Nowadays, Back pain is one of the most common issues in contemporary society, affecting the age groups from teenagers to the elderly. Here in this article, you'll know about How to easily relieve back pain at home, With a detailed introduction of cupping therapy. From the perspective of mechanism, the reasons causing back pain can be typically classified into the following 3 types: injury, strain, and tension.

The reasons that cause back pain

The latter two factors are generally caused by physical injuries such as lifting heavy loads, strenuous exercise, and so forth. This can be mostly avoided by having more preparation and carefulness when doing exercises. Compared to strains and injuries which usually occur in a short time, tensions, however, are seemingly more hidden so that it is difficult to be avoided. This is because back pain caused by tension is usually developed chronically, forming gradually without being noticed. In most cases, people suffer from back pain due to the wrong postures or movements that they continuously have for a long time. For example, workers in an office usually take the same sitting posture all day long, it causes the back muscles to remain in a tight state, which is likely to cause chronic low back strain in the long run. Fortunately, most types of back pains (excluding those relating to structural injuries) can be healed by some simple treatments, even without visiting hospitals or physio clinics.

Using a back massager.

The back massager is sometimes an alternative to therapists. By physically stimulating the back area, back massagers relax muscles, recovers soreness, and relieve knots. However, compared to therapists who can treat each person individually, it is sometimes difficult to choose an ideally tailored massager according to one's back size, and muscle lines.

Ice or Heat therapy.

On the other hand, hot compression treatment increases the temperature of the body surface, thereby expanding blood vessels and pores, accelerating local metabolism, and helping to quickly discharge lactic acid accumulated in muscles and inflammation under the skin surface. On the other hand, the warm feeling stimulates the subcutaneous nervous system, which is helpful for the relaxation of long-term tightened muscles. Cold compression, by contrast, relieves pain by constricting blood vessels. This method is more appropriate for acute physical injuries such as a sprain and structural injuries, based on the effectiveness of suppressing swelling. According to Chinese medicine, hot compression treatment can usually be combined with herb-medicine. After being heated, herbs can release stronger efficacy to achieve better therapeutic effect. Fennel and Chinese mugwort are commonly used for this kind of treatment, they can be good aids in reducing swelling and inflammation as well as relieving acute pain.

Cupping therapy

Cupping is a medication using various methods to remove the air in containers to form a pressure difference between the inside and the outside. By sucking and pulling, cupping causes deep tissue congestion or stagnation, promotes local blood circulation, maintains the lymphatic system, and achieves the effects of a reduction in pain and inflammation. Cupping also pulls nerves, muscles, blood vessels, and subcutaneous glands, and therefore causes a series of neuroendocrine reactions, regulate vasomotor, contraction, and blood vessel permeability. After cupping, redness or bruises generally occur on cupped skins. This is because, in the process of suction, small capillaries rupture, and red blood cells are destroyed, which promotes toxins and acids to be expelled faster. On the other hand, from the perspective of Chinese meridian theory, organs such as the heart, liver, spleen, lung, and kidney have their corresponding acupuncture points on the surface of the human body. With the application of cupping therapy, the trigger points can be physically stimulated by suction, and this will transmit to the corresponding organs which can be then conditioned to achieve the effect of strengthening the body. Traditional cupping therapy is commonly used in physio clinics and massage stores, however, another technique called flash cupping could be more effective in some cases, based on traditional Chinese medicine. When doing a flash cupping, therapists immediately pull the cup up after being sucked, and repeat the sucking and pulling process for a couple of times until the skin flushes. Compared to traditional cupping where cups are retained in local areas for 5 to 10 minutes, this cupping method generally causes less trauma, meaning that it is more affordable for most people.

Having cupping therapy at home

However, traditional cupping techniques need a family member or a friend to perform. Applying the advanced technology can make the things easier. One example is Achedaway cupper, an electronic cupping device. The core advantage of this product is the dynamic cupping technology. Specifically, Achedaway cupper applies the function of rhythmic alternation of suction and release, which boost blood circulation faster to the cupping area and speed up the recovery process. To some extent, this dynamic cupping function is similar to flash cupping. The latter removes the cups and therefore interrupts the suction to release the local area, whereas the former decreases the suction degree to a certain extent (based on the sets tailored by individuals) without entirely interrupting the suction process. Different from continuously being cupped, the intermittent suction has a more significant effect on stimulating the subcutaneous nerves, thereby speed up the process of relaxing muscles tightness and reducing pain and soreness.