Gua Sha

This is a traditional TCM treatment in which the skin is scraped by a special tool, usually a flat piece of jade or something similar. The scraping technique produces "sha", a distinctive reddening of the skin that may look like bruising. The sha is a release of heat and inflammation, dampness and pain from the deeper levels of the body. The term literally translates "to scrape wind", in the Vietnamese culture "catching a cold".

This technique is widely used over Asia and it is very often used to relieve colds. In my mother's family in Vietnam, they often used a piece of ginger for the scraping.