Kinesiology Tape?

Recently, I was interviewed on a local television show here in Boise called Healthy Idaho.  Though nerve wracking, it was fun to explain the therapeutic process I use with most patients.

To start my 4th month in practice this way was a real treat!  My goal was not to just explain how kinesiology tape works but also to show how I use manual medicine in combination with kinesiology tape.  This all happened in about 4 minutes.

The goal of using kinesiology tape is really icing on the cake with most therapies.  Theoretically, kinesiology tape provides a gentle tug on the skin and lower fascial layers, which allows agitation to occur and mechanical lifting of the superficial tissues.  Hence, greater blood flow to the local area and an increased rate of healing.  An additional theory is that the tape stimulates surface receptors of the peripheral nervous system, providing greater proprioception.   Proprioception is a term used to describe the body's way it monitors and adapts to the physical demands of an ever-changing environment.  For example, if a rock pokes you in the foot or you step onto an uneven surface, you can and do adapt to the situation without even looking at the object by gaining feedback from joint and surface receptors of your peripheral nervous system.

Another quality of kinesiology tape is pain reduction.  Pain and soft touch receptors use different pathways in the spinal cord which transmit their information to the brain.  Applying a gentle tug on the skin with elastic kinesiology tape, tells the brain that there is more than just pain receptors being activated. The brain interprets the information as an either-or situation and with greater soft-touch receptors being activated than pain receptors, pain reduces as a result.

Kinesiology tape is quite versatile.  We can use it to reduce swelling by cutting the tape a certain way.  We can provide stability to an unstable area by stimulating proprioceptors around a joint.  And we can create a fascial pull to the skin by stretching the tape and anchoring it around a painful area.

Is kinesiology tape the only thing that needs to be done to fix musculoskeletal problems?  Absolutely not! I use it as icing on the cake in conjunction to adjusting joints, stretching tight muscles, stimulating tissues to heal with the cold laser and teaching proper firing sequences of muscles (ie., sword/seatbelt patterns, D1-D2 patterns for the lower extremites etc.).

Throwing kinesiology tape on an undiagnosed problem is no different than chucking pain pills at it and hoping it will go away.  Diagnosing a condition is key to using such a therapy because there are many, many reasons for musculoskeletal pain or pain in general.  Sometimes kinesiology tape is contraindicated as a therapy and can make a condition worse due to the lack of appropriate intervention.

Take home message:  Get evaluated before using it.

I hope this information helps folks understand the role of kinesiology tape and the importance of being evaluated by a professional prior to using it.

All for now,

Dr. Spangler
Trailhead Chiropractic