Hijama (Wet Cupping or Dry Cupping) for Diabetes Treatment

BACKGROUND: Diabetes is known as one of the most common diseases in the world and its treatment is one of the most important healthcare issues. Consequently, different treatment methods of complementary medicine and recent medicine have been used by scientific communities to control and predict the disease. This article considered the effects of dry cupping and wet cupping, based on traditional medicine and recent studies. METHODS: At first, the benefits of dry cupping and wet cupping were taken from some original books of Iranian traditional medicine, such as Canon of Medicine, Kholasat-al-hekma, Tib-e-Akbari and Exir-e-Azam. Then, the information about scientific articles was obtained by studying some of the Iranian traditional medicine journals and searching through PubMed, SID and Google Scholar. RESULTS: In traditional medicine, Hijama is divided into two kinds, namely wet cupping (with sharat, with incision, and blood giving) and dry cupping (without sharat, without incision). Dry cupping causes organ blood absorption, organ warming, and loss of organ humidity. The texts of Iranian traditional medicine refer to the Ziabites disease that its symptoms are like diabetes. This disease is divided into two types including warm and cold ziabetes. The treatments that are recommended for both types are dry cupping for cold ziabetes and wet cupping for warm ziabetes. In addition, according to scientific studies, dry cupping and wet cupping have been recommended for diabetes treatment. CONCLUSION: Dry cupping and wet cupping can be introduced as the complementary treatment methods beside other treatment methods.