Kwa Sa - 刮痧 literally means "scraping" of "diseases (waste) through stagnant energy" is an old medical treatment that is still practiced in Traditional Chinese medicine as well as in martial art schools. It is also used by Chinese as a folk therapy, as preventive or curative treatment. This treatment is already more than two thousand years old. In Chinese writings of about 200 years before Christ, there was already a scraping method to scrape complaints and / or diseases from the body:

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• All pain syndromes

• Neck and Shoulder complaints

• Headaches and migraine

• Back problems

• Stress

• Metabolic disorders

• High bloodpressure

• Chronic fatigue

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Does Kwa Sa have side effects?

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As a natural healing remedy, gua sha is safe. It’s not supposed to be painful, but the procedure may change the appearance of your skin. Because it involves rubbing or scraping skin with a massage tool, tiny blood vessels known as capillaries near the surface of your skin can burst. This can result in skin bruising and minor bleeding. Bruising usually disappears within a couple of days. Some also experience temporary indentation of their skin after a Kwa Sa treatment.

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This technique may appear straightforward and simple, but it should only be performed by an experienced master of Chinese medicine and massage. This ensures a safe, proper treatment. People who are taking blood thinners or have clotting disorders should skip this treatment. Kwa sa should never be performed when a person had surgery in the last 8 weeks.

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This age-old treatment is concluded with a cup of herbal tea, so that the detoxification of the body can proceed better.