Gua Sha

According to Wikipedia, Gua Sha is literally translated “to scrape for cholera” which kind of confuses me since cholera is an infectious gastrointestinal disease.The basic technique is to lubricate the skin and then stroke it repeatedly with a smooth edged object while applying a good amount of pressure.This is supposed to help pull “sha”-toxins- to the surface of the skin,and the sha causes the skin to discolor.

So what does Gua Sha supposedly help?Here is a short list of common things it is said to help:

• 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

It wouldn’t be true woo woo if it didn’t claim to help treat a wide variety of unrelated ailments!

If you want to see a real good look at the results of Gua Sha,here is another quick video:

I don’t think I’m going to far out on a limb when I say “Sha” is nothing more than superficial scratching-in terms of the first video- and SEVER bruising and bleeding as shown in the second video!Seriously,who wants their body to look like that?It’s just bruising people!It is the hallmark of alternative and quack medicine to take something as common as a bruise and put some type of spin on it.Oh,but wait,they have proof that its not just superficial scratches and bruising.

“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.”

Thats right,they just say its not;therefore its not.

Amazing though,how the different colors of “sha” represent the spectrum of skin discoloration exactly the same as superficial scratching and brusing:

“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.”

A good way for them to prove their claim is to have this “sha” tested to see exactly what it is. I mean,if its not bruising but “toxins”,then it should test as such. Have they done this? No,not that I could find anywhere.It’s just mysticism piled onto normal everyday things and since its “ancient Chinese” people think that that means it actually works.

Save yourself some cash and just get into a bar fight or something if you want to look beat up cause thats all you’ll get from Gua Sha.