Gua sha

*Gua sha*
Gua sha
Chinese name
Chinese	刮痧
Literal meaning	"scraping sha-bruises"
Hanyu Pinyin
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	guā shā
IPA	[kwá.ʂá]
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization	gwaat-sāa
Jyutping	gwaat3-saa1
IPA	[kʷaːt̚˧.saː˥]
Southern Min
Hokkien POJ	掠痧lia̍h-soa / 剾痧khau-soa
Tâi-lô	掠痧lia̍h-sua / 剾痧khau-sua
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese alphabet	cạo gió
Chữ Nôm	𠜯䬔
Literal meaning	to scrape wind

Gua sha, or kerokan (in Indonesia), is a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practice in which a tool is used to scrape people's skin in order to produce light petechiae. Practitioners believe that gua sha releases unhealthy bodily matter from blood stasis within sore, tired, stiff, or injured muscle areas to stimulate new oxygenated blood flow to the areas, thus promoting metabolic cell repair, regeneration, healing, and recovery.

Gua sha is sometimes referred to as "scraping", "spooning" or "coining" by English speakers. The treatment has also been known by the French name, tribo-effleurage.^[1] Gua sha has no known health benefits and can have adverse effects, some of them potentially serious.^[2]

^ Huard & Wong (1977), p.126. Also cited is a French romanization for the same set of two Chinese characters: koua sha.
^ Cite error: The named reference ee150 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[1] Huard & Wong (1977), p.126. Also cited is a French romanization for the same set of two Chinese characters: koua sha.

[ee150-2] Cite error: The named reference ee150 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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