The Effect of Wet Cupping Therapy (Al-Hijamah) on Some Blood Components: A Comparative Study

Abstract

Cupping therapy (CT), also known as (Al-Hijamah) is one of the therapeutic techniques that were practiced in many countries of the world in ancient times and it is still used now. The current study was aimed to evaluate some components of the venous blood and comparing the results with that in the blood withdrawn during cupping therapy (CT). The method was carried out by taking blood samples from the scarified area that were made during CT on the skin and venous blood samples. Eighteen mostly healthy male participants were selected randomly between ages 25-61 years. About 5 ml of blood samples were collected from the vein and cupping site for each participant and biochemical parameters that are blood glucose, uric acid, and cholesterol were analyzed. All studied parameters were high in the cupping blood in comparison with the venous blood where it was noted that cholesterol, triglycerides (TG), as well as low-density lipoproteins (LDL), were statistically significant at (p<0.001) while high-density lipoproteins (HDL), blood sugar and uric acid were statistically significant at (p=0.01), and urea was statistically significant at (p=0.05), while creatinine did not give statistical significance at (p>0.05). The current study is consistent with other studies. CT helps in reducing some biological parameters that may be related to some metabolic diseases, so it could maintaining human health.

Effects of Wet Cupping (Al-Hijamah) on Cholesterol in a Sudanese Population

“…The pre-WC group showed a significant increase in HDL-C compared to the post-WC group. Similar results have been reported by Marcin and Hoshaw [4], Saeed et al [1], and Sultan [2].…”

“…Cupping therapy has a long history of use within various ancient civilizations and still practiced today. This therapy has two main types: dry and wet cuppings (WCs) [1]. WC (Al-Hijamah) involves making small incisions in the skin to allow blood to flow into the cups.…”

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“…Loukas et al mentioned that medical knowledge gained from the Qur'an (God's words) and hadiths (the words of the Prophet Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him peace) can be an important source for human medicine in light of their astonishing agreement with modern medical knowledge [12]. In continuous with our other study [13], the goal of this study is to identify the effect of storage time and temperature on some biochemical tests of venous blood serum and compare these results with samples taken from the blood serum of cupping therapy at the same conditions.…”

Wet-Cupping's Impact on Pancreatitis Induced by Hypertriglyceridemia

“…13 In contrast, another report showed a decrease in the triglyceride level after wet-cupping (p ≤ 0.05), which agreed with another comparative study on 18 individuals by Saeed et al (p<0.001). 14 Still, larger randomized controlled trials are needed to evaluate the hypothesis. This case showed a potential effect of wet cupping in reducing triglyceride levels in the blood, thereby decreasing pancreatic inflammation and reducing the frequency of pancreatitis.…”