Gua Sha

Synonyms:

Skin Scraping is one of the traditional Chinese natural therapies. It is based on the skin theory of traditional Chinese medicine: by using tools such as jade, ox horn or cupping jars with liniment on, scraping and rubbing repeatedly the relevant parts of the skin, to dredge the channel, and activate blood circulation to dissipate blood stasis. Regular Skin Scraping is helpful to adjust the qi, relieve fatigue, and improve one's immune system.

Origins

Skin scraping therapy has a long history and emerged in the Paleolithic Age. When getting sick or losing instinct sense, people rubbed or scrabbed certain parts of the body with hands or stones, and sometimes it really alleviated the symptoms.

Through long-term practice and experience accumulation, method of curing with stones had formed and gradually developed into a therapy. The Chinese character "痧"(sha) comes from "沙"(meaning sand), referring to a symptom. After the scraping, man's skin might show red, black and blue spots like sand, there comes the name "Gua Sha". The Sha bump should fade in 2~4 days. If this process is slower than predicted, poor blood circulation is indicated and the practitioner should ascertain whether there is a deficiency of blood, qi, yang or organ disease.

Principle of Skin Scraping

It's easy to understand that by scraping along meridians, positive stimulation is created. This can help the yin qi and stomach qi play their roles, dredge the stasis points and improve the circulation, so the possibility for disease dropped and immune function are enhanced.

In fact, early in the Ming Dynasty, the physician Zhang Fengkui described the theory, pathogenesis and the symptom of Sha in his Book. In his view, toxic factors enter the body through mouth, nose or pores, and damage the body. Condition became fierce as it goes deep into the body and accumulates more.

Skin scraping therapy uses tools to scrap the surface of the meridian points till the red spots emerge on the skin. This red or black and blue are considered as toxin. Through sweating, the toxins of Sha will be excreted, and the purpose of healing is achieved.

In addition to traditional scraping therapy, new therapies for losing weight, dispelling freckles and so on have appeared to meet the need of the new era. Due to the development of the modern technology, tools of scraping have become more suitable for specific part of the body and the techniques more reasonable as well. Combined with the techniques of massage, skin scraping has become the massage without direct touching, acupuncture without needle in the body, and cupping without cupping jars, as we can observe its effectiveness.

Living in a fast-tempo society, modern people face with sub-health, high pressure, this natural therapy of skin scraping is attracting more eye balls. Easy to implement with low cost and high effectiveness made it the choice of more people longing for healthy life.