Nov 2, 2023 01:08 AM
https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/...f-cupping/
INTRO: The world watched in awe as Michael Phelps—the most decorated Olympian in history—added another five gold medals to his record-breaking tally at the Rio Games in 2016. This he did with conspicuous purple bruises across his back and shoulders, caused by cupping therapy.
Today, it’s so common for an elite athlete to fraternize with pseudoscience, it gets lost in the small print of the back page news. But Phelps is no ordinary athlete. He’s won more gold medals than anyone in history. He has over five million followers on social media. His views on training and recovery hold tremendous sway, and his unwitting endorsement of cupping thrust the ancient Chinese therapy into the modern spotlight.
The day after his appearance at The Games, Wikipedia page views of “cupping therapy” reached an all-time high, reflecting enormous public interest in the practice. I tried not to judge Phelps too harshly for his endorsement. True enough, he didn’t consider the downstream effects of his actions—perhaps a by-product of elite athlete egocentrism. Nor did he make extraordinary claims about cupping’s effects or personally profit from sales.
That all changed last month when Phelps launched Flying Fish Cupping: a “revolutionary cupping device” that purportedly improves performance, speeds recovery, tones the skin, and relaxes the muscles. Phelps no longer bears the marks of pseudoscience; he joins a growing list of revered athletes championing its cause.
As far as I can tell, Phelps hasn’t yet fallen prey to cupping’s traditional claims of energy flow and blocked meridians, the same underpinning as pseudosciences such as acupuncture, acupressure, and reiki. If you staunchly believe in such a “universal life force,” even though it’s never been measured, then you not only subscribe to magic as the primary cause of medical ailments but also reject most biological discoveries since the second century BCE.
These time-honored claims for cupping have been discussed ad nauseam, so I won’t repeat them here (if you’re interested, Science-Based Medicine provides an excellent summary). Instead, I’d like to focus on how Phelps and other esteemed sportspeople are lining their pockets while breathing new life into ancient medicines... (MORE - details)
INTRO: The world watched in awe as Michael Phelps—the most decorated Olympian in history—added another five gold medals to his record-breaking tally at the Rio Games in 2016. This he did with conspicuous purple bruises across his back and shoulders, caused by cupping therapy.
Today, it’s so common for an elite athlete to fraternize with pseudoscience, it gets lost in the small print of the back page news. But Phelps is no ordinary athlete. He’s won more gold medals than anyone in history. He has over five million followers on social media. His views on training and recovery hold tremendous sway, and his unwitting endorsement of cupping thrust the ancient Chinese therapy into the modern spotlight.
The day after his appearance at The Games, Wikipedia page views of “cupping therapy” reached an all-time high, reflecting enormous public interest in the practice. I tried not to judge Phelps too harshly for his endorsement. True enough, he didn’t consider the downstream effects of his actions—perhaps a by-product of elite athlete egocentrism. Nor did he make extraordinary claims about cupping’s effects or personally profit from sales.
That all changed last month when Phelps launched Flying Fish Cupping: a “revolutionary cupping device” that purportedly improves performance, speeds recovery, tones the skin, and relaxes the muscles. Phelps no longer bears the marks of pseudoscience; he joins a growing list of revered athletes championing its cause.
As far as I can tell, Phelps hasn’t yet fallen prey to cupping’s traditional claims of energy flow and blocked meridians, the same underpinning as pseudosciences such as acupuncture, acupressure, and reiki. If you staunchly believe in such a “universal life force,” even though it’s never been measured, then you not only subscribe to magic as the primary cause of medical ailments but also reject most biological discoveries since the second century BCE.
These time-honored claims for cupping have been discussed ad nauseam, so I won’t repeat them here (if you’re interested, Science-Based Medicine provides an excellent summary). Instead, I’d like to focus on how Phelps and other esteemed sportspeople are lining their pockets while breathing new life into ancient medicines... (MORE - details)
Placebo effect for athletes? People wonder why I'm a skeptic