Gua Sha, literally "to scrape away fever" in Chinese (more loosely, "to
scrape away disease by allowing the disease to escape as sandy-looking
objects through the skin"), is an ancient medical treatment. Sometimes
referred to as "spooning" by English speakers, it has also been given
the descriptive French name, "tribo-effleurage".
The Vietnamese term for this practice is cạo gió (pronounced "cow yaw"),
meaning roughly to "scrape wind", as in Vietnamese culture "catching a
cold" or fever is often referred to as trúng gió, "to catch wind". The
origin of this term is the Shang Han Lun, a ~220 CE Chinese Medical text
on cold induced disease - like most Asian countries China's medical
sciences were a profound influence in Vietnam, especially between the
5th and 7th Centuries CE. Cạo gió is an extremely common remedy in
Vietnam and for overseas Vietnamese.
It is also used in Indonesia. It is a traditional Javanese technique,
known as kerikan (lit., "scraping technique") or kerokan, and it is very
widely used, as a form of "folk" medicine, upon members of individual
Gua Sha involves repeated
pressured strokes over lubricated skin with a smooth edge. Commonly a
ceramic Chinese soup spoon was used, or a well worn coin, even honed
animal bones, water buffalo horn, or jade. A simple metal cap with a
rounded edge is commonly used.
In cases of fatigue from heavy work a piece of ginger root soaked in
rice wine is sometimes used to rub down the spine from head to tail.
The smooth edge is placed against the pre-oiled skin surface, pressed
down firmly, and then moved down the muscles -- hence the term "tribo-effleurage"
(i.e., friction-stroking) -- or along the pathway of the acupuncture
meridians, along the surface of the skin, with each stroke being about
4-6 inches long.
This causes extravasations of blood from the peripheral capillaries (petechiae)
and may result in sub-cutaneous blemishing (ecchymosis), which usually
takes 2-4 days to fade. Sha rash does not represent capillary rupture as
in bruising, as is evidenced by the immediate fading of petechiae to
echymosis, and the rapid resolution of sha as compared to bruising. The
color of sha varies according to the severity of the patient's blood
stasis -- which may correlate with the nature, severity and type of
their disorder --appearing from a dark blue-black to a light pink, but
is most often a shade of red. Although the marks on the skin look
painful, they are not. Patients typically feel immediate sense of relief
and change.
Practitioners tend to follow the tradition they were taught to obtain
sha: typically using either gua sha or fire cupping. The techniques are
not used together.
In classical Chinese
practice, the Gua Sha technique is most commonly used to:
- Reduce fever (the technique was used to treat cholera).
- Treat fatigue caused by exposure to heat (often used to treat
heat-stroke) or cold.
- Cough and dyspnea: bronchitis, asthma, emphysema.
- Treat muscle and tendon injuries.
- Push sluggish circulation, fibromyalgia.
- Treat headache.
- Treat sunstrokes / heat syncope and nausea.
- Treat stiffness, pain, immobility.
- Treat digestive disorders.
- Treat urinary, gynecological disorders.
- To assist with reactions to food poisoning.
There is an allied technique, Ba Sha, or 'tsien sha', which has a
similar application to Gua Sha. It is performed by gripping the skin,
lifting and then flicking between the fingers until petechiae appear. It
is used more often on the tendons, at the center of the brow, or than
over specific acupuncture points.