This alternative medicine clinic in Bangkok uses bamboo instead of glass cups to give cupping therapy to clients.

The Neighbourhood Clinic offers the bamboo 'ventosa' treatment believed to treat body pains and help customers relax.

The procedure is done by heating the interior of the bamboo cylinders with fire before placing them onto bare skin. This creates a partial vacuum inside the cups, which pulls skin and blood into the container.

According to Chinese medicine, the heat dispels 'coldness' obstructing the body's energy channels. The blockages are said to cause various diseases.

Cupping therapy is also said to help stimulate blood flow especially around the shoulders, the back and the waist.

The longer the bamboo is kept on the skin, the more intense the therapy becomes. Customers typically leave the clinic with circular red marks on their backs. The marks disappear on their own in about a week.

Many customers claim that using bamboo cups and fire gives a more ‘natural feel' to the treatment compared to using glass cups and artificial suction.

Doctor Taweechai Pattiyapompoon said: ‘Cupping therapy expands the capillaries and helps with the patient's body pain.

There is no big difference between the use of bamboo cups and glasses but with bamboo I can move them around even after putting it on the patient's skin.'