Vanessa: 0:00

Hey, Em

Emily: 0:02

Hey ' Ness.

Vanessa: 0:03

welcome to Wellness Myths, Emily and I have an awesome episode today with a very special guest Danielle Reghi. Danielle tells us all about the benefits of cupping and enlightens us on whether cupping can give you a bigger booty and erase your cellulite, or maybe not.

Emily: 0:21

This guest is special to me personally, because I've been Danielle's patient ever since I moved to Portland a few years ago, I personally love cupping therapy and I'm a huge advocate for it. Enjoy. Danielle Reghi is an licensed acupuncturist and has a doctorate in acupuncture and Chinese medicine with a focus on integrative health. She's originally from Hawaii, but now resides in Portland, Oregon with her husband and two fur babies. She loves animals, the great outdoors, warm weather. And of course her work, she co owns the Zen Space, Wellness and Cupping Studio in Northeast Portland, where she practices and treats conditions such as chronic pain, sports, injury, and digestive issues. Welcome Danielle.

Danielle: 1:14

Hi, happy to be here.

Emily: 1:16

Yeah. Okay. I'm going to let Vanessa ask the first few questions because she's brand new to cupping. So Vanessa.

Vanessa: 1:23

Yeah. So I have known about cupping, but I've never gotten it done and correct me here. If I'm wrong, Danielle, I feel like cupping came more onto the main stream radar with Michael Phelps. Am I like way off base there?

Danielle: 1:38

No. Yeah, we definitely love Michael faults for making cupping cool. it's definitely gained more attention in popular culture since that time. And since then, there's been a lot of different athletes and celebrities, honestly, who have taken to cupping. But what. Copying was created, you know, coming as part of traditional Chinese medicine. So it was formulated or created, or however you want to say it thousands of years ago when the ancient Chinese were kind of creating their, Chinese medicine. There's some debate on how long people have been practicing traditional Chinese medicine, but I just always say thousands of years. It's also very common and a lot of like Eastern cultures. So Eastern European even, I oftentimes have people from Eastern Europe. So. Poland Russia. Uh, my friend is from Romania and he's like, Oh yeah, my grandmother used to do that. She would put the shot glasses on my back whenever I was sick. So it's

Vanessa: 2:42

Oh, wow.

Danielle: 2:44

yeah, it's

Vanessa: 2:44

That's so interesting.

Danielle: 2:46

yeah, I know. And in cupping we do say that if you're feeling like you're sick, if you get cupping, then it will, Keep you from getting sick. So it was just really interesting that they were practicing that all over Eastern Europe. It's actually also really popular in Africa and the middle East in Africa, in the middle East, they're much more into bleeding cupping, which I do not do. You can do it in the United States, but it's less, . Popular, because we care about like bloodborne pathogens and stuff here a little bit, like we're a little bit more sensitive to that. I think maybe, but it's messier, you know, with bleeding, cupping, what happens is they usually create a little slice on the skin and then they put the cup over that. So it's basically a way of bleeding you, which. They say is, you know, has a lot of therapeutic benefit. I personally don't do it, I can't speak too much on that, but I know that that's the type that is really, really popular in the middle East and Africa.

Vanessa: 3:38

Hm. Interesting. So talk us through the kind of cupping you do. So a normal coming what's happening.

Danielle: 3:47

Yeah. So I don't, I do two different types of couple, actually I do three different types of cupping, but I definitely practice the more traditional Chinese style because that's what I learned when I was in acupuncture school. So. That is what the glass cups. Generally you do sliding, helping as well. So you put lotion on the body, you put the cups on the body by creating a vacuum suction with a burning. Like cotton ball. Um, a lot of times people think that we place the cotton ball on your body or your skin, which we do not do. We absolutely do not burn the patient. But basically what you do is you hold a burning cotton ball in the center of this glass cup for just a second that burns the oxygen out of the cup. And then you very quickly put the cup onto the person's body, which creates a vacuum. So it's a little bit more technique-based. Um, and you know, there's a little bit more to look out for in the sense that you don't want to burn the patient. You don't want to drip, you know, Burning alcohol on the patient, that sort of thing. And then there's another style of cupping called Korean suction cupping, which I also do. And that style is with plastic cups and there's a little done, a little cupping gun that you can do, like one pump to pump three pumps. Um, so you can kind of, it's a little easier to do a beginner, could do it a little bit more easily. Um, and usually with that sort of cupping. You leave the cups in one spot. So it's really great for like more of a pinpointed kind of feeling like I have a knot right here that I, you know, that is bugging me and you can put the cup right over that. And then, you know, do one pump or two pumps and leave it in that area. And then I also do facial cupping, which I'm not doing any of it right now. The, you know, obviously because of COVID, but that's a really, really light style of copying. That's really much more about lymphatic drainage and college and, you know, and boosting college and that sort of thing. But facial cupping. You know, shouldn't leave any marks on your body. And it's a different form of pup that we use as well. So there's a lot of different styles of cupping, but I would say my favorite is probably the fire cupping because that's what I learned in acupuncture school, but I do a lot of section cutting as well. So.

Vanessa: 5:54

So I had no idea. There was so many different kinds. I was thinking of, you know, the big red or purple marks on people's backs is kind of the only kind of cupping. So it's interesting. There's so many different and especially for your face, I didn't realize that at all. So other than, um, you know, for collagen and lymphatic drainage, what are some main reasons people come to you for cupping?

Danielle: 6:20

Yeah. So copying is the only type of body work that is a negative pressure on the body, as opposed to, you know, like massage or any other. Form of body work really that you get, it's a positive pressure, right? You're pushing into the skeleton. So with copying, what you're doing is you're creating a vacuum and you're pulling the tissue up and away from the skeleton. It helps to break up scar tissue and adhesions that had formed in the muscle fibers, bind the muscles cause tension in the muscles. The scar tissue can also, you know, form or. In the fascia layer, so your fascia can get kind of bound up. So it's just creating more space on the body. It's helping to reduce tension. It also helps to pull like old stagnant blood out of the muscles pulls fresh new oxygenated blood through the muscles. So it has a lubricating effect for the tissue. Okay. It helps to increase circulation. And it also helps to pull lactic acid and toxins that have built up in the tissue out, redistributes that into the bloodstream so that you can get rid of that naturally through like your kidneys and your natural detox pathways. So it does a lot, you know, it also helps to, they say in the skin, um, it helps to boost collagen production. It drains the limp. So that's generally what people get at four is like, They're having some pain. It's really, really great for pain intention. It's really great to like ease pain intention. So what's nice about cupping is you really only need 15 minutes. So if you get a short 15 minute session, it feels like you got a 45 minute massage or something like that. It's that effective.

Vanessa: 7:56

Wow.

Danielle: 7:57

yeah.

Emily: 7:58

funny. when you were mentioning the facial cupping you had sold me some of those little, like the mini take home cups for the face. when I was having some TMJ pain and it, it just feels amazing. Like I was before I was doing a little Jade rolling with it, but I felt like the facial cups really alleviated a lot of that pain.

Danielle: 8:18

Yeah, facial cups are amazing. You know, you can definitely do it at home. Just if you buy them, have somebody who knows how to do cupping, kind of teach you how to use them at home, which I think I did for you, Emily,

Emily: 8:29

Yeah, definitely.

Danielle: 8:31

it's really good for TMJ kind of jaw tension. It's also really nice. If you use them up by your temples, it helps to relieve headaches. You can use them down your SCM. If you're getting like that sort of headache, that kind of starts in your neck, radiates up your sternocleidomastoid muscle up into your jaw and kind of like creates a headache. That way you can kind of like run it down the side of your neck. And it's a really nice way to just lightly relieve the pressure and helps you relieve headaches too, which is really amazing. Anybody who suffers from migraines, I try to have them buy one of those.

Vanessa: 9:08

So do you get a lot of questions about whether cupping is painful?

Danielle: 9:13

Absolutely. That's like one of the number one questions I get.

Vanessa: 9:16

The big bruises are probably responsible for that question. I would guess.

Danielle: 9:21

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, there are times when you take the cups off and it looks like you beat someone up, you know, like, um, harping does create a little mild inflammatory response in the body. So sometimes the. Marks can be, feel a little swollen for, for a minute. You know, inflammation does help our body heal. It's just that when inflammation becomes too much, that's when it becomes a problem, but a small inflammatory response is actually kind of the healing response. So that is what happening does, but it does leave those crazy marks, you know, kind of like hickeys. It does sometimes the. Sometimes the marks will feel a little raised or, or a little like, like Wells or something. So people look at that and they see that and they think, Oh, that's gotta be so painful. What I always tell people is that cupping. Isn't necessarily painful, but it's not always comfortable either. I like to say it kind of hurts so good. It's that hurts so good feeling. It's like, if you get a deep tissue massage and your massage therapist is like really working on your muscles and might not feel the best, but it feels good at the same time. That's kind of what cupping is all about. And then I always ask my patients just to make sure that they're communicating with me really well, because If it is, it's not supposed to be painful. It's not supposed to feel like torture. And if it's too much for you, let me know because everyone's pain threshold or everyone's idea of what is comfortable or hurts. So good is different, right? So we just need to communicate a lot and we can always reduce some tension on the, on the back or, you know, let some of the air out or whatever we need to do to make it feel more comfortable for you. But copying should not hurt it should feel. Like it hurts so good. Or just be like right under your pain threshold, but it's not supposed to be like torture, if that makes sense.

Vanessa: 11:06

Yeah, that totally makes sense. Uh, probably very comforting for people that are thinking of coming, but a little bit scared.

Danielle: 11:13

Yeah. You know, another, like another question that I get, I kind of touched on a little bit earlier, but oftentimes people are like, Oh, that fire cut being like, you, you light a fire on the body and then put the cup over it. Right. And I'm like, no, they think those. You know, those purple marks are burn marks. I'm like, no, absolutely not. We're not burning our patients. In fact, I had this teacher in school, who used to, when she was teaching us how to do cupping, she used to go, don't burn the patient, don't burn the patient, don't burn the patient. And it was always so annoying. Cause I was like, obviously we're trying to burn the patient. Now when I'm teaching my staff how to do cupping, I find myself saying that all the time because you, you know, like. Yeah. That's like the last thing you want to happen is for somebody to be accidentally burned because you got the flame too close to their body or something like that. So,

Vanessa: 12:03

Cause I imagine you have to move pretty quickly, right?

Danielle: 12:06

yeah. Yeah, definitely. I mean, fire cupping, the Chinese, the ancient, you know, the Chinese, the more traditional style of cupping is definitely technique based. So you have to have someone who really understands the technique. To be able to do it appropriately. and acupuncture school is like four years long. So I did it for, you know, I practiced from people for four years while I was learning it basically. but yeah, you definitely, it's definitely technique based and you definitely want somebody who really understands the technique, uh, to be working on you. It's a, it's a lot more technique based than such and copying. Like oftentimes people will say, well, can't I just buy a set of cuffs and do it at home. And I'm like, Well, I would never recommend, like, if that's what you're going to do, I would recommend getting Korean suction cups. I would never, ever recommend people trying to do fire cupping at home because it's just, it's just too easy to hurt yourself, you know?

Vanessa: 12:59

Yeah. I mean, I don't even know how you would do that on yourself. People maybe need to choose little more wisely about where they want to. Um, I guess if they're trying to save costs, like do here, manicure and pedicure at home and get your cupping done by a professional.

Danielle: 13:16

technically anybody who does copying, um, is supposed to have some sort of license, meaning they're a licensed massage therapist, a licensed acupuncturist, or a licensed chiropractor chiropractors can do it. Although what's really interesting is in the scope of practice, from what I understand, chiropractors can't do the fire cupping. They can only do the suction cup thing, which I always thought was really interesting because they're doctors and they went to school for longer than a massage therapist, but massage therapists can do fire cupping. So I mean, I could be wrong, but that's just, maybe it's just an Oregon thing, but that's what I understand. So technically I don't recommend anybody do cupping at home. I recommend they go see a professional, but.

Emily: 14:00

I had actually, uh, yoga student one time who was telling me that they got like the little like colored, like silicone cups to do home. Is that the Korean ones? Are you talking about?

Danielle: 14:12

No, those are totally different. And those are a lot lighter. Um, those are yet another form of Pepe and they're kind of, uh, they're a form of section that being they're super light, though. It's really hard to get like a, like, Like definitely not the type of section or the type of cupping I do on you, Emily, you would never feel that that intensely they're very, very light. It's really just promoting lymphatic drainage. Those are just very light promoting lymphatic drainage. Oftentimes massage therapists will use them. So people will be like, Oh yeah, I've had counseling before. I didn't really feel it didn't really do anything. Didn't leave any marks. And I'm like, well, did it look like this? And they're like, no, kind of different. And I'm like, okay, well that was, you know, these like, Little suction cups that are, are very, very light. They're supposed to be light. I think that those do have a time and a place though. I use those a lot on people's it bands because your, it bands can get so stuck and bound up, especially if you are an active person and if you have it band syndrome, it can really, really hurt. You can hurt your knee, can pull your patella out of place. So, um, It's nice to get cupping on the, it events with the it bands, or I don't know if you've ever like rolled your, it bands out or anything, but they're already so sensitive that trying to do really crazy cupping on them is it's like torture to people. So I use those like really light suction cups. And even those people feel them on their it bands, you know, so they definitely have a time and a place. But yeah, they're just another, just another type of cupping.

Emily: 15:43

yeah. Interesting. Is coming for everyone or should certain people avoid it?

Danielle: 15:49

So copying is good for everyone. I would say there are times, you know, when it might not be the best, for example someone with. It depends. So everyone's different. So some people with fibromyalgia absolutely love copying. It's amazing for them, but fibromyalgia is not all the same. Right. So just because you're diagnosed with fibromyalgia, doesn't mean that it's going to feel the same in your body as it does in another person's body. So sometimes yeah. Fibromyalgia kind of feels like a sunburn. And if you lightly just rub your fingers over someone's skin very lightly, it really, really hurts them. And sometimes fibromyalgia is more like a deep, deep muscle aches. So you see, so if you like push. Push in that's when they feel the pain. And so I find that people with fibromyalgia, the type that's like that deep muscle ache, they love cupping. It's really relieving to them. It really helps them feel better. And people who are very sensitive that like almost sunburn kind of feeling type of fibromyalgia, um, cuppings just too much. And it would flare them up. I've also had patients with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which I don't know if you ladies know what that is, but it's a Connective tissue disorder. So people have really elastic skin there. Their joints easily pop out of place, um, and dislocate, and I've treated someone with Ehlers-Danlos who loved camping and it's really relieving for them. And I've treated someone with Ehlers-Danlos that it completely flared them up and it wasn't good for them. So I think it just depends. It depends on, on what you're dealing with and what you're looking for out of copying, but most people who are active. So a lot of times I have super active people, like CrossFitters love copying because it's an easy way for them to kind of like get some, like restore their body a little bit, um, and break up tension. That's held, you know, held in their muscles. And it helps to improve their range of motion and that sort of thing. But. I have, I mean, all kinds of people that get cupping and not, you know, people who are very athletic people who are not athletic at all, people who have fibromyalgia, you know, it just, it kinda just depends on the person. Like everyone's different. Everyone reacts to things differently.

Emily: 18:07

Right. And people might have different reasoning for coming in the first place.

Danielle: 18:11

Yeah, absolutely.

Emily: 18:13

Yeah. It's kind of funny. When I was thinking about this, because. Oftentimes when I have visitors all take them to Danielle to get cuppings happened like three times. And one time my girlfriend, her and her husband came and his back is really hairy. And I was like talking off the fire Cub and I'm like, yeah, like she moves them around a bunch and you know, it's great and whatever. And the two of us go and then he goes to the last he's like, yeah, my back was to Harry. It would like catch with the cups. So I had to do the suction company.

Danielle: 18:43

Yeah. Yeah. That, so cupping is generally best on big muscle groups. So sometimes people will come in and be like, can you cut my. Calf. And I'm like, yeah, it's not going to be like, yeah, sure. Of course I can, but it's not going to be like the same as cupping someone's back or something like that. So cupping good on like bigger muscle areas. Of course there are cups that are smaller sizes and we can fit them into smaller areas as well. But then of course, as the other thing is the hair. So like really hairy legs or something, it's just because. What the hair does is for one, it pulls the hair. It doesn't feel great if you're moving it around. And then, also. The hair it's not just under the cup. Right? It creates just little holes basically in the, uh, the section. So they kind of just pop right off. So if somebody comes in and they really want happy being, I never turned people away. I just always try to work with what they've got going on. So sometimes if there's too much hair, then I'll just put suction cups on and put them in places where I know they'll stay and then I can do some like massage and stuff as well. Sometimes people, you know, with like cystic acne or something on their back, it, depending on what it's like it might be a little too painful for them, or Has a lot of bleeding or something like that. Of course we always try, but we just see, you know, we try to work with what people are working on with an, if somebody has, technically, you're not supposed to do cupping over open sores for obvious reasons so I just try to work around with whatever's going on with the person.

Vanessa: 20:21

Like moles and things like that. Like if someone has a lot of moles on their back,

Danielle: 20:26

you wouldn't, it depends on the mole. I think like some people have really big moles that, you know, aren't really well attached and so they can bleed and it wouldn't feel good to like slide over them. So I definitely try to avoid that and just do cupping around the mall. Or not slide over it, but I've definitely cupped over a mole before just with the suction cups and left it in one place. It just like makes the skin tag a little like inflamed, but it's not going to hurt it. But you know, some moles, if, if you slid over it wouldn't feel great. So I just, I avoid doing that as well.

Emily: 21:02

What should people be wary of as they choose their copping provider? So any kind of specific credential they should look for?

Danielle: 21:10

Yeah. So I think an acupuncturist is the best person to go to for cupping because it's inner scope of practice. It's literally. A piece of our medicine and we learn it in school and we learn it really well. We have a lot of training on it. So I always think that an acupuncturist is the best one to go to because you know, some other providers, they only had like a class that was like a couple hours long or something like that. however, it is very common these days for physical therapists, chiropractors, and massage therapists to do it. And as long as they've been doing it for a while and. They took the course and they got trained on it. Well you know, it's pretty hard to hurt somebody with cupping. You'd have to try pretty hard to hurt them. So yeah, I usually tell people acupuncture's is going to be your best bet because it's part of our schooling. But it depends on what they're trying to do. And if you feel, you know, it's like any provider. they're not all going to resonate with you. So you just have to find somebody that you resonate with and then just ask them questions. Like how long have you been doing this? Where did you learn it? You know, that sort of thing.

Emily: 22:20

Okay, so let's get into some common misconceptions or myths about cupping. So what are the ones that you hear the most?

Danielle: 22:29

So right now there's a lot of marketing around cupping for weight loss. And it's kind of the same with acupuncture so people will come to me and be like, Oh yeah, I heard that, you know, like I can get cuts or I can get acupuncture and it will like make me lose weight. And I'm what I tell people is, you know, nothing's going to make you lose weight. Like there really was no quick fix for weight loss. So like, yeah, these are the things that can help you with cupping and weight loss. You know? So if you are actively trying, you know, if you are actively losing weight, you know, the detoxing kind of effect of cupping can definitely be beneficial for you, but cupping is not gonna, you know, you're not going to cup your. But, and then your butt is just going to be smaller. It just doesn't work. Yeah. Um, and then a lot of people, somebody marketed cupping for cellulite reduction.

Emily: 23:31

Yeah, I'm so curious about this, because I've seen that on website, like they sell little cups for you to like cup cellulite.

Danielle: 23:43

Yeah. So the idea behind that is actually kind of sound in the sense that, you know, they think that there's this idea that cellulite is caused because the fascial layer of our body, which we're starting to do more and more research around fascia and understand fascia a little bit better, um, these days. And so there's this idea that the fascia gets really bound up. Stuck together. And it creates like these areas of tension in between your muscle and your skin, that you're fat kind of like your fat cells kind of go in and they fill in areas. Right. So if fascia is bound up and stuck, it's going to create like these divots or these holds. And so if you break up that tension, it should reduce the cellulite. I mean, there are some people who swear by cellular, you know, by cupping to reduce cellulite. And I personally don't market it like that because I don't really believe in it. I don't think, you know, I don't think that somebody is going to come in with a ton of cellulite, get cupped, and then all their cellulite is going to be gone. Like, okay, maybe it will re release some tension. Maybe you'll have a few less dimples or whatever, but honestly, cellulite. Is genetic, right? Like

Emily: 24:57

right.

Danielle: 24:58

are people who are very thin with almost no fat on their body and they have cellulite. And there are people who are very large who have no cellulite, you know? So cellulite's just something that we have. And I just feel like if we, the sooner that we just embrace it, the better off we'll be mental health wise. So if somebody comes to me and they say, I want to get hopping on my legs for cellulite. I'm not going to be like no way. But I also have never seen it. I've never seen it make a drastic reduction . And there's also this other crazy thing that I was, my aunt sent me recently that like, they make it these giant cups to put on your butt cheeks and it's supposed to plump your butt up. Right.

Vanessa: 25:43

my gosh.

Emily: 25:44

I think I saw that like on literally on Instagram.

Danielle: 25:48

Yeah, and I like looked into it. And, um, I guess the idea is that it reduces cellulite by, you know, reducing tension and then in, um, boost collagen production. So your skin will get more taught. So you'll have this like nice plump booty, I guess. I don't know. true.

Vanessa: 26:09

Oh, my gosh, is this something that's like marketed by the Kardashians?

Danielle: 26:16

Probably waist trainers and they're like, but

Vanessa: 26:21

It feels like something that they would promote.

Danielle: 26:25

yeah, I mean the only way to get, you know, to build a booty, if you don't have one is to do squats. So I hate to break it to you.

Emily: 26:33

Oh God. Well, thank you so much for sharing all of that awesome information with us today.

Vanessa: 26:38

Yeah. And I didn't know that Emily was taking her guests to see Danielle. So I need to visit Portland as soon as COVID is over.

Danielle: 26:48

Oh, my gosh, please do. Yeah, I'd love to have you in absolutely.

Emily: 26:52

for those of our listeners who are local to Portland, and if they're interested in getting cupping, where can they find you?

Danielle: 26:59

So I work out of the cupping studio, which is really easy to find where at cupping studio on Instagram and then the link in our bio has basically every way to reach out to us. cupping studio is found within Zen space wellness. So that's on the corner of. Alberta and 30th Avenue. So Northeast Portland, we do have a second clinic that we just opened on Northeast Broadway. So it's actually not that far away from the first clinic. It's called the wellness doctors and I'm there two days a week as well. So come see me

Emily: 27:34

Awesome. We're all going to go get cupping now.

Danielle: 27:37

and Emily, I gotta give you some refer friend cards so you can just pass those out.

Emily: 27:42

absolutely. Awesome. All right. Thank you so much, Danielle. If you're looking for more us, you can find us on Instagram at wellness dot myths and at wellness myths on Twitter and Facebook stay tuned for next week's episode, where like, hear us dig into the research and origin of the celery juice trend. See you next time.