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On social networks or at events, athletes appear with red dots on their bodies. These are marks left by suction cups, supposed to speed up recovery, but their use is prohibited by the National Order of French Physiotherapists.
Small red circles mark the bodies of athletes. It is not a disease, but traces of cupping therapy, an alternative technique practiced by some osteopaths and acupuncturists. On his social networks, footballer Karim Benzema often promotes it, explaining that it helps him recover, like other athletes. “Already, the fact that he put it at the level of the plexus, I feel like a relaxation. When he removes the suction cups, at the level of the aches, I feel them much less”confided in August 2018 the boxer Souleymane Cissokho.
A prohibited practice for French physiotherapists
This form of therapy is an old medical technique practiced especially in China and in some Gulf countries. It was publicized during the 2016 Olympics by swimmer Michael Phelps, whose body appeared scarred. But some massage centers, surfing on the wave, explain that this method would make it possible to fight against infertility or diabetes, without any scientific proof confirming it. The National Order of Physiotherapists has banned this technique to its practitioners.
“There are dangers. Some, in Chinese medicine, make skin incisions, hang the skin to put the suction cup. Some also heat the suction cups so that they stick”, explains Pascale Mathieu, President of the National Council of the National Order of Physiotherapists. At the end of 2021, the Order sanctioned one of its doctors for having used it on a patient. It is a relaxation technique, but not a medical procedure.
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