Extreme cupping therapy - GIF

[mr mikey]

LOL

[Frank S]

You can probably dig up a few small cohort studies that demonstrate its efficacy, and a few famous people who swear by it.

There is no known mechanism to support it as a general medical therapy, and good luck trying to separate it from a placebo. You would have to create a viable "fake" cupping method. This is actually what they did with acupuncture studies, using a non-penetrating acupuncture needle so that they could at least single-blind the studies.

Localized stimulation - like how you grab and rub a part of your body immediately after injuring it - has some small positive effect. These pseudomedical treatments combine that, plus difficulty of double blinding, plus placebo effect, and voila: "healing".

the way to make placebos to work, is to be a very good, combined carnival midway barker and a televangelist preacher, think of the traveling snake oil salesmen roaming from town to town in the 1800s. It's much easier in modern day medicine to con people since the news media so called notable pseudo-scientists and almost all politicians will push a theory lockstep with one another in pursuit of the all mighty dollar and their egos.

[imohtep56]

Just put 'em in a vacuum chamber. One and done...

[davesrepair]

My thoughts exactly, Hoosier! Saw quite a few of similar marks in high school 100 years ago, on a smaller scale. ;-)