I do cupping because I began my medical career in allopathic medicine and realized the significant limitations of treatment. I continued my education by attending Naturopathic medical school where I was introduced to Chinese medicine. From there, I furthered my education by training specifically in Chinese medicine.
What most people fail to realize is that Chinese medicine is a stand alone medicine. It is not relegated to just treating pain as it was originally popularized. I and my colleagues get results on a daily basis, and by in large on a patient backed by patient basis. These results extend far beyond placebo. Western medicine and skeptics only focus on pain management and other symptoms which are much more easily able to be pawned off as "placebo". What they don't mention or test for is changes in quantifiable measurements such as temperature of affected [cold] limbs which become warmer, a complete cessation of fever [which ignorant parents damage their child's immune system by suppressing it with tylenol], having tremors that stop, show paralysis improving, or changes in blood pressure. These changes, and others, are clearly not placebo induced. Not to mention, animals with no knowledge of what's going on improve as well when administered acupuncture. [same for homeopathy]
What I find most interesting is that even if it was a placebo effect, why is modern medicine not getting the same placebo effect when administering their toxic drugs? Why are people not improving when the drugs stop? I see patients who never come back to the clinic after their treatments of acupuncture have finished. I have patients on Biotherapeutic drainage who improve after years of no improvement with pharmaceuticals. Why is that? Why is it that I have a patient who comes in telling me of being raped when young, physically abused later, all kinds of emotional problems which later manifest as fibromyalgia and other illnesses get a 50% reduction in pain after one treatment. She never had acupuncture, had no expectations, and was near tears afterwards because of the improvement? Because it was in "her mind"? That's what the naysayers would claim. What a load of BS that would be to claim.
Some offices charge anywhere from 40-80 dollars for cupping. Why would anyone return and pay that amount (which I think is ludicrous) for cupping when it doesn't work?! Basically, what these naysayers are saying is that all of the people who claim cupping works [including Olympic athletes] are lying and/or don't know their body. Think about that, these people dedicate more of themselves to one thing in a given time than any of us can even comprehend! But yet these people are not in touch with their body when that is essentially what every athlete "feels" on a daily basis as they "push their body."
This whole debate is pure nonsense and driven by money, paid people who "have credentials" to speak to the contrary, and promulgated by the media who do not have our best interest in heart. I am 100% confident that I will outperform the worlds top specialist in any given specialty minus emergency medicine and infectious disease as these are different animals. And the reason is not because I'm great, but it's because of one simple reason: You CANNOT give a pharmaceutical drug and add health to the body, thus restoring health. It is impossible. The thought that for thousands of years we were incompetent, created by whatever force you want to believe in...to only become able to cure ourselves in the 20th century when modern medicine, the for profit industry, came about is so far removed from sanity that it is beyond words. And the word cure is laughable. The cure is "always on the horizon", it's like a mirage. Don't worry folks, it's coming. It's coming the same day pigs fly.
