After having had a cold recently, I went to have a cupping treatment. Cupping is one of the best ways to clear mucus in the upper as well as the middle airways and it’s helpful at the onset, during or after a cold or cough.
Fortunately, my naturopath has a cupping machine called Pneumatron. The Mercedes of cupping machines, so to speak. “Pneumatron” is an excellent name for it, meaning “electronic breath”, pneuma “breath” and the instrumentive suffix –tron “having to do with electrons or subatomic particles”. With the pneumatron, cupping works like breathing, in that the mechanism intermittently creates “a negative pressure through a stretch stimulus which is followed by a relaxation phase with atmospheric pressure.” It thus increases circulation, the movement of all fluids, and supports metabolism.
Whenever I lie on the massage table with Birgit, the naturopath, moving the cups over my chest, as well as enjoying the treatment, I’ve grown very fond of the accompanying sound mix of sucking, smacking, slobbering, and squelching as if the cups were devouring air with gusto. I call them “meine schmatzenden Freunde” (“my smacking friends” – it sounds so much better in German), and have made a recording to share with you:
Here’s also a demonstration from Pneumatron in slow motion: