kinesiology

When you have a muscle problem such as tendonitis or overuse, it is likely that the physiotherapist has placed the famous adhesive strips cotton with very bright colors stuck to the skin. This is known as kinesiotaping or neuromuscular taping, and has been sold as an effective pain relief treatment. Although science has been closing the gap on their true usefulness for years, now pointing to them being irrelevant. A massive study. Just like has collected El País, a recent article published in the BMJ magazine has given the necessary numbers to affirm that placing these strips on muscle injuries is not recommended. And it’s not that they looked at a handful of patients, but that they analyzed 128 published systematic reviews, which is equivalent to a whopping 310 randomized clinical trials with a total of 15,812 participants, covering 29 different musculoskeletal disorders. What has been seen? Proponents of this technique often argue that the tape microscopically lifts the skin, improving blood and lymph flow, which instantly relieves pain. The problem is that new evidence suggests that kinesiotaping offers, at best, a one-point reduction in pain on a scale of 1 to 10. This is negligible in the medical field, since it does not make a big change in the patient’s quality of life. But the few benefits observed, which are slight improvements in mobility or reduction in initial pain, are completely temporary. As has become clear in the patients analyzed, these symptoms disappear in a matter of days or a few weeks. But in the long term whether to wear the strip or not doesn’t exactly matter. What was known before. Obviously, if this is something so widespread that we even see it in elite athletes, something had to have been investigated. Here the researchers point out that in the previous literature there are serious inconsistencies in the methodology that open the door to a high risk of bias. In this way, they suggest that much of the initial improvement reported by patients could be explained by the placebo effect. They warned us. Although this macro study is very recent, it is not the first to burst the bubble of the use of these tapes. If we dive through all the available bibliography, we can find an analysis done in 2021 where it was pointed out that, although the reduction in pain was evident, it only served as a temporary “adjunctive supplement”, not as the solution. The verdict. The conclusion of science is clear: colored strips do not have biomechanical superpowers, and their success has been based on a mix of brilliant marketing, mass adoption by famous athletes and the undeniable power of the placebo effect. Although it is true that initially it is likely to reduce pain. Images | Flickr Edward Muntinga In Xataka | Postural tricks and objects to avoid back pain: what is true and what is myth