Debate over “Cupping’s” Efficacy Continues as Popularity Grows Among Athletes
Many athletes in the Hudson Valley have been turning to alternative physical therapies to treat and prevent injuries. Ancient remedies like cupping have become more popular among local athletes, but haven’t been accepted by many medical professionals.
Cupping involves placing small glass bowls on a patient’s affected area and suctioning the air out of the bowl to lift the skin off of the muscle. The space that this creates allows blood to flow into the area, bringing oxygen and nutrients which can speed up the healing process of the muscles.
Jennifer Mohr, founder of Westchester Precious Health Acupuncture, performs cupping therapy daily. She says, “it feels like muscle pain and fatigue is literally getting pulled out of you.”
First used by the ancient Chinese 3,000 years ago, cupping was initially a treatment for illnesses like the common cold. It were popularized in modern times by famous athletes like Michael Phelps who showed off his cupping bruises at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Mohr says she has seen a boom in demand for cupping from athletes in recent years, likely due to the high publicity of Phelps’ Olympic regimen and word of mouth. “I’ll get a lot of football players and rowers who come in, and they tell their friends about it, and they tell their friends. I had to double the number of cupping kits I have.”
This alternative treatment remains controversial, however. Many athletic trainers in the Hudson Valley feel that there isn’t enough research behind cupping’s effectiveness. “Anything that I am going to do to help an athlete I want to be able to justify, and if I don’t feel that I have a good handle on the mechanisms behind a treatment or its intended effects, I probably won’t use it,” says Arlington High School Athletic Trainer Guy Biren.
Vassar College’s Director of Sports Medicine Suzi Higgins echoes Biren’s comments. “I’m not going to recommend a treatment that I just don’t see the research behind,” she says.
Both Biren and Higgins say that their staff prefer to use traditional treatments to treat and prevent injuries. Electric stimulation, hot packs, muscle sonograms, and tissue massages are often their preferred method of physical therapy.
“I can understand the skepticism, but cupping’s one of the oldest medicines around,” says Mohr. “These types of alternative therapies are just a different way of looking at treatment. It helps with a lot of pain where medicine and modern treatments just aren’t working.”
While many athletic trainers are hesitant to stand behind cupping’s physical benefits, some are hopeful that the alternative remedy may still be effective, if only as a placebo. Biren says, “for many athletes, whatever gets them back on the field, even if it’s just in their heads, is worth it.”
