I enjoy the NY Times, but give me a break. Take a look at:
"A Quirky Athletic Tape Gets It's Olympic Moment." Tara-Parker Pope quotes the July '08 issue of JOSPT as support for the efficacy of the tape. Here is what the study really says about kinesio taping:
"When applied to a young, active patient population with a clinical diagnosis of rotator cuff tendinitis/impingement, KT may assist clinicians to obtain immediate improvement in pain-free shoulder abduction ROM. However, over time, KT appears to be no more efficacious than sham taping at decreasing shoulder pain intensity or disability."
It also says, "Pain and disability measures, as a result of taping, were not different between groups in our study."
I'm not saying the tape works or it doesn't. But, because of the Olympics, the K-tape website is getting 350,000 hits a day compared with my paltry 80. Everyone is looking for a quick fix for shoulder dysfunction. Didn't Flavor Flav tell us 20 years ago...Don't believe the hype, it's a sequel...BOOOYYYYYEEEE! Some times, you just have to kick it old school.
3 comments:
Doh!
Interesting that they used black tape on the shoulder of v-ball player. Makes it much more noticeable than the beige.
I've got a few boxes of this stuff if anyone wants to buy some from me. It's magic! Just kidding. But I really do have a bunch if anyone wants to try it. Long story on how I got it all.
Thanks for the post, Joe. Didn't realize how hip you were, but then remembered you have to be. You work in a high school.
-TCF
Love the "kickin' it old school" comment.
Just from a psychological perspective sometimes the Kinesio can be useful. I have ayoung man who is almost a year post lumbar spine surgery for spondylolisthesis. Apparently his PT used Kinesio tape as part of their treatment approach. Because I don't have any Kinesio the father went and bought it and applies it to his son everyday before practice. To me it doesn't look like it does anything except adhere to his skin but the young man swears by it.
I believe it can be useful for people that keep forgetting to lift properly and keep hurting their backs when lifting with their backs. Taped in neutral the tug that the tape gives them serves as a reminder until it becomes automatic to lift properly, but as a treatment? I don't find it useful.
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