Five things you should know about cupping, Chinese medicine therapy on view in Rio
American swimmer Michael Phelps and gymnast Alexander Naddour have been spotted with the tell-tale red marks at the Olympics – but what is cupping? Is it safe? Does it work?
Interest in cupping therapy may have spiked after American swimming star Michael Phelps bared his purple-blotched shoulders en route to winning the first of his latest batch of Olympic gold medals in Rio. But in Hong Kong, this traditional Chinese medicine treatment, with its 2,000-year history, has always been in vogue.
“Cupping therapy has always been very popular in Hong Kong,” says associate professor Dr Lin Zhi-xiu, a registered Chinese medicine practitioner and acting director of the School of Chinese Medicine at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK).
“Most acupuncturists who practise Chinese medicine in the territory will use cupping therapy every day in their practice, with or without the combination of acupuncture, to treat various medical conditions. Cupping therapy is said to have the therapeutic effects of warming the meridians and invigorating the small vessels, enhancing qi movement and removing blood stasis, dissolving swell and stopping pain, expelling wind and cold pathogens.”
Was Michael Phelps’ latest gold medal a victory for Traditional Chinese Medicine?
The earliest recorded use of cupping is from the famous Taoist alchemist and herbalist Ge Hong (283–343 AD). The method was described in his book A Handbook of Prescriptions for Emergencies, in which the cups were actually animal horns, used for draining pustules.