Koppning i Finland fram till mitten av 1900-talet - Helda

There were two kinds of cupping women. One was a woman who lived in a village and
performed cupping on request. The other was a cupping woman who travelled around
the district offering her services.
The second aim is to investigate all the different diseases or complaints that were
treated. Among the diseases which were cured, headaches and toothaches were the most
common. But aching shoulders and backs as well as aching hands, arms, legs and feet
were also cured. Another question is whether these diseases were really cured and if so,
how is this to be explained.
In conclusion, I have compared the diseases and complaints listed in a medieval
manuscript and in later medical books with the diseases and complaints cured by “our”
cupping women, which leads to the question of where these cupping women acquired
their skills and their knowledge of where to apply the cupping horns to treat different
diseases. Probably the answer is that such instructions and knowledge was handed over
orally from one generation of cupping women to another.
Finally there is a brief examination of modern cupping which was revived in the
1970s and is still used as a form of complementary medicine today in Finland.
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