Perhaps less nice to look at than Michael Phelps, but a textbook from 1692 showing cupping.

The world is atwitter with Michael Phelps’ 22-gold medals and the black and blue circles all over his body.  While seeing these spots all over Olympic swimmers makes it seem like a new fad, it’s certainly not new.  Ancient Egyptians appear to have practiced cupping.  It’s been recorded in Chinese practice since around 281 A.D.  In George Orwell’s 1929 essay, How the Poor Die, he described seeing the cupping technique used on a patient, but he thought it was strange, something from old medical textbooks that was only done on horses.  If cupping becomes a standard practice, we can probably thank Michael Phelps’ trainers.  It’s never had so much media attention.So Michael Phelps is cupping, but should you?

There are two types of cupping, dry and wet.  Wet cupping involves mild suction, using heat inside a small jar-like object placed on the skin to draw up the skin followed by small cuts to let blood drain.  I would NEVER do wet cupping.  […]