Acupuncture News
News Archive
7-09-04
GWEN'S RX
By BARBARA HOFFMAN
Those aren't polka dots on Gwyneth Paltrow's back - it's just her cupping running over.
Those hickey-like marks above Gwynnie's black strapless top at the "Anchorman" premiere party Wednesday were caused by cups of hot air, her publicist confirmed yesterday.
While cupping, a treatment related to acupuncture, has been around for 2,500 years - and just about 30 or 35 years in this country - it may be the first time it's been so nakedly exposed.
The treatment involves placing a glass cup containing heated air against the skin, creating a vacuum effect.
The resulting suction causes blood to flow to that area, supposedly easing obstructions that cause pain.
Cupping has been used to relieve everything from back pain and digestion woes to the common cold.
It's not clear what the sultry star was being treated for. Some experts said that given the placement of the marks, it was probably back pain - but they couldn't be sure.
Other celebrities - including Ashley Judd - have reportedly undergone the treatment.
And after its prominent new placement, it just may become the new fashion statement.
That can mean new cachet - not to mention cash - for acupuncturists.
"I think she'd make a good advocate for Chinese medicine," said Michael Gaeta, a licensed acupuncturist and president of the Acupuncture Society of New York.
He said Paltrow is unlike his cupping customers in at least one respect.
"We tend to do cupping less in the summer because people go to the beach and don't want their marks seen," he said.
Westchester acupuncturist Jeanne Ronan mused, "Maybe she wanted to open a forum about alternative medicine."
Several practitioners said that even though the therapy leads to instant relief, the marks can linger as long as a week.
The 31-year-old Oscar-winner is no foreigner to Asian remedies.
In an interview in February's Vanity Fair, she credited an acupuncturist with helping her cope with the death of her father.
She also said - without explaining exactly how - an acupuncture needle pointed her to the man she married: Chris Martin of the rock band Coldplay, the father of her baby girl, Apple.
Cupping goes back 2,500 years.
A form of acupuncture, it is used to relieve everything from the common cold to muscular spasms and menstrual cramps.
In ancient China it was known as the "horn method," because hollowed-out animal horns were used. Later, practitioners used cups of bamboo, ceramic, iron or brass. Today, most of it is done with glass.
Marks tend to fade within a week.
