Why Team USA’s use of cupping therapy really sucks

MICHAEL Phelps swears by it. But this doctor says the cause of the red spots on his shoulders is a ridiculous therapy.

USA's Michael Phelps made headlines yesterday when appeared at the pool with circular bruises on his shoulder. Picture: Odd Andersen/AFP

LIKE all Australians I can get a bit carried away while cheering for the green and gold at the Olympics.

But lately it hasn’t been the Aussie team causing me to yell at the TV.

Instead it’s been Team USA’s use of cupping therapy that has me hot under the collar.

Flaunting their “secret weapon” poolside and on the gym mats, they’ve decorated themselves with circular bruises — nothing more than giant hickies.

They look like they’ve lost a fight with a vacuum cleaner.

These mysterious marks are the result of placing hot glass cups on bare skin. The heat creates a vacuum which sucks up the underlying tissue, supposedly mobilising your blood and helping it to pump throughout your body.

Cupping advocates will tell you that the practice draws toxins out of your skin and helps you to heal and relax after exercise.

If you’re really adventurous you can explore “wet” cupping, which involves puncturing your skin before applying the cups, and sucking out your “bad blood”.

This traditional therapy is believed to date back to 3000BC and is used in Islamic and Chinese traditional medicines.

Put simply it is one of the most ridiculous alternative therapies out there.

There is no scientific evidence that cupping works for any of these things. Sucking your skin into a glass cup doesn’t get rid of toxins or help you to heal more quickly. It only sucks the sweat out of the pores in your skin and gives you a nasty round bruise. Same goes for wet cupping, which just causes an impressive looking scar.

Cupping is simply a fashionable pseudoscience and it can be extremely dangerous if it’s not done correctly.

Michael Phelps isn’t the only one from Team USA using cupping therapy. Gymnast Alexander Naddour also has the telltale marks. Picture: Alex Livesey/Getty Images

As a doctor I cringe whenever I see a patient with cupping marks. From a medical perspective I only see unnecessary injuries.

The suction from cupping causes capillaries in your skin to break and bleed. At best, this causes a superficial bruise, but at worst it can cause deep bruises (haematomas), abrasions, skin infections, blisters, and the heat can even cause third degree burns.

Only this year a man in China was left with burnt holes in his back after ongoing treatment.

It won’t improve the healing time for athletes, and cupping actually has the potential of slowing them down from pain or tissue damage.

By showing off their useless bruises with pride, Team USA could be conducting an incredible psychological campaign to intimidate their fellow Olympians, but they appear to be fiercely uneducated about the pseudoscientific nature of this ancient (but useless) traditional therapy.

I only hope that keen fans won’t follow their lead.

Dr Brad McKay is a GP and host of Embarrassing Bodies Down Under. Find him at www.drbradmckay.com.au or follow him on Twitter @drbradmckay

Originally published as Why Team USA’s use of cupping therapy really sucks