Abstract
Cupping is an ancient practice used for healing as well as health maintenance. It can be simply explained by the act of suction and removal of blood after some superficial incisions were made on the skin at various specific points on the body. Though cupping therapy has been used in the Malay community as well as throughout the world till today, there have been only few researches attempted at uncovering its secret. This study is aimed to evaluate haematological changes of the blood drawn intravenously from respondents at pre- and post-cupping session. Ten healthy male and female individuals between the age of 26–46 years old were randomly selected for this pilot study. Five millilitres (5 ml) blood samples (1 h interval before for pre-cupping and 1 h interval after for post-cupping of each session) were collected from the median cubital vein of each individual for the analysis of some haematological parameters. Fifteen (15) haematological parameters were examined. There were some changes in almost all parameters tested. Nevertheless, the changes were found to be not statistically significant. In conclusion, small number of samples may have contributed to the parameter changes being negative. Another reason is possibly due to the fact that healthy individuals were selected; hence their body’s ability to maintain internal haematological stability is optimised.
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Acknowledgements
This study was supported by grants from Research Acculturation Grant Scheme (600-RMI/RAGS 5/3 (96/2012)) and UiTM (Pulau Pinang) Excellence Fund.
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Abdullah, S.A., Mohd Najib, M.N., Dali, A.F., Sulaiman, S. (2016). Malay Cupping Therapy: A Haematological Analysis Pilot Study. In: Yacob, N., Mohamed, M., Megat Hanafiah, M. (eds) Regional Conference on Science, Technology and Social Sciences (RCSTSS 2014). Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0534-3_52
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0534-3_52
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