Cupping therapy Gainesville FL: a $30 add-on to your massage

Book the massage first: 60, 90 or 120 minutes online, or 30, 45 or 75 minutes by phone. Then call (352) 339-6646 or ask at the studio to add cupping. Add-ons are arranged with the studio directly rather than picked in the online calendar, which lists the massages themselves.

Choose the massage for the pressure and pace you want, then ask for cupping on top. The menu lists cupping as a $30 add-on without naming the massages it goes with, so call (352) 339-6646 or ask at the studio to check it suits your booking. Cups are usually placed on the back and shoulders, and the four full-body styles below all spend time there.

If you would also like aromatherapy, Essential Oils is a separate $10 add-on with ginger, rose or lavender oil. A 60 minute massage with both add-ons comes to $120.

Mostly in what it does to the bill. The add-on is a flat $30, so it makes up a third of the total on a 30 minute massage and less than a fifth on a 120 minute one. Sixty minutes is the shortest length you can book online, and it leaves time for the cups and for a full massage around them; the longer sessions suit a visit where you want the back, shoulders and legs all worked as well.

The round marks are usually explained as small bleeds under the skin. The suction is thought to break tiny vessels just below the surface, leaving a flat circle the shape of the cup's rim, red or purple and sometimes darker.

The marks come from suction rather than a blow, and NCCIH's fact sheet says nothing about cupping drawing toxins out of the body.

Where they show is partly up to you. Tell the therapist before the cups go on if you want them kept to the middle of the back, where a shirt covers them, or left off the shoulders and the back of the neck.

They are temporary, though no single number of days fits everyone, and the NCCIH fact sheet on cupping names persistent skin discoloration as a possible side effect. If a beach weekend, a swim meet, a wedding or a photo shoot is coming up, book the cupping for after it.

Yes. NCCIH advises explaining cupping marks to your health care providers so the circles are not mistaken for signs of physical abuse. The same goes for a physical therapist or a dermatologist who sees your back. One sentence at the start of your next appointment covers it.

NCCIH's fact sheet on cupping does not say that it does. It lists no conditions the practice treats and cites no trials showing a benefit, and most of its length goes on how cupping is done and what can go wrong.

Acupuncture, from the same tradition, at least has a testable explanation on record. The NCCIH page on traditional Chinese medicine says studies suggest acupuncture prompts the release of the body's natural painkillers and affects brain areas involved in processing pain. The usual story told about cupping, that drawing blood toward the surface helps the muscle underneath, has no comparable finding on the agency's cupping page.

None of that makes the relief people feel after a session imaginary. Some of it may come from expectation, attention and lying still for an hour while someone works on a tired back, which is a fair reason to add cupping to a massage you were booking anyway. It is a poor reason to use cupping in place of care for an injury or a medical condition.

The fairest test of the $30 is your own. Book the same massage at the same length twice, once with cupping and once without, and decide afterwards whether the add-on made enough of a difference to keep.

No. NCCIH separates dry cupping, where the skin stays intact, from wet cupping, where the skin is pierced and blood flows into the cup. Wet cupping turns the main risk from discoloration into an open wound, so if you are ever offered cupping anywhere, ask which kind it is and what the cups are made of before the first one goes on.

The equipment varies too. NCCIH describes cups of glass, ceramic, bamboo or plastic, and 2 ways of creating the suction: heating the cup with a flame before it is pressed to the skin, or attaching a pump once the cup is in place. Burns are on the agency's side-effect list, so it is worth asking whether a flame is used.

Skip it, or ask your clinician first, if you have eczema or psoriasis, bruise or bleed easily, take a blood thinner, are pregnant, or have broken or irritated skin on your back. NCCIH lists 5 side effects: persistent skin discoloration, scars, burns, infections, and flares of eczema or psoriasis.

The rare serious events in NCCIH's record are bleeding inside the skull after cupping on the scalp and anemia from blood loss after repeated wet cupping. Keep cups off the scalp, wherever you have cupping done.

Cupping here is added by our licensed massage therapists. Florida licenses massage therapists and massage establishments through the Florida Board of Massage Therapy, and the Department of Health runs a public search for checking a license by name.

Cupping therapy Gainesville FL, condition by condition:

At Wellness Massage Spa, 5750 SW 75th Ct Ste 20, Gainesville, FL 32608, off Tower Road (SW 75th St) near SW Archer Road in southwest Gainesville. We are open 9:30 AM to 10 PM every day, and the phone number is (352) 339-6646. The studio sits west of I-75, so drivers from Haile Plantation, Tioga and Jonesville reach it without crossing the interstate.

From the I-75 interchange at Archer Road (Exit 384) and Butler Plaza, the drive is about 3.5 miles west and takes about 8 to 12 minutes. From The Oaks Mall it is about 5 miles by way of W Newberry Road and Tower Road, a drive of about 10 to 12 minutes.

From the University of Florida campus it is about 7 miles, a drive of about 15 to 20 minutes west along Archer Road, and longer at class change or on a game day.

Book the massage without it. You can ask for the add-on on a later visit, once you have checked with your doctor.