Don’t use the “therapeutic suction cup” whoever wants. The online media Brut has just paid the price. After trying to inform its listeners about this practice by posting a video on the subject on social networks, the editorial staff took a beating. Around ten specialists were immediately concerned about the words conveyed. Because the media praised without much nuance the merits of this method, which is nevertheless unanimously decried by the medical authorities.
The controversy was even so strong that a few hours after publishing its content, Brut simply deleted it. The media, specializing in information on social networks, admitted “an error”: “This video […] did not provide all the information necessary to understand this practice and its dangers”, we could read, Tuesday June 4, in a press release in the form of mea culpa.
Very popular among athletes, cupping therapy, also called “cupping” or “hijama”, consists of suctioning the skin and holding it like this for long minutes, with or without massage. On social networks, many videos show stars doing the exercise and coming out with red marks on their bodies, the result of the suction effect. While there is obviously no harm in accounting for the popularity of the phenomenon, the editorial staff of Brut forgot to specify that it was… dangerous, and prohibited.
Neither beneficial nor even permitted
In the video, an osteopath interviewed by Brut explained that only “physiotherapists” or a “doctor” can handle suction cups. And that they would show a beneficial effect on recovery or on certain discomforts. However, it is quite the opposite: this method has quite simply been prohibited for physiotherapists since March 18, 2021, following an opinion from the national council of the Order, the internal regulatory body of the profession.
In this document, it is written: “As the practice of cupping is, to date, insufficiently tested and places the patient at an unjustified risk of injury (bleeding, burns, etc.), the physiotherapist cannot offer this process.” A simple Google search, or a call to the secretariat of the Order of Physiotherapists would have made it possible to find out. But at no time was this element recalled in the content.
Same story among doctors. “No scientific recognition, nor recognized training” is associated with cupping, ruled the Order of Physicians, in a report on unconventional practicespublished in 2023. The body recalls: “Doctors owe patients conscientious care based on data acquired from science. They are prohibited from offering insufficiently proven treatments, practicing charlatanism and making patients run an unjustified risk.
Adverse effects and loss of opportunity
If the practice is so reviled by the medical world, it is also because it is often offered instead of real treatments. “The essential risk is to exclude patients with serious pathologies from treatments whose effectiveness has been demonstrated, which can result in a loss of opportunity or a vital risk for these patients,” explains the Order in the same report. .
Therapies around suction cups also present “risks of abuse”, according to the Miviludes, the interministerial mission of vigilance and fight against sectarian abuses. The organization has been constantly warning about this for around ten years, and says it is facing more and more referrals for grip problems and loss of luck linked to suction cups.
Many guru-like pseudo-therapists have made it their favorite “act”. This is particularly the case of prophetic doctors, these false doctors who claim to provide treatment thanks to Islam, one of the religions which honors cupping, called in this case “hijama”. In October 2023, L’Express notably reported several legal operations carried out in Mulhouse to contain the phenomenon.
How could so many alerts, so serious and unequivocal, have been ignored by the media teams? Contacted, Brut did not wish to respond to L’Express. The osteopath interviewed in the video evokes a failed editing, which would have obscured the negative elements. And assures that, contrary to what the video suggests, he is “not the defender of this practice”.