![]() It’s thought that “the skin, the nervous system and immune system interact with one another to generate a cascade of physiological responses to the scraping,” which may result in therapeutic benefits, a 2021 review of gua sha published in Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care noted. What are the health benefits of gua sha?įrom a traditional Chinese medicine standpoint, it improves stagnation within the body or expels influences that can cause the body to feel still, sore, achy or painful, Minichiello said.įrom a Western biomedicine standpoint, studies suggest a few different mechanisms, including decreasing the body’s sensation of pain and having some anti-inflammatory properties, he noted. Shaffer uses a jar lid, or tools shaped from jade or an animal’s horn. They’re ordered in bulk and given to each patient to keep for future sessions. At UW Integrative Health, Minichiello uses a porcelain soup spoon. Traditional Chinese medicine Gua Sha (Getty Images) What is the gua sha tool? #IMAGES OF PINPOINT RED DOTS ON SKIN SKIN#And it does look like the skin is broken, but it’s not.” “When we see the petechiae, we’ve reached release, we’ve reached flow, we’ve unstuck,” Shaffer added. ![]() They’re different from bruising, which is deeper in the skin, he noted. These spots, known as petechiae, indicate there’s some bleeding just beneath the surface of the skin, Minichiello said. In plain terms, a gua sha practitioner will scrape across a person’s lubricated skin in one direction - never back and forth - with a smooth edged tool, as if creating stripes, until tiny pinpoint red spots appear. Nielsen defines it as “instrument-assisted unidirectional press-stroking of a lubricated area of the body surface to intentionally create transitory therapeutic petechiae.” “It’s like loosening a stuck jar.” What is gua sha? “For some people, it’s like the knife comes out of the back,” Shaffer said of the reactions she has seen from patients after gua sha treatment. Janet Shaffer, an acupuncturist at Duke Health Integrative Medicine Center in Durham, North Carolina, called gua sha one of her favorite techniques for freeing up the fascia - the connective tissue that wraps every structure in the body. ![]() after living in China and studying traditional Chinese medicine. “From my experience, there really appears to be a true biochemical, mechanical reason why gua sha is effective.” ![]()
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