TCM Acupuncture and Massage

Chapter 37 Common Acupuncture and Moxibustion Methods (8)
[-]. Features of Scraping Therapy
In terms of its origin and theoretical and practical basis, scraping therapy has similarities with acupuncture and massage therapy, and also has its own characteristics.

1. Simple and easy to perform Scraping therapy is relatively simple from the use of tools to the operation method, and the selection of acupoints (scraping parts) is much simpler than acupuncture and massage therapy.In clinical practice, as long as a little explanation and guidance are needed, it is easy to understand at a glance, and it is very easy to learn.

2. Wide range of indications Scraping therapy was originally only used to treat heat stroke (ie "Sha syndrome"). With the development of science and the continuous development and research of scraping therapy, the indications of scraping therapy are also expanding.It can treat both acute and chronic diseases.Diseases involved in internal medicine, pediatrics, gynecology, surgery, facial features.In addition to treating common diseases and frequently-occurring diseases, it can also treat some difficult diseases.

3. Fast curative effect Gua Sha therapy has a good curative effect on many diseases, and it can often be cured after one or two or three treatments.For some incurable diseases, sometimes unexpected results will be received.The curative effect will be better if the treatment can be guided by the theory of viscera and meridians in traditional Chinese medicine.

4. Economical and cheap Gua Sha can be said to be a method of curing diseases with little or no cost, which can greatly reduce the economic burden, and is especially suitable in areas where there is a lack of medical care.

5. Safe and reliable Since the scraping therapy is applied on the body surface, there is no fear of harming the internal organs.In family self-treatment or mutual treatment, you can safely and boldly implement it, absolutely safe and reliable, without any toxic and side effects.

Since scraping therapy has the above-mentioned advantages of simplicity, convenience, cheapness, wide range, experience, and safety, and is not limited by time and place, it is suitable for popularization and promotion in vast urban and rural families and remote areas lacking medical care and medicine.

[-]. The principle of scraping therapy
The principle of scraping therapy is the same as that of acupuncture and massage therapy, and it is also based on the meridian theory.

1. Dredge the meridians Traditional Chinese medicine believes: "If it is blocked, it will cause pain."Scraping therapy can make the local skin congest, accelerate blood circulation, raise local tissue temperature, stretch tense or spasm muscles, and relieve spasm pain.This is the result of dredging the meridians, that is, "there is no pain when the meridians are cleared."

2. Activating blood circulation and removing blood stasis Scraping can adjust the contraction and relaxation of muscles, so that the pressure between tissues can be adjusted, so as to promote blood circulation around the tissue at the scraping site, increase blood flow in tissues, and thus play a role in "activating blood circulation and removing blood stasis" and "removing blood stasis". rebirth" effect.

3. Reconcile qi and blood When the human qi and blood are stagnant or the meridians are empty, the scraping stimulation can flow the qi and blood, guide the qi of camp and health to run through the cloth, promote the circulation of blood and lymph fluid, reconcile qi and blood, improve the nutritional status of the body, and promote metabolism.

4. Balance yin and yang. Gua Sha can significantly adjust the balance of yin and yang on visceral functions. For example, for those with hyperactive intestinal peristalsis, scraping on the abdomen and back can inhibit the hyperactive intestinal peristalsis and return to normal.Conversely, for those with weakened intestinal peristalsis, scraping can strengthen intestinal peristalsis.This shows that Gua Sha can adjust and improve the functions of viscera, so that the yin and yang of viscera can be balanced.

[-]. Indications of scraping therapy

Scraping therapy integrates disease prevention, rehabilitation and health care. After scraping, you will feel relaxed and comfortable all over your body.It has obvious curative effect on headache, limb pain, numbness, strain, arthritis, cervical spondylosis, lumbar disc herniation, sciatica, high fever, heatstroke, nausea and vomiting, gastrointestinal cramps, various skin diseases, etc.; it is effective on angina pectoris, high blood pressure, asthma Also have better effect.At the same time, it can also be used for disease prevention and health care, beauty treatment, weight loss, etc.Stretch marks on women's abdomen, waist and buttocks can also be eliminated by scraping for 2 or 3 months.

Sickness has severity, and disease has deficiency and excess.Among the above indications, scraping therapy can be used alone for some; scraping therapy can be used as the main treatment for some, combined with other therapies; some only play an auxiliary role.Do not regard scraping as a panacea.When scraping is ineffective, the treatment plan should be adjusted in time, or other treatments should be used to avoid delaying the condition.

[-]. Scraping tools and media
Gua Sha utensils can be obtained locally, using a variety of hard utensils with thick, smooth and unbroken edges, such as coins, large buttons, porcelain spoons, porcelain wine cups, small shells, the back of a comb, and horns, jade, hardwood or bamboo Scrapers made of sheets, even cotton thread, twine, loofah, hair balls, etc., can be used as scrapers.Relatively speaking, metals are easy to damage the skin, ceramics are easy to break, jade is expensive, and plastic products may cause adverse skin irritation, so they are rarely used.Horn is a natural material, non-toxic and irritating to the skin, and is the best.

In order to increase the lubricating feeling, reduce the resistance during scraping, and prevent skin scratches, cold boiled water (warm water for patients with fever), various vegetable oils, face creams, and petroleum jelly are often used as the medium for scraping.According to the condition, some scraping oil made of Chinese herbal medicine can also be used to enhance the therapeutic effect.

[-]. The operation procedure and method of scraping

1. Preoperative preparation Before scraping, the scraper should be carefully checked to see whether its edges are smooth, cracked, and clean.The scraper should be cleaned with soapy water or disinfectant (1% bromogeramine solution) beforehand, and then dried with a towel.It can also be sterilized by high pressure, boiling or soaking in alcohol.In principle, everyone uses their own scraper to avoid cross-infection.Partial skin scraping should also be cleaned and disinfected, first scrub it with a hot towel, and then carry out routine disinfection.

2. Select body position The following body positions are generally used for scraping:
(1) Ordinary sitting and prone sitting: suitable for the head, face, neck, shoulders, upper limbs, lower limbs and other parts.

(2) Recumbent sitting position: suitable for the front neck, chest and abdomen, upper limbs, lower limbs, etc.

(3) Supine position: suitable for head and face, neck, chest and abdomen, upper limbs, lower limbs, etc.

(4) Prone position: suitable for the head, nape, lower back, back of the lower limbs, etc.

3. Select the site According to the treatment plan, determine the scraping site and select acupoints.Because scraping involves a wider area, acupoint selection is not as strict as acupuncture.But it can't deviate too much.Scrape the central depression and both sides of the neck; scrape the spine and both sides of the lower back, and scrape obliquely along the intercostal space on the upper middle back (if the patient is too thin and the spine is protruding, only the sides are scraped); the chest is scraped from the sternum Scrape outward at the 2nd to 4th ribs (not the breasts); mainly scrape the elbows, knees and joints of the limbs.

4. Apply medium on the selected parts, apply lubricating oil or Chinese herbal medicine preparation and other medium.

5. The order of scraping For superficial diseases, it is advisable to scrape the neck and neck first, and then scrape the affected parts.The general order is: head and neck → spine and its sides → chest → abdomen → limbs and joints.For visceral diseases, first scrape the Jiaji and the back of the lower back, the Foot-Taiyang Meridian and Beishu points, and then scrape the relevant meridians and diseased parts.After scraping one part (about 3 to 5 minutes, 30 to 50 strokes), then scrape another part. Do not scrape east or west blindly and disorderly.

6. Scraping direction Scraping must be done in one direction, from top to bottom, from inside to outside, and from left to right.The head, scapular area, lower back and abdomen are scraped straight from top to bottom, or horizontally from inside to outside; the face, chest and flanks are scraped obliquely from inside to outside; Or, scrape from bottom to top with a light hand).Scrape in the same direction repeatedly, do not scrape back and forth.

7. The actual operation is generally to hold the scraper with the right hand, and the angle between the edge of the scraper and the skin is 45°.Left and right, flexibly use the strength of the wrist and arm to scrape rhythmically (not fast and slow), and with uniform strength (from light to heavy, not light and heavy).The scraping surface should be as long as possible.Use the horizontal surface of the scraping board to scrape the full muscles; use the edges and corners of the scraping board to scrape the shallow muscles and more bumps (such as the head and face, joints, etc.).Apply medium while scraping (head and forehead and health care scraping do not use medium), until slight purple scars or purple black spots and plaques appear under the skin.However, for those who scrape for the first time, they should not just forcefully scrape out the scars.

Health care scraping and forehead scraping, children can gently scrape with soft objects (such as cotton balls, loofah), or indirect scraping: put a massage towel on the part to be scraped, and then use the scraper on the cloth Wipe quickly in one direction at a rate of 2 times per second.Each place can be scraped about 30 times, lift the cloth to check, if there are slight scars on the skin (it is also OK if there are no scars), change another place and scrape again.The soft part of the abdomen can also be rubbed with fingers dipped in salt.

For those with severe disease, deep lesions, but strong physique, and those with symptoms, pain, spasm, and initial inflammation caused by nervous excitement, use heavy scraping to stimulate (reducing method); on the contrary, for mild disease, shallow lesions, and poor physical Those who are sick, as well as young children, the elderly, weak and chronically ill, should use light scraping or health care scraping (replenishing method).For general symptoms, use the method of flat tonic, flat diarrhea and scraping.It should take 5 to 10 minutes for each part for mending curettage; 3 to 5 minutes for each part for purging curettage; there is no strict time limit for health care scraping, and the principle is based on self-satisfaction, relaxation and comfort.

After scraping, use a clean towel or toilet paper to dry the water stains (or scraping oil stains). You can also massage slightly, drink a small amount of warm water, light salt water, and ginger syrup, and you will feel extremely comfortable and relaxed.You can leave after resting for 15-20 minutes.

The time-wise interval between two scraping sessions, if scraping on the same part continuously, should be until the scars on the skin disappear completely and the surrounding skin feels no pain (generally 3 to 6 days).Unrestricted if different parts are scraped.

Continuous scraping 5-8 times is a course of treatment.If two courses of treatment are still ineffective, further examination should be done.Modify the treatment plan if necessary, or switch to other therapies.

[-]. Significance of different Sha phenomena
After scraping, red, purple, or black plaques and streaks will appear on the surface of the skin, which are called "sha symptoms".This is a normal reaction and should go away on its own within a few days.1-2 days after the occurrence of Sha, the skin on the scraped area will experience mild pain, itching, ants crawling, or feel cold or hot air on the body surface, and wheal-like changes on the skin surface are also normal phenomena.No action is required.

The color of Sha is bright red, not easy to scrape out, it is dotted, and most of them are superficial syndromes, indicating that the course of the disease is short, the condition is mild, and the prognosis is good, so there is no need to scrape more; , the state of an illness is serious, prognosis is poor, should scrape again.With the treatment of Gua Sha, the color of the Sha symptoms will change from dark to red, from plaques to scattered spots, indicating that the condition is gradually improving.

[-]. Precautions for scraping
1. Before scraping, patients should rest for 5 to 10 minutes to relax their emotions and eliminate tension and fatigue.Do not scrape when the patient is tired or tense.

2. Scraping equipment and scraping parts should be strictly disinfected, and the hands of the practitioner should also be kept clean and clean.After each use of the scraper, it must be sterilized before it can be reused. It must not be operated with bacteria (except for self-use health care and indirect curettage) to prevent cross-infection.

3. When scraping, the patient should be in a natural and comfortable position, which is also conducive to operation.During the scraping process, the body position can be changed appropriately to avoid fatigue.

4. When scraping, care should be taken to maintain indoor air circulation and constant temperature. In winter, you should avoid wind and cold, and the scraping time can be longer; in summer, you can’t directly blow on the electric fan, and the scraping time should be shorter.

5. If there are superficial lymph nodes in the neck, armpit, groin, etc., the shaving technique should be gentle and loose, and strong shaving is not allowed.

6. During scraping, if there is fascial contracture and acute pain in the calf, in addition to scraping the knee bends, you can also dip a cotton pad with high-grade grain wine or rice wine with a high concentration to rub the painful area.Or soak the feet with warm water to relieve the patient's pain.

7. After scraping, the patient should rest for a while, drink a little warm water, ginger syrup or light salt water; do not take a cold bath within one hour.It is best not to do heavy physical labor that day, fasting raw, cold, hot and sour and greasy food.

8. It is not advisable to scrape again in the same place before the scars on the scraping site last time have completely disappeared. Generally, there should be an interval of 3 to 6 days between the two scrapings, and the scars on the skin should completely disappear.

[-]. Contraindications of Gua Sha
1. The elderly, infirm, chronically ill and physically weak should use scraping method with caution; people who are hungry, full, over-fatigued, overly nervous and drunk should not use scraping method. 2. Facial features, front and rear yin, breasts, navel, abdomen, lumbosacral region of pregnant women, and the top of the head of children with unclosed fontanelles, do not use scraping method.

3. The lower abdomen of patients with difficulty urinating should not be scraped by gravity, and it is better to massage lightly.

4. Infectious skin diseases, sores, carbuncles, traumatic fractures, unhealed wounds, ulcers, scars, and unexplained skin lumps, etc., should not be directly scraped on the lesion.

5. For diseases with bleeding tendency, such as thrombocytopenia, leukemia, hemophilia, aplastic anemia, etc., scraping therapy should not be used.In case of use, it can only be scraped with light techniques, and it is not required to produce Sha.

6. Patients with a history of skin allergies should avoid using scrapers that can cause allergies.

7. Scraping therapy should not be used for critical illnesses such as acute infectious diseases, heart, lung, liver and kidney failure, ascites due to cirrhosis, severe systemic edema, advanced malignant tumors, tetanus, rabies, mental illness and its onset.

[-]. Handling and prevention of abnormal situations

1. During the scraping process, if the skin is accidentally scratched, the scraping treatment should be stopped, disinfected in time, and bandaged to prevent infection.

2. During the scraping process, if the patient has symptoms such as palpitation, dizziness, vertigo, nausea, pale complexion, cold sweat, cold limbs, or even fainting, it is called "dizzy scraping".In such a situation, the operation should be stopped immediately, the patient should be placed in a supine position quickly, the head should be lowered and the feet should be raised, and a little warm boiled water with sugar should be given, and the patient will usually get better soon.If you can't get better, you can use a scraping board to scrape at Renzhong, Baihui, Neiguan, Yongquan, and Zusanli for first aid.Gently scrape the edges and corners for Renzhong, and heavy scrape for other points.

The prevention of dizziness and scratching is the key point.During the scraping process, the technique should be gentle and moderate, and should not be too violent or too heavy, so as not to add unnecessary pain to the patient.For those who receive scraping therapy for the first time, who are mentally nervous or physically weak, they should be explained to them before treatment to eliminate their concerns about scraping.For people who are hungry, full, overtired, overly nervous and drunk, do not rush to use the scraping method.When scraping for the elderly, infirm, children, and patients who are afraid of pain and nervousness, the technique should be gentle, and they should be asked about their feelings frequently, and the facial expressions and general conditions of the patients should be observed at any time, so as to detect and deal with unexpected situations in time and prevent future diseases. Not yet.

(End of this chapter)