Gua Sha - A Traditional Chinese Medicine Tool

Gua sha is one of many types of manual therapies in Traditional Chinese Medicine that involves scrapping the skin to elicit a cellular response to combat pain, illness, or infection.

A small handheld tool with a rounded edge is scrapped quickly and gently on the surface of the skin to promote circulation. It may produce red petechiae or small spots on the surface of the skin, which stimulates an immune response and metabolic processes for tissue recovery. The petechiae may last a few days following treatment.

The petechiae signifies the immune system to send white blood cells to that area to clean up any dead, stagnant, pathologic cells to help clean up the area and bring fresh blood flow in to nourish the healing tissue to recover.

Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37253670/