10 'Alternative Medicines' That Will Do Some Serious Damage

8. Wet Cupping

You know how we laugh at people from the olden days who thought that bloodletting was a good idea? Well don't feel too smug because it's still a thing.

Practitioners use everything from leeches to straight up opening arteries, and a practice that has been inexplicably popular with the great and good of Hollywood and, more recently, Olympic athletes: Cupping.

Bog standard cupping involves suctioning a cup to the skin and causing a bruise. Not exactly fun, but way less unpleasant that wet cupping. In this procedure, the skin is sliced open and a glass cup is placed over the top of it. The air inside the cup is heated before it applies to create a powerful suction seal. This suction draws "bad blood" from the wound and supposedly balances the humours. At least it would, if there were any such thing as humours. Which there isn't.

Cupping can burst blood vessels and cause minor blood loss, plus any practice that involves breaking the skin opens you up to the dangers of infection. It will also definitely not cure what ails you, unless what ails you is "more money than sense".