Gua Sha - Translates as "Pushing Sand"

 

Gua Sha is a Chinese medical treatment traditionally applied by scraping skin with an ox horn implement. My favoured tool is the ceramic Chinese soup spoon. The shape is easy to hold and its rounded smooth glazed finish moves well over the skin. It translates as Pushing Sand due to the roughness of the resulting reaction...as though there is sand beneath the skin.

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Chinese medical philosophy holds that wind attacking the body externally blocks heat, preventing it's escape from musculature making it hard, tight and painful. The condition is most commonly observed in the upper body about neck & shoulders as heat rises in the body and this area is most frequently exposed directly to the elements. Also too, this condition can be generated by dietary and emotional effects on internal health or chronic postural strain from conditions like mild scoliosis or excessive lordosis. Musculature takes on a steel cable like quality with a gristle lumpy texture down on the bone.

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During transition from winter to warmer spring and summer weather, liver fire attacks causing widespread tightness through the tendons of the upper back and neck are often sighted in clinic. Internal heat that has built up over winter from strong warming foods and spices consumed to keep us warm must be extinguished and cleared. In Chinese tradition they begin preparing the body prior to the change of season through dietary change and herbal treatment. If we do not manage this well, excessive internal heat in the liver impacts our tendons. This can escalate to acute pain with clients telling me it feels like there is a knife between their shoulder blades.

Treatment can take three avenues...fasting and liver detoxification will typically clear the condition in several months; TCM herbal and acupuncture treatment will do the same in a few weeks; and, topical Gua Sha treatment at the affected area will do so instantly. Tightness and stabbing pains are alleviated immediately. While the Gua Sha treatment will have a mild affect on the overall underlying metabolism, it is primarily a topical treatment directly targeting the area of tightness and pain.

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This tightness is not responsive to massage, stretching, needling or joint manipulation until the heat is removed. The Gua Sha scraping flushes capillaries down to the bone and a rough red rash we call the "Sha" appears. Heat emanating from the area is clearly felt by both practitioner and client. In severe cases only three scapes are sufficient to raise the Sha. More commonly a dozen or more are required. Subsequent treatments in weeks following a strong reaction will elicit a milder reaction...much of the heat will have been cleared in the first treatment.

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Where there is little or no trapped heat, no amount of scraping will raise the Sha and little benefit results. It will merely become slightly pink and no marking occurs.

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Unlike Cupping where marks can take several weeks to clear, the Sha will clear in three days. As the pores are opened, special care should be taken to protect treated areas from exposure to cold, damp or wind until the next day.