Samadi Mansoureh, Huang Liwan, Mo Pu-Chun, Hernandez Manuel, Yu-Ju Hung Isabella, Jan Yih-Kuen
Department of Health and Kinesiology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA.
Department of Health and Kinesiology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA; Department of Biomedical and Translational Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA.
J Bodyw Mov Ther. 2025 Jun;42:446-451. doi: 10.1016/j.jbmt.2025.01.024. Epub 2025 Jan 19.
Previous studies investigating physiological mechanisms of cupping therapy often use a single-cup setting. It is unclear whether these findings could be applied to multiple-cup cupping therapy. The hypothesis is that under 4 cups of stimulation, negative pressure at -225 mmHg would be sufficient to cause a maximal vasodilatory response as -300 mmHg.
Cupping therapy was applied at pressures of -75, -225, and -300 mmHg using a four-cup setup on the gastrocnemius in 12 adults. Muscle hemodynamic responses (oxyhemoglobin, deoxy-hemoglobin, blood volume and oxygenation) were measured using a multi-channel near-infrared spectroscopy on the locations inside the cup (proximal and distal), outside the cup (between cups and distal to distal cup). Two-way ANOVA with repeated measures was used to examine the interaction and main effects of pressure (3 levels) and location (4 levels) factors.
The results indicate a significant interaction between negative pressure and location (P < 0.05) and a significant main effect of negative pressure (P < 0.05) and location (P < 0.05) factors on all measures. Post-hoc analysis demonstrated that -300 mmHg causes a significant increase (P < 0.05) in oxyhemoglobin (4.04 ± 0.77 μM as mean ± SE), deoxy-hemoglobin (1.06 ± 0.3 μM), blood volume (5.1 ± 1.02 μM), and oxygenation (2.98 ± 0.59 μM) at the area inside the proximal cup compared to -225 mmHg (2.4 ± 0.33 μM; 0.2 ± 0.28 μM; 2.6 ± 0.42 μM; 2.2 ± 0.45 μM, respectively).
The results of this study extend the current research on establishing evidence of a 4-cup cupping on improving muscle oxygenation. These findings also confirm that the effectiveness of cupping therapy is influenced by the applied pressure levels and anatomical locations of the cups, offering new insights into optimizing cupping protocols for musculoskeletal rehabilitation.
以往研究拔罐疗法的生理机制时通常采用单罐设置。目前尚不清楚这些研究结果是否适用于多罐拔罐疗法。研究假设为，在4个罐的刺激下，-225 mmHg的负压足以引起与-300 mmHg时相同的最大血管舒张反应。
对12名成年人的腓肠肌采用四罐设置，分别施加-75 mmHg、-225 mmHg和-300 mmHg的压力进行拔罐治疗。使用多通道近红外光谱仪在罐内（近端和远端）、罐外（罐与罐之间以及最远端罐的远端）位置测量肌肉血液动力学反应（氧合血红蛋白、脱氧血红蛋白、血容量和氧合情况）。采用重复测量的双向方差分析来检验压力（3个水平）和位置（4个水平）因素的交互作用和主效应。
结果表明，负压与位置之间存在显著交互作用（P < 0.05），负压和位置因素对所有测量指标均有显著主效应（P < 0.05）。事后分析表明，与-225 mmHg（分别为2.4±0.33 μM；0.2±0.28 μM；2.6±0.42 μM；2.2±0.45 μM）相比，-300 mmHg使近端罐内区域的氧合血红蛋白（平均±标准误为4.04±0.77 μM）、脱氧血红蛋白（1.06±0.3 μM）、血容量（5.1±1.02 μM）和氧合情况（2.98±0.59 μM）显著增加（P < 0.05）。
本研究结果扩展了目前关于四罐拔罐改善肌肉氧合证据的研究。这些发现还证实，拔罐疗法的有效性受所施加压力水平和罐的解剖位置影响，为优化肌肉骨骼康复的拔罐方案提供了新见解。
