Believe it or not. By simply putting herbal oil on a patient's skin and scraping it vigorously with a special jade stone, doctor Bai Yulan from China-Japan Friendship Hospital, can cure patients suffering from sunstroke, fever, indigestion, dry cholera and many other diseases where modern medicine often fails.

Bai's method, the guasha treatment, dates back to the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) when a type of plant called a ramie was used to scrape the skin on certain parts of the body to relieve patients of certain diseases. Coins, porcelain spoons and buttons, dipped in vegetable oil or water, were then used to scrape the skin in this treatment. It is still used in traditional Chinese medicine and has found its way into mainstream medicine.

During the treatment, a special oil is put on a particular area of the skin. The therapist starts scraping the area with a scraper, a specially designed jade instrument. Very soon the skin becomes red. Amazingly, on places where disorders are hidden, deep red spots appear in the skin comparable to a tissue hemorrhage, which Chinese consider a harmful stagnation.

"Guasha is an example of the ancient wisdom hidden in the traditional Chinese medicine," said Bai, 58, who has been practicing the guasha treatment for some 30 years. The hospital offers short-term courses on the treatment and many people throughout the country have been taught to apply the treatment. "We even have students coming all the way from Japan, the Korean Peninsula, the United States and Germany."

Because the scraping is done with oil, the patient will hardly feel any pain - neither during nor after the treatment.

The skin is not damaged, and the red spots fully disappear within three to seven days.

Patients usually need one to six treatments, after which 70 to 80 per cent report improved health. Sometimes additional recommendations are given, like dietary supplements or detoxification.

The spectacular results of guasha are achieved because of its simultaneous effects on the skin, the connective tissue, the lymph system, the muscles, the blood vessels, the nerves, the brain and the immune system.

Through the skin, all the various functions, systems and organs of the body can be targeted.

The explanation for its success is its combined effect. As serum and blood cells from the capillaries enter the tissues they initiate an immune response. The detoxification mechanism becomes stimulated, as is the blood circulation together with the "energy flow" of the jingluo (Chinese meridians).

From China Daily