The good and the bad things about ‘bekam’

The good and the bad things about ‘bekam’

A closer look at the “wet cupping” technique, which lasts for about 20 to 40 minutes and involves pricks to let “bad” blood out. (JP/Vennilla Rajaguru)

Ani feels bekam is the best treatment ever for her gastritis. The 35-year-old mother says she has tried conventional allopathic medicines, but to no effect. After trying bekam, a popular alternative health treatment which uses the “cupping” method, she feels good.

Four months after beginning the therapy, her stomach problems are almost cured.

She neither groaned nor complained of pain during the 40-minute procedure, even though the skin of her upper back was being forced into cups through suction, and blood released via tiny incisions made in the folds of skin.

After the therapy was over, she said she only felt ant-bite-like-sensations but was definitely relieved of her stomach pain as if she had burped out the gas. She also claimed she felt much lighter than before the cupping.

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