Michael Phelps is a walking advertisement for pseudoscience
So the magic potion for this Olympics as everyone knows by now is “cupping.” Steven Novella takes on the challenge.
Four years ago, while watching the 2012 Olympic Games, I noticed a lot of athletes wearing colored strips in various patterns on their body. I discovered that these strips were called kinesiotape, and they were used to enhance performance, reduce injury, and help muscles recover more quickly. I also discovered that these claims for kinesiotape were complete nonsense.
I missed that one. So much bullshit, so little time.
Athletes look for any kind of edge, Novella says, so that makes them suckers for pseudoscience, and useful to people who are selling pseudoscience.
The industry targets professional or elite athletes, and then uses them as an endorsement for their products so that the average weekend athlete will buy their product.
This is what is most troubling about Michael Phelps walking around the Olympic pool with circular bruises all over his back. He is a walking advertisement for pseudoscience.
Phelps relies on cupping, and Phelps wins. You do the math. (Yes but what about all the people who emulate Phelps in cupping but don’t win? Never you mind.)
Like many “ancient” alternative treatments, cupping began its life as a completely superstition-based therapy, part of a pre-scientific culture without the slightest clue about the physiological mechanisms of health and disease.
Cupping is a form of bloodletting. Today this is called “wet cupping” to distinguish it from “dry cupping” which does not cause bleeding. The treatment involves placing a glass cup against the skin and then creating a partial vacuum in the cup in order to suck blood to the skin. Traditionally this was achieved by burning incense on top of the cup to heat the air inside.
In wet cupping the practitioner would then lance the skin and let the blood flow. The purpose of this was to remove “stagnant blood, expel heat, treat high fever, loss of consciousness, convulsion, and pain.” Well, that is what some TCM practitioners say today. Back in the day the purpose was to purge “chi”, a word that means blood, or the energy within blood. Cupping was nothing but Chinese bloodletting.
Bleeding people was a very popular “treatment” until surprisingly recently. Byron died of being repeatedly bled when he was ill with a fever, probably malaria.
Cupping is the same old bullshit it always was, but the “explanations” offered for why it “works” have changed to fit newer quack beliefs.
One manifestation of this is the specific claims for what the treatment treats. The target ailments tend to gravitate toward common subjective symptoms. Low back pain, muscle pain, joint pain, fatigue, and headaches are all common targets. This is a clear sign that the claims made for these treatments are being driven by market forces, not plausibility, evidence, research, or science.
Another manifestation is the alleged mechanisms cited to justify the treatment. These tend to follow the popular narratives of the day, and again are driven by market forces, not science. Centuries ago cupping would release chi. Today it is used to expel unnamed toxins, increase blood flow, or activate the immune system.
It’s detox socks all over again.
There’s no good evidence that cupping works.
Apologists might argue that at least the therapy is benign, but not so fast. There is a tendency to assume that a treatment is benign just because no one has bothered to document potential risks.
For example, there is a case report of cupping clearly causing the spread of psoriasis in one patient – the psoriatic lesions occurred in a strange circular pattern, getting the attention of the dermatologists treating the patient.
More common side effects include bruising, burns, and skin infection.
I don’t consider a bunch of bruises “benign” anyway.
Cupping – certainly pseudo science.
My partner devoted many years to training for triathlons and off-road marathons. This was mostly as a way of controlling chronic pain from the after effects of a bad accident some years before. As a result I’ve been exposed to all sorts of examples of good, not so good and down right terrible sports science (or ‘science’). The ways in which both pro and amateur athletes are separated from their money are legion.
My partner has used, and continues to use, kinesio tape extensively. I’ve even used it a bit myself. Claims about aiding recovery in tired muscles etc are certainly rubbish. However, appropriately applied around joints it does have some subtle benefits. For instance, a sore joint as a result of running or walking can be made to be less sore if the misalignment or poor muscle balance causing the problem is correctly identified and the appropriate support or countering force provided by taping. This doesn’t have to be kinesio tape. The main advantage of kinesio tape is that it is stretchy but has good memory which makes it more comfortable to use.
Similarly with nasal strips. They do nothing for me, but my partner has trouble breathing through her nose at the best of times. During exercise having the nasal passages held slightly more open makes a difference.
The point being that for these effects we can actually point at a specific problem and a specific sensible mechanism by which a product works under certain conditions – as opposed to generic claims which are often dubious at best.
I didn’t realise that cupping was actively dangerous, I’d assumed it was like homeopathy, i.e. dangerous because it was ineffective. Why don’t athletes just pray to the deity of their choice, it would be no more effective, but less detrimental to their physical health.
The fact that cupping is a BDSM technique kinda says something about it’s validity as a “treatment”.
Cupping is a fairly common treatment in Germany. I’ve had it done. (It’s supposed to be kind of like getting a massage.) Done right, it’s a lot like getting a massage, which isn’t too surprising since both of them increase blood flow at the site and loosen connective tissue a bit. If it leaves bruises, it was done by an incompetent. Somebody tell Phelps. Done right, it feels very nice. Like an expert massage.
@ ^
At the risk of articulating the bleeding* obvious, why not eschew cupping in favour of an expert massage?
* no pun intended
Doesn’t this make them basically the same as fabric joint braces, except a bit less effective?
@Holms
>>Doesn’t this make them basically the same as fabric joint braces, except a bit less effective?>>
Yes, and no. Closer comparison would be elastic bandages. I can see why professionals would choose tapes over elastic tapes and braces as they can limit movement. But there aren’t any reason why amateurs would chose tapes over elastic bandages, that gives better support and risk their health as they’ re not competing for 10th of seconds like professionals do.
As for cupping I remember it being used as one of treatments for pneumonia when I was kid, we even had cups at home and I was “treated” myself. It can certainly dangerous be especially if applied to softer tissues, like abdomen as more flesh can be sucked in.
What’s interesting though that wikipedia article on cupping says that method is endorsed by prophet Muhammad.
Yup. But cheaper, more comfortable and more adaptable. Amazing what you can do with a roll of tape.
Silentbob, in my case it’s because I was curious about it. I’ve only ever tried it the one time. Likewise with massage. If I need some of what here in the Beautiful People Land of SoCal is called “self-care,” I’d rather go for a hike.
A difference why you might want cupping over a massage in a given case is that the former pulls on the tissue rather than pushes it. So if the muscles are very tense and feel like knots, it can be less painful as an initial treatment.
If the practitioner is the kind of doofus who thinks you need burns and bruises, then obviously, it’ll be more painful. It’s called “your body is trying to tell you something.” (Yes, I’m rolling my eyes.)
Didn’t Michael Phelps win races before cupping came into vogue?
Anyone remember the scene in Godfather II where the infant Alfredo is cupped?
I don’t think the advocates are claiming this precedent. Odd how the rationale changes without altering the practice. NOW its about ‘connective tissue’ being tugged at rather than compressed, rather than localized bleeding and bruising.
And always, always, the extraction of imaginary ‘toxins.’