If you followed the Rio Olympic Games, you may have noticed that several athletes, including US swimmer Michael Phelps, had circular bruises (青肿) on their bodies. These bruises were the result of “cupping (拔火罐) therapy”, a traditional Chinese medicinal practice that has been around for more than 2,000 years.
Many athletes say that they have benefited from the therapy. Phelps used the therapy in the fall of 201 and has used it about twice a week since, reported ABC News. Another US swimmer, Dana Vollmer, also believes that “it really helps with blood flow”.
However, some have said that the supposed health effects result from people’s feeling that the treatment works, rather than any physical effect of the treatment. To figure out cupping therapy has any physical effect, last year researchers from Germany carried out a test in which a false treatment was provided.
In the study, the same type of cups was used in the real treatment and the false treatment. But in the false treatment, the cups had a hole at the top so that they couldn’t create the proper suction (吸力).
The tested patients, who suffered from a disorder that caused a lot of pain, were told that they would receive either a traditional cupping or “soft cupping”. But they were not informed that the so-called “soft cupping” was a false treatment.
It turned out that most patients correctly guessed which kind of cupping they had received. In both groups, patients also experienced about the same reductions in pain. “The results suggest the effects of cupping therapy might come from factors that are not necessarily part of the treatment itself,” the researchers told the Live Science website.
The question of whether cupping therapy works still needs to be answered. “But because the treatment is relatively safe and it could be helpful for some people, the therapy can be used as part of a comprehensive treatment program involving other exercises, nutritional choices and lifestyle changing,” Dr Brent Bauer, director of the US Complementary and Integrative Medicine Program at Mayo Clinic, told Live Science.
【小题1】Why does the author mention Michael Phelps in Paragraph 1?| A．To give athletes a new way to swim faster. |
| B．To provide athletes with a new way of treatment. |
| C．To introduce the topic on cupping therapy. |
| D．To show swimmers suffer from disorders. |
| A．promote the health effects of cupping therapy |
| B．see whether cupping therapy has a physical effect |
| C．compare traditional cupping with the soft cupping |
| D．compare cupping therapy’s effects on different groups of people |
| A．Different people need different types of cupping therapy. |
| B．The real treatment and false treatment almost have the same effects. |
| C．The results show that cupping therapy is surely not part of the treatment. |
| D．Cupping therapy is only effective when used with lifestyle changing. |
| A．is a fast and easy treatment for people to carry out |
| B．is a newly invented way to cure some diseases |
| C．needs a long period of time to take effect |
| D．can be used together with other treatments |
