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In China, as in other countries throughout the world, medical providers as well as patients are actively seeking the best cures for disease. Alternative Therapy opens a window for all the medical community to share the information on all types of cures. To start this forum, we are honored to have the permission of Dr. Wenxin Fu, the founder of Fu’s Cupping Therapy (FCT), and his followers, to publish their experiences in the very first issue of the Alternative Therapy.

 

Throughout his lifetime of research and practice, Dr. Fu brought Cupping therapy to a new age. He thinks that Cupping therapy is using the minus pressure, one of the physical factors, to stimulate the human body’s healing process. Through research and clinical observation, Dr. Fu combines the other factors such as heat, electrical, magnetic, and light to enhance the healing power of Cupping. He applies Cupping therapy to points as small as one millimeter, regions of the body, and extremities up to the entire body. His cupping sets are unique. The majority of the sets are easy to use, but some of them require more skill to operate. Since FCT is a new Cupping approach and has its new indications, it is a good idea to learn from Dr. Fu and his followers’ past experiences.  This is the core purpose of the first publication. To this end, we also organized Fu’s Cupping Association USA, a non-profit organization aimed at promoting FCT worldwide.

 

We are very grateful for Dr. Fu and his followers’ willingness to share their secrets with the international medical community. Your input, medical articles and participation in the improvement of Alternative Therapy magazine are also greatly appreciated.

 

May your medical skills improve!

 

Team of Alternative Therapy

www.altherapy.com

 

 

Fu’s Cupping Therapy for Digestive Diseases

 

Lin Li, MD

The First Affiliated Hospital, Guiyang College of TCM

 

Digestive diseases are common in clinical practice. Generally speaking, digestive Diseases can be divided into Pathologic Diseases and Functional Disorders. Pathologic diseases mainly include gastritis, peptic ulcer, upper gastrointestinal bleeding, cholecystitis, billary tract calculus, gallbladder calculus, hepatitis, cirrhosis of liver and neoplasms; Functional disorders include diarrhea, constipation, malabsorption in small intestines, vomiting dysentery, duodenal stasis etc. The following section introduces the Fu’s Cupping Therapy (FCT) in digestive diseases.

 

I.  Acute Gastritis

 

This section mainly introduces the acute irritated gastritis.

 

Etiology:

 

  1. Chemical stimulants (e.g. salicylate, Chlortetracycline, foxglove, iodine, Ammonium Chloride.)

  2. Physical stimulants (e.g. Heavy alcohol consumption; highly concentrated tea, coffee; Eating too fast and consuming hot or coarse food.)

  3. Local Inflammation from bacteria & its toxins

 

Pathology:

 

The stimulation of gastric mucosa causes catarrhal changes (hyperemia, edema, and increased mucus) which covers the surface of the gastric mucosa with dull yellow exudates, sometimes with hemorrhagic spots and erosions. Symptom: The symptoms can be various and usually are upper abdominal discomfort and pain,, poor appetite, nausea, etc.

 

The Fu's Cupping Therapy:

 

Points:

  1.Main Points: REN12 (Zhongwan), UB21 (Weishu), UB20 (Pishu), ST21 (Liangmen), ST36 (Zusanli )

  2.Secondary Points: DU14 (Dazhui), UB23 (Shenzhu)

 

Case Report:

 

Miss Zhang, a 20 years old female steel worker, came with the complaints of stomachache and bloating, acid regurgitation and vomiting after over eating in the morning.    

After ST36 (Zusanli), ST37 (Shangjuxu), ST21 (Liangmen) and REN12 (Zhongwan) were cupped with 6cm Fu's cups by the suction of 50ml’s air pressure, the patient was recovered within 20 minutes..

 

II. Gastric and Duodenal Ulcer

 

This is a kind of chronic disease that occurs when gastric acid and pepsin penetrate through the muscularis mucosa.

 

Etiology:

 

The cause of the disease is not clear yet. But the following factors are currently acknowledged as stimulants to the formation of gastric and duodenal ulcer.

 

  1. Hydrochloric acid and pepsin are necessary for this disease: When hydrochloric acid consistency exceeds level one (pH〈4), the protein in stomach (including stomach Mucosa) will suffer from proteolytic enzymes

  2. The weakness of the factors protecting the mucosal lining: decreased mucus production, weak membrane barriers to permeability, internal disorder of anti gastric acid’s secretion.

  3. Various endocrine and neurological effects.

 

Symptoms:

  1. Epigastralgia: The characteristics of pain are chronic, recurrent. The types of pain include tension, dull ache, sharp pain, boring pain or excruciating pain. The pain occurs with the characteristic pattern and often occurs after meals for gastric ulcers and before meals for duodenal ulcers.

  2. Nausea and vomiting

  3. Erutation and acid regurgitation: If obstruction happens, we often see erutation and acid regurgitation as a early sign.

  4. Constipation is more often than diarrhea.

 

Fu's cupping therapy:

 

Points:

 

  1.Main Points: REN12 (Zhong Wan) , ST36 (Zuo San LI) ,Weishu ,UB20 (Pi Shu), UB18 (Ganshu).

  2.Secondary Points: DU14 (Dazhui) UB23 (Shenzhu), P6 (Neiguan).

 

Fu’s Cupping Therapy on Ophthalmologic and ENT Conditions

 

Fire cupping therapy enjoys thousands of years’ history in China. The records of treating illnesses in eyes and ENT have been reported. As the integration of modern medicine and traditional Chinese medicine, Fu’s Cupping Therapy (FCT) has inherited the traditional fire cupping, modernized needle warming, moxibustion, point injection, bloodletting and steaming therapy. After extended clinical practice, we may conclude that FCT has more advantages and wider indications than the traditional fire cupping.

 

Worldwide researches in pathology and physiology of trace minerals have made a significant improvement.  Current available studies show that zinc is an essential mineral in human body as it stimulates the activities of approximately 100 enzymes. Zinc also supports the normal growth and development during pregnancy, childhood, and adolescence, which have a significant clinical impact.  Another important fact of zinc is that the eyes have the highest concentration of zinc in human body (particularly in choroid and retina).

 

Based on the theory above, FCT combined with zinc sulfate ointment has successfully treated eye and ENT diseases; the success rate reaches 87%. In this article, we’ll review 78 cases:

1.  Eye Conditions

According to the reports from Hebei Academy of Medical Science and several other research institutes , blood zinc level, of the patients who suffered from eye conditions (such as central retinitis, choroiditis, senile cataract and adolescence pseudo myopia), is less than that of healthy individuals. Our clinical experiences have proved that the patients’ vision had certain degrees of improvement after FCT with zinc sulfate ointment penetrating the patients’ skin. Five early stage senile cataract patients were treated by FCT with zinc sulfate penetrating the skin. We selected EX-HN5 (Taiyang), EX-HN3 (Yintang), DU14 (Dazhui), GB20 (Fengchi) as main points. After treatment, the patients reported clearer vision. Vision test showed one to three lines improvement.

Case Reports:

Case 1:

A 77 years old female patient suffered from senile cataract for years with blurred vision, her vision before the treatment is that L-0.1 and R-0.1 After one treatment of FCT with zinc sulfate ointment penetrating the skin on the EX-HN5 (Taiyang), EX-HN3 (Yingtang), her vision had increased to 0.3.

Case 2:

A 67 years old male patient suffered from blurred, weak and dark vision, eye exam shown some milky white strips and clots in the pupils, patient stated his eye was more bright after cupping on EX-HN5 (Taiyang), DU14 (Dazhui) by FCT with zinc sulfate penetrating the skin.

Case 3:

A 21 years old male patient came with a vision: L-0.3, R-0.3 and the dioptre: -3.00ds-L and -3.00ds-R. After FCT with zinc sulfate penetrating the skin on EX-HN5 (Taiyang) and EX-HN3 (Yingtang) three times, patient’s vision increased to 0.7.

2. Secretory Otitis Media

First FCT sucked out all the mucous and secretion in external ear canal and eardrum, then drip chloromycin in glycerin and berberine drops after washing the external ear canal with 3% hydrogen peroxide.

3. Acute Pharyngitis & Tonsillitis

This condition can be treated by FCT with zinc sulfate penetrating the skin on DU14 (Dazhui), Ren22 (Tiantu), EX-HN5 (Taiyang) and ST9 (Renying). Patients usually report symptomatic improvement and easier to swallow.

Case 4:

A 41 years old male patient complained of sore throat with difficulty to swallow for more than 20 days. After FCT on Taiyang, St9 (Renying) and Du.14 (Dazhui) points, patient reported significant relief of sore throat, mental clarity with improved hearing.

Case 5:

A 22 years old female patient came with recurrent canker sore, excruciating pain and difficulty to eat. PE: Several ulcers in oral cavity and tip of the tongue. After FCT on DU14 (Dazhui) and GB20 (Fengchi), she experienced significant pain relief and was able to eat.                     

Discussion

78 cases of eye and ENT patients have been treated; and the treatment results were significant. Due to the limited time span and numbers of cases and majority of the cases only through once or twice treatments, it is difficult for us to predict the long term effects. We haven’t yet treated the eye conditions like central retinitis, choroiditis and juvenile anisometropia, which are the good indications for FCT. From these cases we treated, we may say that FCT has significant short term therapeutic effects. This may bring a bright future for FCT on eye diseases. During our treatment, we used only zinc sulfate. According to the international reports, blood and hair zinc level are low in patients with eye diseases. This shows the importance of blood and hair zinc level tests in patients with eye conditions. No matter whether there is zinc test available, it is important to review cases treated with FCT. Since the zinc sulfate absorbed through scalp can improve the eye conditions, would oral zinc intake treat the eye diseases more effectively? We’ll pay more attention in our future clinical observation.

 

In treating the eyes and ENT conditions, the main points were chosen in the local areas on face and head. Because of the shapes of head and the hairs, it’s difficult to cup in these areas. The only available points are Taiyang, Yintang and Chengqi. The problem is that these points are on the face, bruises are not looking good. Do we have the options to choose more neck and/or distal points and achieve the same? These answers are hopefully given in the future discussion.

Fu’s Cupping Therapy on Furuncle, Carbuncle & Cellulitis

 

Wenshi Yan, MD,  Xiping Xu, MD

Chengdu Hospital of Acupuncture and Tuina Massage.

 

Physicians in our hospital drained the abscess effectively with Fu’s cupping therapy (FCT). So far with FCT we have treated more than 30 cases of furunculosis, carbuncle or cellulitis without any side effects. The procedures are introduced as follows:
 

1. The necessities: 75% alcohol, 3% iodine, sterilized cotton ball, scalpel, small forceps, gauze, Fu’s cups and a 20 ml hollow needle.

 

2. Preparation: routine surgical preparation around abscess. If tope of the abscess is broken and it’s easy to suck out the pustule and the necrotic plug, incision will not be necessary; on the contrary, a surgical incision is required based on the area of infection to help the drainage.

 

3. Operation: place the Fu’s cup over the abscess and suck the air out with hollow needle aspiration, the suction strength should be controlled as the fluid can be drained smoothly. Remove the cups until the pustule and necrotic plug are cleaned and then routine surgical dressings.

 

4. Precautions: The suction strength should be moderate, excessive suction will induce too much blood. The fluid should be sucked out slowly, which is good for the clear secretions. For the necrotic plugs, the forceps may be used to take it out, then suck the thin pustule..

 

5. Case Report: A 17-Year-old male construction worker came on December 10, 1986 with about 5 x 6cm areas of purple swelling under the right subscapular area.  He complained aversion to cold and fever with excruciating distending pain. Examination shows a few necrotic plugs, some of which presented on  honeycomb shape.. After routine surgical preparation, the Fu’s cup was placed over the abscess for about 7-8 minutes and drained the pustule about 30ml. The pain was immediately alleviated. The inflammation was decreased the next day, again about 5ml pustule was sucked out with the same approach. A few days later, the wound was healed.

 

6. Discussion: Acute purulent infection in the soft tissue was caused by the seasonal evil factors in the skin and transformed into toxin. Combination of the fire and toxins leads to Qi stagnation and blood stasis and the rotting flesh into pustules.

 

After the absorption of heat toxins, the systemic pathological reaction will be manifested as aversion to the cold, fever, dark yellow urine and constipation. The toxins will cause more necrosis of the surrounding soft tissues. Fu’s cupping may clean the inflammatory exudates, necrotic tissues and the secretions with less damage to the infected area in comparison with the traditional Chinese fire cupping which has the risk of burning the skin. Because of the simplicity and the better drainage of Fu’s cupping, the wound recovers faster.  We hope the readers can take this as reference.

 Fu’s Cupping Therapy on Meridians in Qigong Practice

Deqiong Tu, MD

Dept. of Qigong, Guiyang College of Traditional Chinese Medicine

 

 

One of the fundamental purposes of practicing Qigong is to open up the meridians. To open up the meridians, it takes a long arduous Qigong practice. The writer opened his meridians through hundreds of days’ fundamental practice.

 

While it is so hard to open up the meridian in Qigong practice, is there an easier or better way to do it. With this question in mind, we explored the Fu’s Cupping Therapy (FCT). FCT through the minus pressure created in the points, results in the epidermal and sub dermal morphological and functional changes. Through the conduction of the meridians, nervous reflection, blood flow dynamic changes and the integration of the central nervous system, FCT can stimulate the body to generate bidirectional regulations.

 

Through our years’ teaching observation, FTC has the benefit of speeding up the Qigong practitioner’s meridian opening up process. It also gives the less sensitive practitioners an opportunity to experience the Qi and meridian flow sensation. The write has tried FCT on P6 (Neiguang) and experienced instant meridian conductivity sensation.

 

Through numerous trials, it has found out that the most effective points are P8 (Laogong), LI4 (Hegu), P6 (Neiguang), DU4 (Mingmen), DU3 (Yaoyangguang), REN8 (Shenque), DU14 (Dazhui), REN and DU meridians in the eight extraordinary meridians, Yin and Yang points. With the combination of the vibration FCT in conjunction of the different meridian frequencies, it will assist the Qigong practitioners more effectively.

 

From the above observation, you may find out that FCT is very helpful for those who love to practice Qigong. Because of its benefits of shortening the time of the meridian opening up and letting the less sensitive practitioners experience the meridian Qi flow, it will let all the practitioners understand their body internally and externally,  and know more about the mysteries of human body. This would further benefit the Qigong practitioners to explore their own potentials and the mysteries of the universe.

 

The future of the human body science is profound. Qigong practice is one of the ways to enter the human body science. To find the short cut through this process, FCT on the points mentioned above may be one of the best approaches. If you are one of the Qigong lovers, I urge you to give Fu’s Cupping Therapy a try. You will be very grateful for the secretes that I tell you.

 

Fu’s Cupping Therapy Improve Qigong Practice
Xiaoming Wang

Botou Healthy School

I am Xiaoming Wang, a 18-Year-old male student in Hebei Botou Health School. I have been practicing Huilian Qigong for more than a year. Now I can release my Qi to treat patients. In order to enhance my Qigong skills, I have been using Fu’s Cupping Therapy (FCT) to do running cup along the three lines of my back around 22:00 before bed. The running cup went at the speed of 10cm/second from Du14 (Dazhui) to DU7 (Changqiang) along the DU meridian for 5 times first, then the two sides of UB meridian from left to right. After the FCT, there should be dark-red scratch marks at the back and a few intermittent untypical purple spots. Except a little heart palpitation, there was no other discomfort.

 

The next morning when I got up, I experienced heart palpitation in every two to three minutes. The patterns is described as follows: First I experienced a moment of heart palpitations, then the running cup sting like feeling went from neck to the middle back of the legs like a tidal wave. Then another circle started from the heart palpitations. It kept going and going, and seemed without stop. It might open up the meridians from the shoulder to the legs.

 

During my night practice, I concentrated on the central part of the thigh where the Qi flow stopped, then steered the tide like Qi flow to the feet. In the evening half-hour practice, I guided the tidal wave Qi sensation to the bottom of the feet Kid1 (Yongquan). Then my heart palpitation improved.

 

The third morning, I experienced mild heart palpitation when I woke up. After lunch, I slept about an hour, and then my heart rate returned to normal completely. I felt so refreshed and energized. When I tried to release my Qi, I found it improved great deal. The Qi released from the P8 (Laogong) could only move the flower slightly in the pot in the past, whereas now it can make the whole flower tree shake. Before the FCT, I could only see the luminescence released from some of the Qigong masters and never see it from myself. After FCT, amazingly not only can I see the luminescence released from my hands, but also from my eyes. Since then, my Qigong skills improve day by day, and the heart palpitations no longer occur (note: I had a medical history of tachycardia).

 

Prevention & Management of Accidents in Fu’s Cupping Therapy

 

Gang Tong, MD

Guiyang College of Traditional Chinese Medicine

 

 

During daily Fu’s Cupping Therapy (FCT) practice, some accidents would arise such as Cup Fainting, Cup Falling, Cup Bullae and Bleeding. To manage these incidents, we looked over our past experiences and summarized as follows:

 

Cup Fainting

 

During the cupping treatment, patient experiences confusion or fainting, which is called Cup Fainting. It is similar to needle fainting. As the statistics show from our practice so far, Cup Fainting happens to about 1% of our patients.

 

The causes of Cup Fainting usually are: weakness, allergic to cup set, nervousness, empty stomach or fatigue, depression; the practitioner puts the patient in an improper position, use of excessive suction or rough manipulations. In our observation, we found out that Back Shu points (esp. UB23-Kidney Shu) and Front Mu points have higher possibility of cup fainting. This may be related to the cupping synergy. It should be further studied on this subject.

 

The symptoms of cup fainting become gradually but progressively worse if they are not properly managed. More often it starts with mild discomfort, tiredness, pale lips and facial complexion, dizziness, nausea and cold sweating, etc. Without prompt attention at this stage, the symptoms will be followed by confusion, heart palpitation, faint, cold extremities, lower blood pressure, weak pulse, etc.

It is very important to prevent cup fainting. For nervous patients, detailed explanation is necessary to ease their worries. For  patients with empty stomach, fatigue and weakness, treatment should start with mild cupping, and avoid Back Shu points and Front Mu points. During the cupping therapy, practitioners should pay attention to clients’ speech and complexion and ask how they are doing for the purpose of prevention. If cup fainting does happen, remove the cup right away, let the client lie down and keep the client warm. For the mild cases, a few minutes rest and a cup of sugar water will be enough for the recovery.

 

For severe cases, our experience is to treat with hand acupuncture or acupressure. The most common points are DU26 (Ren Zhong), Shi Xuan, REN4 (Guan Yuan), P6 (Nei Guang), ST36 (Zuo San Li), LI4 (He Gu) and LI3 (San Jian). Generally, cup fainting can be resolved by resting, hand acupuncture and acupressure. The key is early diagnoses and treatment. If the cup fainting is worsening, medical first aid treatment is required. (Please reference the conventional first aid procedures.)

 

Case report

 

Case 1

 

A 34 years old female patient came with complaints of obscure lower back pain for 3 years with olyguria, poor appetite, bloating, aversion to cold, cold extremities, thin body with yellow facial complexion, deep thin pulse with thin yellow tongue coating. She was diagnosed Spleen and Kidney Yang deficiency. The following points were selected: UB23 (Shen Shu) bilateral, (Guan Yuan), ST36 (Zuo San Li) right, KID3 (Tai Xi) right, UB20 (Pi Shu) bilateral. First KID3 (Tai Xi), ST36 (Zuo San Li) and (Guan Yuan) were cupped, then UB20 (Pi Shu) and UB 23 (Shen Shu). While UB23 (Shen Shu) was being administrated, patient complained of nausea, chest tightness, weak  extremities with pale facial and lip complexion, then confusion and weak thin pulse appeared.

 

The cups were removed instantly, and the patient was placed flat on bed. We also did acupressure on DU26 (Ren Zhong), P6 (Nei Guan), Shi Xuan and LI4 (He Gu). Patient was recovered within 30 second. 

 

Case 2

 

A 52 years old male came with the complaints of obscure stomachache, aversion to cold with cold extremities, emaciation, poor appetite and digestion, abdominal distention and chest tightness, loose stool, clear urine, pale tongue with white greasy coating, and a deep thin pulse. He was diagnosed Spleen and Stomach deficiency cold. The following points were selected:  ST36 (Zuo San LI) bilateral, UB20 (Pi Shu) bilateral and REN12 (Zhong Wan). Right after the cups were administrated, patient noticed abdominal cramping, confusion & lethargy with pale facial complexion and cold sweating. After the cup was removed, the patient lost consciousness.

 

Patient recovered after acupressure on P9 (Zhong Chong), LI4 (He Gu) and Shi Xuan. Upon recovery, he had diarrhea twice in 10 minutes and the abdominal cramp disappeared. Patient requested to continue the treatment but was refused.

 

Cup Falling:

 

Cause: 1. Plug and/or tube leakage; 2. rough skin; 3. skin hair; 4. too much water was injected; 5. wrong cup set was selected.

Treatment: Find the causes of the cup falling and deal with it accordingly. When you select the point, it is important to know that meridians are more important. In the rough skin area, massage oil may be applied.

 

Bullae


Cause: Excessive suction, excessive retaining of the cup or patient has excessive dampness and phlegm.

 

Treatment: According to our clinical data, about 10% of the client population tends to have the bullae. So far among the 500 cases of bullous patients, none of them had skin infection. From this review, we may conclude that Fu’s cupping therapy has the advantage of an anti-infection effect. The correlation between the occurrence of bullae and the severity of the patients’ condition raises another subject of interest for future research. There is no need to deal with the small bullae because they will be absorbed automatically. For the large bullae, we use sterilized needles to break them and drain out the fluid, then apply the Gentian Violet and dress with gauze.

 
Bleeding

 

Cause: 1. Blood system disease such as low platelet count; 2. fever; 3. small artery damage

 

Treatment: For cause number 1, cupping should be administrated with special caution. For causes 2 and 3, gauze pressure on the bleeding place will work.