The Science Behind Gua Sha and Its Material

As an ancient healing tool, Gua Sha has been widely used in Far-East Asia since 2,000 years ago. While Bian Stone, as a common material used in Traditional Chinese Medicine pracices, it’s used for heating massage, acupuncture as well as Gua Sha.

What is Gua Sha and how it works

Gua Sha is a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practice that is applied on your skin in the purpose of creating bruises on your body which highlights the word Gua standing for scratching of the skin and Sha refers to the  petechiae and texture appearing after scratching. To feel your best, your qi (pronounced "chi"), or energy, must flow throughout your body, according to TCM principles. Health problems are said to emerge when qi becomes stagnant in certain locations. A practitioner (in many cases, an acupuncturist) would use a smooth-edged tool to gently scrape regions of your body where there is inflammation or sluggish qi to help enhance circulation and promote healing with gua sha.

Gua Sha is defined as repeatedly, one-directionally press-scrape of your skin with lubrication, to be more specific, applied essentials or oils until Sha, a bruise, is observed. 

Gua sha is a relatively common therapy modality that most acupuncturists employ. Its literal translation is 'scraping, rubbing, or pushing.' Gua sha is essentially a tool-assisted sort of massage."

In 2016, the mysterious mask of Gua Sha’s scientific benefits have been revealed by Chen. Chen et al., (2016) found that Gua Sha boosts the immune response of your skin to intradermal vaccination, in English, It can improve the skin's innate and adaptive immunological processes, as well as the response to intradermal antigens. 

The effects of Gua Sha treatment on the immunological aspects of the skin have not been defined to our knowledge. Gua Sha-induced blood extravasation and controlled skin tissue damage, according to the current study, leads to the wound-healing process, which includes an increase in pro-inflammatory cytokines and a decrease in immunosuppressive cytokines. Locally and systemically, this results in hypersensitive innate and adaptive immunity. Our research contributed to the discovery of a link between Gua Sha and skin immunological characteristics. The effect of this treatment on skin tissue surface microcirculation has also been confirmed. The levels of skin cytokines after Gua Sha, as well as antibody titers after vaccination delivery, were measured at the clinic.

Bian Stone, the Alien Black Magic Material

Bian stones are pointed stones that have been utilized in Chinese medicine for centuries, it’s said to be brought on earth by Meteorolite 3,000 years ago, unlike other stones that are used, it is emitted with ultrasonic pulsations, far infrared rays and negatives ions which are good for anti-aging and antioxidant effects. It also contains more than 40 minerals which benefits our health and wellness. 

Bian Stone can be easily heated and charged with moxibustion before acupuncture session.

They are sometimes seen as a forerunner to acupuncture, as they treat back and neck discomfort with hot pointed stones rather than acupuncture needles. The stones are constructed from a range of elements found in Shandong, China's river Si region.

References:

Chen, T., Liu, N., Liu, J., Zhang, X., Huang, Z., Zang, Y., Chen, J., Dong, L., Zhang, J., & Ding, Z. (2016). Gua Sha, a press-stroke treatment of the skin, boosts the immune response to intradermal vaccination. PeerJ, 4, e2451. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2451

Odhav et al. (2013) Odhav A, Patel D, Stanford CW, Hall JC. Report of a case of Gua Sha and an awareness of folk remedies. International Journal of Dermatology. 2013;52:892–893. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-4632.2011.05063.x.

Lo, Vivienne (2002), "Spirit of Stone: Technical Considerations in the Treatment of the Jade Body", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 65 (1): 99–128, doi:10.1017/s0041977x02000058