When I still worked as a clinician, I have looked after athletes long enough to know that they go for everything that promises to improve their performance. It is thus hardly surprising that Olympians would try all sorts of so-called alternative medicine (SCAM) regardless of whether the therapy is supported by evidence or not. Skeptics are tempted to dismiss all of SCAM for improving fitness. But is that fair? Is it true that no evidence evists for any of them?
The short answer to this question is NO.
Here I have looked at some of the possibilities and show you some of the Medline-listed papers that seem to support SCAM as a means of improving fitness:
Acupuncture
Healthy physically active adults significantly improved their endurance running performance after 4 weeks of AC treatment.
Ashwagandha
The present findings suggest that Ashwagandha root extract can successfully enhance cardiorespiratory endurance and improve the quality of life in healthy athletic adults.
Balneology
The effects of balneological factors on cardiovascular system, external respiration, muscular performance, neuromuscular system and blood biochemistry give grounds to believe that inclusion of these factors in one-year training cycle extends the armery of effective tools recovering and improving muscular performance, preventing diseases and traumas in sportsmen.
Cupping
No explicit recommendation for or against the use of cupping for athletes can be made. More studies are necessary for conclusive judgment on the efficacy and safety of cupping in athletes.
Ginkgo biloba
Our results show that six weeks’ supplementation with Ginkgo biloba extract in physically active young men may provide some marginal improvements in their endurance performance expressed as VO₂max and blood antioxidant capacity, as evidenced by specific biomarkers, and elicit somewhat better neuroprotection through increased exercise-induced production of BDNF.
Ice
From a biochemical point of view, whole-body cryotherapy not always induces appreciable modifications, but the final clinical output (in terms of pain, soreness, stress, and post-exercise recovery) is very often improved compared to either the starting condition or the untreated matched group.
Kinesiology tape
Kinesiology tape does not reduce loading patterns in healthy dancers during a fatigue protocol. However, triaxial accelerometers provide adequate sensitivity when detecting changes in loading, suggesting the LL may be deemed as a more relevant method of monitoring training load in dancers.
Massage guns
Massage guns can help to improve short-term range of motion, flexibility and recovery-related outcomes, but their use in strength, balance, acceleration, agility and explosive activities is not recommended.
Percussion massage
Percussive massage therapy would be an alternative that can be used to increase the performance and balance of individuals before exercise.
Sports massage
The combination of intermittent exercise with sports massages further enhanced the performance of sit-ups and standing long jump, improve blood pressure, BMI, and self-confidence, as well as reducing suicidal tendencies (experimental group > control group). However, intermittent exercise participants still experienced fatigue, headache, emotional loss, and fear of depression, and the addition of sports massage did not significantly improve flexibility and cardiorespiratory endurance (control group > experimental group).
Tai massage
All the physical fitness tests were significantly improved after a single session of Thai massage, whereas only the sit and reach, and the sit-ups tests were improved in the control group.
Vibrational massage
Based on available knowledge about proprioceptive spinal reflexes-that feedback from the primary endings of motor spindles produces a stimulatory effect via increased discharge of a-motoneurons, and activation of Golgi tendon organs (GTO) evokes inhibition of muscle action-a hypothesis has been proposed that VT enhances excitatory inflow from muscle spindles to the motorneuron pools and depresses inhibitory impact of GTO due to the accommodation to vibration stimuli. The intensity and duration of vibration used in VT dramatically exceed the standards for occupational vibration established by the International Organization for Standardization.
Yoga
Thai yoga exercises appeared useful, in particular, on body and right shoulder joint flexibility. Regular stretching exercise of Thai yoga and/or in combination with exercises could promote health-related physical fitness.
Please do not mistake this for anything resembling a systematic review of the evidence; it is merely a list to give you a flavour of what is out there. And please don’t assume that the list is complete; I am sure that there is much more.
Looking at the articles that I found, one could get the impression that there is plenty of good evidence to support SCAM for improving fitness. This, however, would be wrong. The evidence for almost every of the above listed therapies is flimsy to say the least. But – as I stated already at the beginning – in my experience, this will not stop athletes to use them.
There is a paradox here. In the unlikely event of any of these SCAMS worked, then the athlete would be denied a medal for cheating because of a taking performance enhancing drug and disbarred. I pointed this out some years ago when David Beckham was promoting vitamins on his sport shirt.
Only two of the 13 things that Edzard listed could be classified as drugs: Ashwagandha and Ginkgo biloba.
In the first couple of days of the Olympics I noticed one swimmer with what looked like cupping bruises on his body. It was in the heats, but I can’t remember any of the details: event, swimmer, the nation he represented or even if he did well.