Explore : the journal of science and healing
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Explore (NY)
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Review Clinical Trial
The effect of Gua Sha treatment on the microcirculation of surface tissue: a pilot study in healthy subjects.
Gua Sha, therapeutic surface frictioning that intentionally raises transitory petechiae and ecchymosis, is a traditional East Asian healing technique also known as cao gio, coining, scraping, and spooning. There are case reports in Western literature but no studies on the physiological effects of Gua Sha. ⋯ Gua Sha increases microcirculation local to a treated area, and that increase in circulation may play a role in local and distal decrease in myalgia. Decrease in myalgia at sites distal to a treated area is not due to distal increase in microcirculation. There is an unidentified pain-relieving biomechanism associated with Gua Sha.