SOHMA Integrative Medicine

We offer the best of Eastern & Western medicine without using drugs or surgery

Therapy

How Does Cupping Help with Recovery?

by

Cupping therapy, glass vacuum cup in hand and woman at spa, therapist with deep tissue massage and wellness. Closeup, treatment at luxury resort with cosmetic, body care and health with acupuncture

Cupping, one of the oldest forms of medicine, has been used for thousands of years in many Asian countries. Cupping uses negative pressure to pull the soft tissue like the skin, fascia, and muscle into a cup that has had the air pumped out of it with a pump or heated to create said negative pressure. When the soft tissue is pulled up into the cup, there may be an increase in blood circulation in the area. This can promote healing as fresh oxygenated blood moves to the treated area. In recent years the popularity of Cupping therapy has increased after many athletes and celebrities have been seen with round marks going down their backs. These marks may look like bruises but are more similar to hickies and can inform you about how well you’re progressing in your therapy.

How does cupping work? And why is it used in recovery? Today we’ll go through how Cupping therapy helps with recovery.

Improved Blood Circulation

Many people underestimate the importance of good blood circulation when recovering from injury. Fresh nutrients and oxygen is needed for healing. Therefore, improving your blood circulation may enhance your body’s ability to heal and recover. When the soft tissue gets pulled into the cup, it naturally increases blood circulation to the treated area. The additional blood circulation can help flush stagnated toxins in the blood while providing the area with fresh oxygenated blood. The increased blood flow has the added benefit of reducing the swelling of the muscles, which can help with pain management and increase mobility. This can help bring the right oxygen balance to the body to support recovery and wellness.

Purge Toxins

Naturally, we have a system within our bodies to deal with removing toxins; however, living in modern cities, we can occasionally overwork that system. A poor diet and stress can be a big reason for the buildup of toxins within the body. Living in a large city where we’re constantly being exposed to smoke from vehicles and cigarettes and heavy metals and chemicals can make it difficult for the body to find balance.

Unable to find this balance, you may notice a sluggish lack of energy. This can be what is called oxidative stress. This happens when there is an imbalance between the production of free radicals and antioxidants. It can lead to pain, swelling, and in extreme cases, diabetes or cancer.

Cupping can help eliminate some of the toxins built up by promoting increased blood circulation. This lets healthy, oxygenated blood flush out the stagnant blood in the treated area.

Improved Mental Health

You may wonder how your skin, fascia, and muscle being pulled into a cup can help with your mental health. Cupping therapy helps indirectly by activating your parasympathetic nervous system as the cups glide over your body during a cupping massage. The parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for lowering your heart rate. When the parasympathetic nervous system is activated, it produces a tranquil and soothing feeling in your body and mind—loosening tension in your muscles which may reduce stress and anxiety without needing medication.

Many patients have stated that they have had better sleep quality after cupping therapy. Less tension and toxins in the body can allow longer, more consistent sleep. The correlation between the lack of sleep and people suffering from some mental health disorders such as anxiety has been well documented. It’s not uncommon for people suffering from anxiety to have difficulty going to sleep and staying asleep. Without the healing effects of a good night’s sleep, it’s difficult for some people to improve their mental health.

Take the Next Step In Improving Your Health by Contacting SOHMA Integrative Medicine

Our goal is to help you improve your health. You can reach out to us and ask about the Myers Cocktail, IV Therapy, Chiropractic care, or how our other health service lines can help you with your journey to improved health. 

Located in Long Beach, CA, we help individuals from the surrounding cities.

We look forward to helping you take the next step in your journey to better health.

What Therapies Compliment Cupping?

by

Cupping therapy is one of the oldest forms of medicine, used for thousands of years in Asian countries. More recently, Cupping therapy has grown in popularity after several celebrities and athletes have been spotted with round marks down their backs. Often confused for bruises, these marks are akin to “hickies” and can give insight into how well your treatment is going.

Cupping uses negative pressure inside a cup that is placed upon the skin. The vacuum pulls up the skin along with fascia and muscle tissue. This increases blood flow into the treated area, bringing fresh oxygenated blood into the soft tissue and aiding the healing process. Depending on the color of the mark can signify whether you’re progressing through treatment.

On its own, Cupping therapy can provide significant pain relief and is often enough for most patients. That being said, a few other modalities complement the Cupping treatment—combining them to give even better results than if you were to do one on its own.

Join me today as we explore a few other therapies that complement Cupping. 

Deep Tissue Massage

Massages feel great and are highly therapeutic. They can increase blood circulation in the body and can break down muscle “knots”. Muscle knots are often caused by tense muscle fibers and irritated fascia, causing trigger points. Deep tissue massages can apply pressure onto the trigger point until the fibers relax. This can be a painful experience. In contrast, the trigger point is being massaged but results in overall relief of pain and, in some cases, increased mobility.

Cupping can be used with massage techniques such as trigger point therapy or deep tissue massage to improve the effectiveness of a massage treatment. Alternatively, you can also ask about moving Cupping. This is a deep tissue massage using oils or lotion in the affected area and having the practitioner slide an attached cup into the treated place. This can help break down scar tissue and flush your back or shoulders with healthy oxygenated blood.

Acupuncture

Acupuncture and Cupping are both forms of Traditional Chinese Medicine. For acupuncture, needles are used at specific acupuncture points to help with recovery. Hundreds of these acupuncture points exist throughout your body, each with its name and purpose. Depending on your condition, a different combination of these acupuncture points can be triggered. 

Cupping therapy can be added to acupuncture to help further improve blood circulation in the treated area and alleviate tension. Feel free to ask the helpful SOHMA staff if they recommend acupuncture and Cupping therapy. 

Chiropractic Adjustments

Chiropractic adjustments manipulate and re-align subluxations in the vertebrae. Although chiropractic focuses on the joints and bones while targeting the soft tissue, combining the two may result in faster healing. Cupping can relax the tight muscles surrounding the area where a chiropractor needs to adjust. 

Chiropractors who use Cupping therapy when adjusting and manipulating the spine say it’s a more friendly approach for patients to receive treatment. The cups attach to the skin, creating a vacuum. This then tightens the skin, fascia, and muscles, allowing chiropractors to make adjustments easier. 

Take the Next Step In Improving Your Health by Contacting SOHMA Integrative Medicine

Our goal is to help you improve your health. You can reach out to us and ask about the Myers Cocktail, IV Therapy, Chiropractic care, or how our other health service lines can help you with your journey to improved health. 

Located in Long Beach, CA, we help individuals from the surrounding cities.

We look forward to helping you take the next step in your journey to better health.

What are the Top 5 Side Effects of Myer’s Cocktail?

by

At SOHMA Integrated Medicine of Long Beach, CA, we offer the Myer’s cocktail IV therapy. Myers cocktail IV therapy has been shown to help with a variety of ailments, including:

  • Boosting Immune System
  • Improved Blood Circulation
  • Dehydration
  • Fatigue
  • Hangovers
  • Mental Health

It has also been used to help people suffering from migraines and upper respiratory issues. The perfectly crafted blend of vitamins and minerals in the Myer’s cocktail includes Vitamin C, B complex, Magnesium, and Calcium. 

As we age, our bodies absorb nutrients differently, and a supplementary source of vitamins and minerals may be necessary to keep your body in balance. Myer’s cocktail IV therapy has the benefit of bypassing the digestive system allowing your body to make full use of the nutrients provided by the IV therapy. This gives the body a higher, more concentrated dose, available immediately.

Although IV therapy is generally safe, it’s best to understand any potential risk, regardless of how rare, in order to make the best choice for your health. Today we will go over the top 5 side effects of Myer’s cocktail IV therapy.

Allergic Reaction

With many intravenous practices, there is a risk of potential allergic reactions in some patients. This can be caused by the serum or the instruments used to administer the IV. Usually, this occurs if the patient is unaware of their allergies or fails to disclose them to the staff. This kind of allergic reaction may cause itching, a rash, and, in some cases, swelling and/or blistering on the injection site. Allergic reactions rarely affect the majority of patients. However, if you feel any allergic reaction symptoms, inform the IV professionals to stop and avoid further issues.

Negative Medication Interaction

It’s essential to disclose to the staff at SOHMA if you have been prescribed any medication when asking about the Myer’s cocktail. It is possible that some medicines can have adverse reactions to the blend of vitamins and minerals in the Myer’s cocktail blend. Vitamins are natural and largely safe, as whatever the body doesn’t need eventually excretes on its own. Nevertheless, if you take medication, the vitamins and electrolytes may interact adversely with them, such as medication to stimulate red blood cell production. If you have any doubts about harmful interactions between your medication and the Myer’s cocktail, feel free to ask the staff of SOHMA for any additional information or ask your primary care provider to see if it’s safe.

Visual Injection Point and Soreness

Because of the nature of how IV therapy is administered, there may be a visible mark at the injection point. This can also result in irritation and soreness. There isn’t an issue the majority of times, and it will heal within a couple of days, although in rare cases, it can take the patients a couple of weeks to recover from it. This is typically dependent on the patient’s skin sensitivity.  However, this is typical of most intravenous procedures. Such as when blood is being donated or drawn for laboratory examination.

Prior Conditions

If a patient has prior conditions, it’s important to understand if Myer’s cocktail IV therapy is appropriate for them. Patients who suffer from kidney disease or alcoholism should consult before proceeding as this can cause abnormalities in their blood levels of magnesium or potassium. This imbalance can cause problems such as abnormal heart rhythms and muscle weakness.

Upset Stomach

Because every patient is different, sometimes IV therapy can be administered too quickly for some patients. However, there is essentially no risk of overdosing or being poisoned because of this. Some patients have had rare side effects in which the patient has an upset stomach afterward.

Myer’s Cocktail IV therapy is incredibly safe, and these side effects are extremely rare.

Take the Next Step In Improving Your Health by Contacting SOHMA Integrative Medicine

Our goal is to help you improve your health. You can reach out to us and ask about the Myers Cocktail, IV Therapy, Chiropractic care, or how our other health service lines can help you with your journey to improved health. 

Located in Long Beach, CA, we help individuals from the surrounding cities.

We look forward to helping you take the next step in your journey to better health.

How does Myer’s Cocktails Help Hangovers

by

Myers Cocktail IV Therapy

We’ve all been there, waking up Saturday or Sunday morning with that throbbing headache after a night of celebration. A hangover is generally harmless but can cause nausea, headaches, irritability, and leave your body feeling sluggish. Though everyone has a different reaction to alcohol, hangovers can also vary.

Some say the reason for hangovers is because you borrow happiness from the following day. This doesn’t have to be the case; however, with Myer’s Cocktail IV Therapy you can ease some of the symptoms of a hangover to help you get back to enjoying your life.

Join us as we explore how Myer’s Cocktail IV therapy can help you eliminate those pesky hangovers.

What is a Hangover?

There are a variety of reasons why a hangover occurs. Alcohol has a few effects on the body. It causes increased urination, sleep disruption, gastrointestinal lining irritation, and inflammation. This results in the aforementioned nausea, vomiting, fatigue, and headaches. Because everybody is different, predicting how many drinks would cause a hangover is difficult. However, whenever someone drinks to intoxication, a hangover is likely the following day. Though with Myer’s Cocktail IV therapy, you no longer have to give up an entire day to recover from a hangover.

What’s a Myer’s Cocktail?

Myer’s Cocktail IV therapy is a perfectly crafted blend of Vitamin C, B Complex, Magnesium, and Calcium. Myer’s Cocktail has been shown to have many benefits. The blend in Myer’s Cocktail is designed to help with a variety of ailments, including:

  • Chronic Fatigue Syndrome 
  • Adrenal Fatigue
  • Fibromyalgia
  • Depression
  • Migraines
  • Respiratory Problems
  • Acute/Chronic Infections
  • Detoxification

It’s also used to help boost the immune system and help with rehydration, among other benefits.

How Does Myers Cocktail IV Therapy Help with Hangovers?

 Many cultures have their “hangover cures,” though these rarely work and are often unpleasant concoctions. On the other hand, the Myer’s Cocktail IV therapy blend uses nutrients to help your body regain balance and fight off the symptoms of a hangover. When you drink, you often fail to stay hydrated, not only because it’s easy to forget to drink water throughout the night but because alcohol causes you to use the restroom more often, and you end up losing more fluids than on a typical night. Because the Myer’s Cocktail IV therapy is delivered via IV drip, it provides the body with immediate hydration.

Hydration isn’t the only thing being delivered through the IV drip. The nutrients are also delivered through the IV allowing the body to use them instantly. Typically when you take vitamin or mineral supplements, you take them orally. But the body needs to break down the supplement and absorb the reminder through the digestive system. Myer’s cocktail immediately makes the vitamins and minerals available immediately to the body, bypassing the digestive system. This means you receive fluids and nutrients faster and at higher concentrations, which means you’ll feel the positive effects of the Myer’s Cocktail incredibly fast.

The fluids combined with the nutrients in the Myer’s Cocktail can relieve you from your hangover by rehydrating you, providing antioxidants to reduce swelling and help your body get rid of toxins from drinking. This blend also helps to alleviate fatigue caused by the alcohol and helps boost your energy with Vitamin B complex.

Take the Next Step In Improving Your Health by Contacting SOHMA Integrative Medicine

Our goal is to help you improve your health. You can reach out to us and ask about the Myers Cocktail, IV Therapy, Chiropractic care, or how our other health service lines can help you with your journey to improved health. 

Located in Long Beach, CA, we help individuals from the surrounding cities.

We look forward to helping you take the next step in your journey to better health.

What are the Disadvantages of Cupping?

by

Cupping therapy

Many athletes and celebrities have been seen with round marks down their backs. Cupping is an ancient form of therapy used for thousands of years. 

Benefits from Cupping therapy include pain reduction, reduced inflammation, relaxation, reduced anxiety, and overall well-being. Join me today as we dive into Cupping therapy and what, if any, disadvantages it has.

What is Cupping Therapy

Cupping therapy is a traditional medicine in which a cup is placed on the skin, and the air is pumped out. This will result in the soft tissue getting pulled into the cup, stretching the skin, fascia, and muscle tissues. This can promote blood circulation and aid in recovery. When the soft tissue is pulled and stretched into the cup, the body may respond with increased blood circulation in the treated area. The increase in blood flow may flush out stagnated toxins. This can have the additional benefit of reduced swelling, which can help manage pain and accelerate the body’s ability to recover naturally.

The importance of blood circulation must be recognized when it comes to recovery. Although we have dedicated organs to remove toxins and promote healing, they can sometimes be overwhelmed. Especially when constantly exposed to smoke, chemicals, and other toxins in our daily life.

Disadvantages of Cupping

Some patients find them embarrassing and often confused with bruising. Though they are not bruises as they don’t tend to hurt as bruising does. These round marks can provide insight into how effective the therapy is.

Side effects of Cupping are rare though some patients have reported feeling nausea, sweating, or dizziness. Mild soreness and minimal pain can be felt in the treated area. 

Cupping therapy is generally a safe practice though there are some exceptions. Patients with bleeding conditions such as hemophilia, blood clotting issues, or hemorrhages shouldn’t practice cupping. Patients who recently suffered cardiac arrests within the last 6 months should avoid Cupping therapy. Be sure to inform the helpful staff at SOHMA if you have any skin conditions like eczema or psoriasis, as cupping can aggravate the skin in the treated area. 

What are The Round Marks

The round marks left behind after cupping can signify how well your therapy is going. A pale mark can indicate an imbalance in your circulation or that the area being treated isn’t functioning appropriately. Light red or pink marks typically mean this area has good blood circulation and is nearing the end of the therapy. Red marks often indicate a large accumulation of toxins, and you may be experiencing pain and other symptoms. This usually means treatment has just started. If the mark is dark red or nearly purple, it can signify that this body part needs the most attention.

The discoloration on the surface of your skin is temporary, and the round marks aren’t permanent. However, depending on the colors the cupping therapy produces can greatly change the time required for the marks to fade away. The lightest colors can often fade away after a few hours, while the darker marks may take up to two weeks to completely vanish.

Take the Next Step In Improving Your Health by Contacting SOHMA Integrative Medicine

Our goal is to help you improve your health. You can contact us and ask about the Myers Cocktail, IV Therapy, Chiropractic care, or how our other health service lines can help you with your journey to improved health. 

Located in Long Beach, CA, we help individuals from the surrounding cities.

We look forward to helping you take the next step to better health.