What you need to know about Gua Sha: It can help you get rid of local obesity

We often hear people say, "I have heatstroke." There is a saying in Chinese medicine that "blockage causes pain." When encountering heatstroke, most people's first thought is "scraping." Scraping can relieve various discomfort symptoms in a short period of time. In addition to relieving heatstroke symptoms, even difficult edema and local obesity can be significantly improved after 3 to 5 minutes by scraping the meridian acupoints.

Gua Sha can relieve the symptoms of heat stroke, stubborn edema, and local obesity in a short period of time, and can also achieve significant improvements.

According to traditional Chinese medicine, "sha" is a type of blood stasis, which represents an imbalance in the body. Blood stasis means blockage. When the body is blocked, the blood circulation is blocked, which will further cause pain and various symptoms. From a Western medicine perspective, the cause of "sha" is the obstruction of microcirculation. The blood is transported from the heart to the whole body and needs to be regulated by microvessels. If the microcirculation cannot function normally, the health of the body will be affected.

Gua Sha promotes blood and lymphatic circulation and activates the immune system

The working principle of Gua Sha is to stimulate the acupuncture points of the human body in a benign way, promote blood and lymph circulation through the meridian conduction function, on the one hand, it can allow nutrients and oxygen to be fully transported to various tissues of the body, on the other hand, it can also promote systemic metabolism and activate the human immune system.

The newly published book "Amazing Scraping Board" reminds us that if we use the right scraping board and the right method, we can "scrape ourselves" without asking for help. However, we remind you to answer the following questions before scraping:

If you use the right scraping board and the right method, you can also “scrape yourself without asking for help from others”.

【Q&A about Gua Sha】

Q: The more painful the scraping is, the more effective it is; and the darker the skin is, the more effective it is?

A: Many people think that scraping is only effective when it hurts, or that the darker the color of the scraping, the better the effect. These are actually wrong ideas. Scraping is not more effective the more painful it is, and you don't have to stop until the area turns red and purple.

A: The pain you feel when scraping means that your Qi and blood are not flowing smoothly. The pain will be relatively high in problematic areas. The darker, redder or purpler the color of the sha is, the more severe the symptoms are. Usually, people with severe symptoms have weaker constitutions, so forceful scraping should be avoided. In addition, if the scraping area or force is not properly controlled or too much force is used, it may cause rupture of capillaries, which will not only fail to achieve the scraping effect, but may also cause tissue damage.

Q：How to control the strength?

A: When scraping, you need to maintain a certain degree of pressure so that the scraping effect can be transmitted to the deep tissue. If the force is too light, the force will only rub the surface of the skin and cannot play a deep role. It may also cause epidermal edema. However, some parts of the body are not suitable for scraping with greater pressure, such as large blood vessels on both sides of the neck, bony protrusions, the head, and areas with less subcutaneous fat. The scraping technique should be gentle.

In addition, the strength of scraping varies depending on the condition, physical condition and the area being scraped. According to the speed and pressure of scraping, it can be divided into two methods: "tonifying" and "draining". The tonifying scraping method uses light pressure, slow speed, and short scraping time. It is suitable for patients with long-term illness, weakness, serious illness, and deficiency syndrome; the purgative scraping method uses large pressure (the pressure needs to be gradually increased to allow the body to adapt to reduce the pain), fast speed, and long scraping time. It is suitable for young and strong patients with mild symptoms, acute or solid syndromes; there is also a "balanced tonifying and purgative method" that combines tonifying and purgative techniques, with moderate pressure, average force, neither fast nor slow speed, and scraping time within the tonifying and purgative techniques. It is suitable for both deficiency syndromes and solid syndromes or for general health care.

The scraping time should be maintained within 20 to 30 minutes.

Q：Can any part of the body be scraped?

A: When scraping, avoid the nipples on the chest, face, and feet where there are red blood streaks.

Q: Should I pay attention to the direction and order when scraping?

A: If more than one part needs to be scraped, start with the head and face and then move on to the rest of the body; scrape the body parts from top to bottom, first the back and waist then the chest and abdomen, first the trunk then the limbs; scrape the face, shoulders and chest from inside to outside, and scrape the limbs and back and abdomen from top to bottom (but if you encounter limb edema, varicose veins, or sagging internal organs, scrape from bottom to top).

Q: How long should the scraping be?

A: Generally speaking, with the acupoint as the center, the total length of scraping is about 8 to 15 centimeters, which should be larger than the range of the acupoint. If the meridian to be scraped is longer, the segmented scraping method can be used.

Q: How long does scraping last?

A: The scraping time should be maintained within 20 to 30 minutes. When the body is weak or the scraping speed is fast, the scraping time should be shortened; when the body is strong or the scraping speed is slow, the scraping time can be appropriately extended.

Q: How long does it take to recover after the sha appears?

A: The skin after the sha appears to have many small blood spots, and some people may even scrape out a black and purple area, which looks a bit scary. The depth of the color of the sha reflects the severity of the disease. For cases with milder severity, there will be less sha and lighter color, so recovery will be faster; for cases with more severe severity, there will be more sha and darker color, so it will take a longer time to recover. Generally speaking, the sha will disappear in 2 to 3 days at the fastest and up to two weeks at the slowest. In most cases, it will disappear within 5 to 7 days.

The newly published book "The Amazing and Effective Gua Sha Board" reminds us that Gua Sha is not suitable for everyone, and we must pay attention to situations and groups that are not suitable for Gua Sha.

Gua Sha is not suitable for everyone. The following are situations and groups that are not suitable for Gua Sha:

[Situations where scraping is not suitable]:

1. Patients with bleeding tendency diseases, such as thrombocytopenic diseases, abnormal coagulation function, leukemia patients and severe anemia.

2. Poor liver and kidney function, and acute attack of severe cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.

3. Gua Sha is prohibited in areas with malignant tumors, lumps of unknown cause, and severe varicose veins in the lower limbs.

4. Diabetic patients with skin ulcers or wounds on the skin surface (such as spring acne) should not scrape the wounds to avoid infection.

5. Gua Sha is prohibited in case of unexplained abdominal pain or internal bleeding.

6. Gua Sha should not be performed on acute injuries to ligaments and tendons, fractures, or surgical scars within three months.

7. Women should not have sex during menstruation, pregnancy, when drunk, or half an hour before or after meals.

8. Patients with neurasthenia should avoid scraping before going to bed.

【Health Tips】:

If the scraping area becomes swollen or has a burning sensation that does not subside after 24 hours, or if the scraping area is still noticeably painful when touched after one or two days of scraping, it means the scraping time is too long or excessive. In this case, you can apply hot compress 24 hours after scraping.