The Effect of Cupping and One Exercise Session on Levels of Creatine Kinase and Lactate Dehydrogenase among the Members of a Handball Team

Physical exercise acts as a mechanical stressor that can provoke biochemical alterations. Accordingly, muscular effort is able to modify blood concentrations in some cellular enzymes. Cupping is one of the traditional methods used to restore and revive the balance of the budy. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of cupping and a practice session on the level of some liver enzymes in men handball team members of Zahedan city, Iran. The participants were all the members of the Zahedan men handball team with the mean age of 23.66 ± 5.86 years, mean height of 177.19 ± 4.58 cm, mean weight of 80.12 ± 12.58 kg and mean body mass index (BMI) of 24.53 ± 3.60 kg/m2. All the team members, as the samples, were chosen via voluntary sampling method on a voluntary basis. They were randomly positioned into two groups of training (n = 12) and cupping (n = 10). Serum concentrations of creatine kinase (CK) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) were measured before and immediately and 24 hours after the training and cupping using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) methods. Data were analyzed using independent-t test and multi variety. There was a significant difference between the average concentration of the enzymes in before, next, and 24 hours after the test. According to the results of this study, the exercise and cupping caused muscle damage and increased the damage markers in blood.