Scientific bases of Al-Hijamah or cupping therapy in Unani medicine with modern techniques for the treatment of diseases related to uric acid, creatininie, liver enzymes and lipid profile

The present study, describes the effect of cupping therapy on variations observed and assessed in the biochemical parameters such as total cholesterol, triglycerides [TG], low density lipoprotein [LDL], glutamate pyruvate transaminase [GPT], alkaline phosphatase [ALP], total bilirubin, direct bilirubin, urea, creatinine and uric acid before and after cupping therapy. Wet cupping therapy was undertaken in patients having 4 hrs fasting and after taking consent. The first session of wet cupping therapy was performed on both genders [n=69] aged between 20-65 years for 20-25 minutes on their first visit to the clinic followed by the second session after 1 week and all the biochemical parameters were recorded. Different symptoms were assessed considering biochemical parameters. Results of blood samples before and after 10 days of wet cupping treatment was statistically analyzed by applying paired t-test in this study. The values of serum total cholesterol and triglycerides were significantly lower except that of LDL. Thus, the results indicate that cupping therapy of 2 sessions is effective against high cholesterol and triglycerides levels but not for LDL indicating that probably more sessions are required. Regarding temperament the cupping therapy was most effective in patients having temperament sanguineous harr [hot] and ratb [moist] temperament and phlegmatic temperament i.e. barid [cold] and ratb [moist] whilst moderate improvement in bilious temperament harr [hot] and yabis [dry] and least in melancholic temperament that is barid [cold] and yabis [dry] was evident