Cupping and coining: I did it long before Michael Phelps did in Rio

The Chinese treatment, also known as baguan, utilizes heated glass cups to create a suction on the patient's skin, causing a circular mark that looks like bruising on the skin. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Now when I have a fever, flu, headache or other problems I go to a neighborhood "cupping spa" and get both done. Not that I don't trust medicines. But I also believe in cupping and coining. Got it done just last month for my fever, which wasn't coming down with medicines and injections. One session of cupping and the fever was gone.

The procedure was done in a well-illuminated room with one small bed and a wall fan. I took off my shirt and lay down on my stomach so the practitioner could work on my back, first by rubbing oil and then using the coin. After 15 minutes or so, she told me to turn over and so she could work on my chest. The same procedure was followed with cups as I dozed off.

But there's a rule to coining and cupping - no alcohol or bath for three hours before and five hours after the treatment.

It is popular in the countryside because it is cheap and most Cambodians are poor, and not every village has hospitals or clinics. Ironic, since health spas in the US charge a few hundred dollars for the service. Here we pay the equivalent of $3 for an hourlong session.

Even Prime Minister Hun Sen has touted the benefits of coining and cupping. He has told journalists that his wife Bun Rany does it on him when he is sick.

In ancient times, cupping was used to get rid of blood and pus when treating skin abscess, but it has been expanded to treat tuberculosis and rheumatism. Because cupping was widely used in Chinese folklore culture, the technique was inherited by modern Chinese practitioners. It is established as an official therapeutic practice in hospitals all over China.

The US National Institutes of Health says on its website that cupping "is considered generally safe for healthy people when performed by a trained health professional." While saying the placebo effect may account for some claimed health benefits, it also cites recent research that found it may be an effective short-term treatment for chronic neck and lower-back pain.