Gua Sha is a popular East Asian technique used for massaging the body and relieving pain. The main idea is to move the life energy, also known as qi, around the body. For this purpose, people usually use a Gua Sha spoon.

How Does It Work?

The ancient Chinese believed that the Gua Sha technique allows sickness to escape from the body. When you scrape your skin using a spoon, the illness leaves your body so you can relax.

The science underlying this belief is that the scraping of the spoon against the skin facilitates blood flow. This helps in the spread of nutrients and removal of toxins. The procedure makes your skin look younger, brighter, and healthier.

Types of Gua Sha Treatment

There are four different ways to use the Gua Sha spoon technique on your body. The frictional force between your skin and the spoon varies according to the thickness and soreness of your skin tissues.

The different types of scrubbing are as follows:

• Light Frictioning:

This treatment consists of light, quick strokes. The purpose of this method is to loosen up the flesh and improve blood flow. Scraping with a Gua Sha brush doesn’t cause any rashes or bruising. Treatment with a soft spoon is ideal for sensitive and delicate skin areas such as the face, neck, and jaw.

• Moderate Frictioning:

This treatment is a bit tougher as compared to the first one. The moderate Gua Sha treatment employs more forceful and frequent strokes on the skin. This helps to ward off cold, flu and enhance the skin’s elasticity. Moderate friction is also useful in tackling pain in different areas of the body, such as arms or feet.

• Hard Frictioning:

In this treatment, strokes are powerful and quick. Hard frictioning treats chronic pain, eases tension in the flesh, and fights off cold and flu.

• Prolonged Frictioning:

Here, longer strokes are used to relieve congestion and pain in the flesh.

Benefits of Gua Sha

Just like all other East Asian medicine techniques, Gua Sha also has a wide range of benefits. Here are the benefits of having the Gua Sha treatment:

• Relieving Tension and Pain

This treatment is used to enhance the flow of life energy throughout the body. When this energy moves freely throughout the body, it ensures the wellbeing of a person. When you scrape the skin with your spoon, it relieves the tension in your tissues and gets rid of any aching. Using this method, you can treat musculoskeletal problems, tendon strain, back pain, and carpal tunnel syndrome.

• Improves Blood Flow

Another advantage of the Gua Sha scraping is that it prevents blood stasis. By moving around stagnant blood, the spoon removes toxins in your body. The new blood on facial skin and other areas of your body makes your skin look healthier, brighter, and firmer.

• Treat Inflammation

The Gua Sha treatment is also useful in strengthening your immune system. If you experience gastric inflammation or other digestive issues, you can rely on Gua Sha to treat them.

• Healing Injuries

When the gua sha treatment relieves pain from your tissues, it improves your healing mechanism. The flow of newly oxygenated blood also speeds up your healing process. Minor bruises and scars in a condition called microtrauma are found on scarred tissues. Gua Sha scraping breaks down these scar tissues and allows regeneration of newer tissues.

• Strain Injuries

A Gua Sha spoon is also useful in treating repetitive joint injuries. You can do muscle-strengthening exercises alongside the Gua Sha treatment to improve joint flexibility in your body. In people who work 9-5 jobs, Gua Sha also reduces and controls back pain.

• Dealing With Menopausal Problems

Women who are nearing menopause also benefit from the Gua Sha technique. Gua Sha can treat sweating, insomnia, and headaches in perimenopausal women.

Side Effects of the Treatment

There are virtually no scary side effects of the Gua Sha treatment. The Gua Sha bursts tiny blood vessels to improve blood mobility and allow skin healing. When you carry use feathery strokes, there is no chance of the blood leaving an impression on your skin.

However, a more powerful spoon scraping can cause purple or blue bruises, rashes, and resulting scars. The treated skin may feel tender for some time and may take a few days to heal completely. While your skin is healing, you should avoid exposing the skin to the sun, which would slow down the healing of skin tissue. You can use an icepack to treat the inflamed skin or take painkillers to reduce pain and swelling.

We also advise Gua Sha professionals to sterilize their spoon correctly to avoid infection in broken skin.

When Should You Avoid It?

You should avoid the Gua Sha spoon treatment in the following cases:

• If you have skin conditions such as acne or any serious injuries, it’s better to avoid the Gua Sha treatment. It will only cause to break the skin further and spread infection inside.
• If your skin tends to bleed easily, you should only use the Gua Sha technique in light strokes.
• People with adverse blood conditions should prevent Gua Sha treatment, as well.
• If you have a tumor that hasn’t fully healed, you should wait until it completely heals before Gua Sha treatment.
• Gua Sha doesn’t work well on people with deep vein thrombosis as well.
• With people who have pacemakers or defibrillator implantations, the treatment is not advised.

Conclusion

The Gua Sha spoon treatment is a beneficial and organic treatment method. With only ten minutes of Gua Sha scraping every day, you can have healthier skin and a healthier body.

References

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/320397.php#takeaway

http://aprilcrowell.com/asian-medicine/have-spoon-will-gua-sha/