Enhancing Vaccine Efficacy through Ancient Healing Practices (Part 1)
In this 3-part series, PART 1 explores Cupping + Covid-19 Vaccine, PART 2 explores Herbal Medicine + Covid-19 Vaccine, and in PART 3, we talk about misguided vaccine hesitancy in the wellness world.
PART 1: Cupping Therapy + COVID Vaccine
Some Red Moon Wellness LMTs are trained and experienced in cupping.
As a massage therapist and herbalist who has practiced cupping therapy for more than a decade, I was fascinated to read about some incredible new research conducted at my alma mater, Rutgers University, around the use of cupping as a novel means of delivering the COVID-19 vaccine. Cupping therapy is an ancient healing technique practiced all over the world for its many health benefits including improving tissue healing, reducing pain, enhancing circulation and, fittingly, improving immunity.
Recently published in Science Advances, a Rutgers University lab study announced that “researchers at Rutgers’ School of Engineering used a technique from an ancient healing practice to deliver a SARS-CoV-2 DNA vaccine, which generated an immune response 100 times stronger than an injected vaccine.”
Researchers compared immune responses to nucleic acid-based vaccines (think mRNA, DNA) delivered via conventional injection to those whose injections were immediately followed by placing a suction cup (similar to traditional cupping therapy) over the injection site to improve the uptake of the vaccine into the skin cells. In a startling outcome, the immune response in the cupping group was over 100 times greater than in the conventionally injected group. Because of the strength of these results, this cupping technique is now being advanced into clinical trials.
Interestingly, the researchers compared the immune response generated in three groups of subjects: 1) injection of two vaccine doses 14 days apart with no suction, 2) injection of one vaccine dose with suction, and 3) injections of two vaccine doses 14 days apart with suction. What they found was that one dose with suction was better than two doses without suction, and just as good as two doses with suction. Both groups who received suction with their doses had 100 times greater response than injection alone.
The possibility of having a more effective vaccine with only one dose would be incredible. But beyond enhanced clinical effectiveness, there are likely many other advantages to administering COVID-19 vaccinations in this way including potential device cost-effectiveness, manufacturing scalability and minimal requirements for user training.
Yet another cool implication here is the possibility that, in the future, mRNA vaccines may be able to be made even more “pure” with use of this technique. You may know that mRNA vaccines contain very few other ingredients outside of the mRNA. In that sense, they are more “pure” than many traditional vaccines.
However, the one additive that mRNA vaccines do need is lipid (fat) nanoparticles encasing the mRNA to keep it protected and help its uptake into cells. Without this little fat-based casing around the mRNA, most of it would not be taken into the cells and would rapidly degrade in the tissue, rendering it ineffective. This new study sampled an injection of pure uncoated DNA and found that, “The suction produced strain and relaxation in the layers of skin, triggering uptake of the DNA molecules by skin cells. The new method is simple, painless and has no known side effects.”
I am also fascinated by what this implies about traditional use of cupping. This research confirms that cupping is not merely a mechanical pull on the muscles and soft tissue, it actually has the potential to have systemic biochemical effects. This fits with what traditional healers across the world have known for millennia about cupping—that beyond just locally stimulating circulation, it can have wide-reaching beneficial effects on the body.
Check out Part 2 of this series where I’ll discuss the evidence on use of medicinal herbs to improve the efficacy of vaccines.
