When Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps first appeared at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, his entire upper torso was covered in dark red circles the size of oranges. Lots wondered why.
It turns out that Phelps underwent cupping therapy. Emilio Maysonett, certified cupping therapist at Holistic Health Group in Santa Maria, said cupping is a practice that’s common among Olympic athletes, who do it to release tension in their muscles and enhance performance.
But that’s only one part of cupping’s effectiveness, according to Maysonett. The primary function is to decompress an area of the body without using any kind of manipulation, he said.
Cups are placed on the body, and the skin is drawn into the cup with a vacuum. There are several ways to do this, such as using a mechanical device or creating heat using a flame, but Maysonett prefers a device. Using a flame is more tedious, he said.
The cups are left on for several minutes. After they’re pulled off, a dark or light red circle is left. The blood vessels are dilated, which Maysonett said creates better circulation into that area of the body by pulling out the “older” blood, thereby allowing the flow of oxygen and more nutrients, and enabling overall faster healing. The darker the blood, Maysonett said, the older it is.
It’s similar to getting a hickey, Maysonett said, but with health benefits. The procedure is often preceded with a massage.
But unlike massage that compresses the muscle, cupping works in the opposite way—with decompression.
Patients often use cupping as a detoxification method, although it depends on what they are trying to achieve. Maysonett doesn’t suggest using cupping for this unless the patient already has experience with the practice. Many times, he gets patients recovering from traumatic accidents who request the therapy.
“If it’s the first time,” Maysonett said, “it’s going to feel weird.”
The effects are felt as soon as the cups are taken off, but the full experience comes a day or two after the therapy.
“You’ll feel looser in a sense,” Maysonett said. “When the next day comes, you’ll feel the release.”
The effects seem beneficial, but does it work? While not necessarily backed by science, there are opposing thoughts on the practice, and plenty of arguing on the internet about it.
While cupping is considered safe when applied by a trained professional to someone who is already healthy, doing it wrong could result in harm. Fire cupping could result in burns, and other forms can cause bruises.
Maysonett received his certification in 2015 as part of his continuing education on massage therapy. He’s never heard of any mishaps arising from cupping therapy, but said he sees how accidents could happen if done incorrectly.
He doesn’t do cupping on just anyone, and won’t perform cupping on pregnant women after their second trimester or anyone with obvious blisters, skin lesions, hernias, or fractures. Hemophiliacs, he said, need to take extreme caution.
Considered a form of alternative medicine, cupping is a practice that goes back thousands of years. The Ebers Papyrus, a 110-page Egyptian medical document dating back to around 1500 B.C., describes the use of the procedure, as well as making references to cupping’s use in cultures at the time.
Some may deem it a pseudoscience, but chiropractor Jarryl Brachman—owner of Holistic Health Group—believes procedures like cupping offer a valid middle ground to healing before automatically jumping into modern invasive practices, such as surgery.
“If it doesn’t work, then why do people keep doing it?” Brachman said. “Why do all of the Chinese athletes keep doing it?”
Staff Writer David Minsky can be reached at dminsky@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jan 26 – Feb 2, 2017.