Athletics

Cupping Just Sucks

milhayser | August 25, 2016

Even as Michael Phelps piled a 23rd gold medal onto his stack, he also drew attention at the Rio Olympics for circular bruises on his shoulder resulting from a pseudoscientific medical treatment called cupping. Several ancient cultures practiced variants of cupping in order to reduce pain or heal injury. On Respectful Insolence, Orac writes "even if it does date back 5,000 years, arguably so does bloodletting." He continues "there is no compelling evidence that cupping is effective for any condition. Certainly, there is no credible evidence that it helps athletic performance." The benefit…