Cupping (Al-Hijamah) in Unani System of Medicine: Opportunities and Scope
Keywords:
Unani System of Medicine, Al-Hijamah, Wet cupping, Skin diseases, Tanqiye MawadAbstract
In Unani System of Medicine (USM), cupping therapy is known as "Al-Hijamah”. Hijamah is Arabic word which literary means “to do cupping”. Cupping is an ancient traditional therapeutic technique, which has been practiced, for thousands of years and till now, particularly in East Asian countries. In classical literature of USM, Al-Hijamah is of two types; wet cupping or cupping with bloodletting called as Hijamah-bish-shart and dry cupping or cupping without bloodletting termed as Hijamah-bila-shart. The principle of each type of cupping is different, Hijama bil shart works according to the principle of Tanqiye Mawad (i.e., evacuation of morbid matter from the affected area), while as, dry cupping works on the principle of Immale Maawad (i.e., diversion of morbid matter from one site to the other). In USM, the wet cupping is more extensively used and preferred than dry cupping. Recently, the number of followers of this traditional medicine is increasing in the western world. In the present paper, recent scientific reports and detailed description of diseases, where and which type of cupping should be performed on the basis of classical literature of USM will be described.
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