body (ie hijama works best at full gravitational pull of the moon on the body, which we as humans don't normally feel in our day to day lives). There are, as far as I am aware, no such indications for acupuncture.

Once again, anyone have anything to add to this, please leave a comment.

So in a nutshell, hijama is like an oil-change of the human body, while acupuncture is, well, maybe a bit like fine-tuning the spark-plugs of a car's engine so they spark at the right time and provide optimum energy for the running of the car (sorry unless you are into cars or a mechanic, this may not make much sense to you!). In a similar way, acupuncture is supposed to fine-tune the energy flow for the optimum running of the human body.

If you want to know more about how both these similar-yet-different therapies are supposed to work on the human body (and IF they work!), then please leave me you first-name and email address so I can alert you on future posts, as I have made it my personal mission (in fact my New Year Resolution for 2009) to find out.

Peace & Health until next time!

Shuaib

PS: Next time, I am hoping to do a post titled: "An Introduction to Hijama by a practising therapist" which will actually be, as the title suggests, a guest-post from a practising Female Hijama Therapist called Umm Husamuddin (who commented on my last post). So watch this space.

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A HEALTHY New Year from Ahealth.co.uk!

A HEALTHY New Year from Ahealth.co.uk!

I would like to wish you a Healthy 2009 (on the premise that Health is the Ultimate Wealth and Source of Happiness)!

Looking back, we all ran the Wealth Rat Race for the past 10 years or so, and at the end of it all, most are none the better off than when we started all those years ago.

And it's going to get worse we are told:

2009 is predicted to be the Year of the Meltdown of all those cardboard-box skyscrapers that we all rushed around to build in our quest for Happiness via the Wealth route! It appears that was all in vain and at detriment to our Health. The coming year is expected to cause even more stress to our collective mental and physical health.

Sorry for turning philisophical and poetic, but I on a personal note have decided to have no more of it - I hope you have too. After years of overwork and a sedentary unhealthy lifestyle, I have had to do a major rethink of my priorities, especially as for the past year or so I have developed a strange 'excessive burping' condition in my stomach / digestive system.

This has led to researching the alternative therapy of cupping and the setting up of this blog which you are now reading.

So moving on to my New Year Resolution:
As Wealth (as we know it) has finally melted away and all but evaporated, my personal mission in 2009 and beyond is to reclaim my Health (and yours!) via natural means (or as is more commonly known, 'alternative medicine'), including but not limited to Cupping.

And talking of Cupping and other Therapies, here is something I have recently learnt:

What is the link between Cupping and Acupuncture (apart from the coincidental 'cup' in A'cup'uncture)?

Well it seems cupping (or hijama as known in the Arab / Muslim world - or Bekam if you are Malaysian) is actually descended from Acupuncture which is part of Chinese medicine.

And what's the proof of that, you may ask: Well both therapies seem to be using the Energy Meridians theory of the body, and both therapies seem to be using the acupoints (as they are known)on these meridians.

Well that has flummoxed me somewhat further now: Firstly it was about trying to understand the highly mysterious therapy of cupping, which I finally figured out (or so I think), is like an Oil-change and a Direct Detox for the Human Body.

Now I have to deal with understanding why needles are stuck into the body and how they are supposedly re-aligning and balancing the energy in the body (known in Chinese as Qi)!

As if understanding cupping wasn't a mission enough!

Secondly, while there seem to be ample acupuncture clinics in our towns and our high streets (I am talking about England here), there don't seem to be any cupping clinics around (although said acupuncture clinics also provide cupping treatments, albeit the less painful and bloodless 'dry' version of it).*

* Dry-cupping involves suction via cups, but excludes blood removal which is done in Wet-cupping by making small incisions at the site of the suction.

So to summarise my plans for 2009:
1) Understand Cupping
2) Understand how Acupuncture works (and how it links to cupping)!
3) Locate a Cupping Clinic in UK (or anywhere in the world)
4) And if no Cupping Clinic exists in UK, then create one (ie arrange a permanent venue, find the therapists, and then find the patients)!
5) And finally find a better name for Cupping Clinics so that it has a similar ring to "Acupuncture Clinic", since Cupping seems to sound confusing to a lot of people (don't you think?). Cups of coffee often come to mind, although I'm sure we WILL be providing free green herbal teas at this future-clinic.

How about we change it to Cupupuncture (since cups are used then the skin is 'punctured') or even Detosuction since it's like a Detox using Suction via cups?

Anyone looking to visit a Cupupuncture Detosuction Clinic soon? Then watch this space.

What do you think? And what is your New Year Resolution? What health concerns do you currently have in your life? Please share your thoughts via a comment below.

Also if want to come on this journey of natural 'alternative' healing therapies in 2009, then please leave your name and email address above (if you already haven't done so) so I can alert you whenever I post new information.

Thanks

Shuaib

PS: This post went somewhat longer than I expected. However if it was useful and interesting then again please leave a comment to that effect (or otherwise!), so that with your feedback, I can improve on my future posts, thanks.
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