Cupping therapy is a form of alternative medicine in which a local suction is created on the skin with the application of heated cups. Its practice mainly occurs in Asia but also in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America.

Cupping therapy may help with the following conditions, among others:

• lower back pain
• neck and shoulder pain
• headache and migraine
• knee pain
• facial paralysis
• lumbar disc herniation
• cervical spondylosis
• brachialgia, the pain produced by a trapped nerve in the neck
• carpal tunnel syndrome
• rheumatoid arthritis