Your skin has many key functions, including protecting you from invasive or harmful substances, storing food and water, regulating body temperature, and sensing the environment. It responds to both internal and external stimuli, and can tell you about what is going on inside your body and in your environment.

A disease of the skin often indicates a deeper health problem. Pimples, warts, tumors, moles, dryness, excessive wrinkles, or discoloration can all signal problems in your internal organs. The good news is, just as your skin can indicate a deeper illness, it can also help address that illness. But you can’t just give your skin a superficial treatment. In fact, some skincare methods, such as acne medicine, soaps, and cosmetics, can even make your skin worse by leaving residue in the deeper levels of the skin’s multiple layers.

What’s the best way to care for skin? Cupping is an effective, time-tested art that enhances the health and appearance of your skin. It is a purifying process that will leave you rosy and glowing on the outside, and strong and healthy on the inside. Also known as “skin-vacuuming,” cupping works by physically extracting the toxins from your skin. A great additional benefit is that it addresses your body’s other chronic problems.

How does it work? Several glass cups are strategically placed on the patient’s skin to correspond with acupuncture points. A pump pulls the air out of the glass, creating a vacuum. The skin beneath the glass will rise and discharge the poisons, irritants, soap residues, and carcinogens that are lodged within. (Some chronically ill people will experience pain when beginning the cupping treatments, but as they continue and regain their health, the pain greatly diminishes.)

On top of removing toxins from your skin, cupping also helps heal your other illnesses by spurring the production of red blood cells. Red blood cells carry life-giving oxygen to all parts of the body, take away carbon dioxide, and help the immune response. When you increase your supply of healthy red blood cells, your immune system gets stronger and your entire body enjoys a boost in vitality. The cleansed blood rushes to every system of the body, and organs such as the liver, kidney, and brain get refreshed and invigorated. Cupping cleans not just on the surface, but also throughout the entire body system.

People living in urban or industrial areas will especially benefit from this therapy because of the constant pollutants surrounding their skin. 20, 30 or 40 years of build-up can interfere with your skin’s vital functions, and also make you look very sick. Cupping can remove the harmful substances that compromise both the good health and good looks of your skin.

Because of its boon to the immune system, this therapy is excellent for many types of illness. It is commonly used for gastric disorders, headaches, gynecological problems, respiratory illness, skin diseases, and stroke. It also gives you fresher, smoother, younger-looking skin all over.

Healers have used cupping in East Asia since antiquity, and there is evidence of similar techniques used in the English, Indonesian, and Native American cultures. In the past twenty years, as more and more people experience the benefits, it has gained recognition and use throughout the US.