EFFECTIVENESS OF HIJAMA

Cupping is poorly supported by scientific evidence, with a 2014 review of recent evidence finding that

"because of the unreasonable design and poor research quality, the clinical evidence of cupping

therapy is very low."
 A 2011 review found that "the effectiveness of cupping is currently not well-

documented for most conditions", and that systematic reviews showing efficacy for the treatment of

pain "was based mostly on poor quality primary studies."

The American Cancer Society notes that

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• "Available scientific evidence does not support claims that cupping has any health benefits" and also 

that the treatment carries a small risk of burns.

• In their 2008 book Trick or Treatment, Simon Singh and Edzard Ernst write that no evidence exists of any beneficial effects of cupping for any medical condition. Critics of alternative medicine such as 
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• Harriet Hall and Mark Crislip have characterized cupping as "pseudoscience nonsense", "a celebrity 
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• fad", and "gibberish", and observed that there is no evidence that cupping works any better than a 
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• placebo. Pharmacologist David Colquhoun writes that cupping is "laughable... and utterly 
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• implausible." Practicing surgeon David Gorski observes, "...it’s all risk for no benefit. It has no place in 
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• modern medicine, or at least shouldn’t