刮痧

What is Gua Sha?

Gua sha is a healing technique of traditional East Asian medicine. Sometimes called coining, spooning or scraping, gua sha is defined as "instrument-assisted unidirectional press-stroking of a lubricated area of the body surface to intentionally create transitory therapeutic petechiae called 'sha' representing extravasation of blood in the subcutis. Modern research shows gua sha produces an anti-inflammatory and immune-protective effect that persists for days following a single treatment. This can account for its effect on pain, stiffness, fever, chill, cough, wheeze, nausea and vomiting, etc., and why it is effective in acute and chronic internal organ disorders, including liver inflammation in hepatitis.

Gua sha is useful in any licensed therapeutic practice and of particular interest to acupuncturists, massage therapists, physical therapists, physicians, and nurses who work directly with patients, particularly patients with pain. It is used in Asia, in Asian immigrant communities, and by acupuncturists and practitioners of traditional East Asian medicine (TEAM) worldwide.

Gua Sha Research

Gua Sha has an established anti-inflammatory and immune-protective effect that helps to contextualize its historical and modern use to treat pain, fever, heatstroke, acute infectious illness, and acute trauma; as well as chronic conditions that have features of fixed pain, reduced function or loss of range of motion. Gua sha increases microperfusion in the immediate term following treatment. The sha transitory therapeutic petechiae that represent extravasated blood in the subcutis are absorbed in what is called ferroheme metabolism. This upregulates the genetic expression of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) immediately and over the coming days, producing the anti-inflammatory and immune-protective effect. For example, single gua sha treatment reduced liver inflammation, providing hepatoprotection in a patient with chronic active hepatitis B, consistent with results predicted in animal models. 

Upregulation of HO-1 produces innate anti-viral activity with a conceptual cell-protective role in preventing severe complications following COVID-19 infections. Gua sha also increases immune response to intradermal vaccination. More research into the role of gua sha in viral infection and disease is warranted. That said, it is the production and resolution of sha petechiae, gua sha's ferroheme metabolism, that is a primary therapeutic mechanism. 

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Nielson, A. (2021). Facial Gua Sha That Isn't Gua Sha at All. Acupuncture Today February, 2021, Vol. 22, Issue 02. https://www.acupuncturetoday.com/mpacms/at/article_d.php?id=33967&nr=t