Sep. 10--Every day after practice, the Detroit Shock's All-Star shooting guard Deanna (Tweet) Nolan climbs into a blue puffy chair to get her feet wrapped with a funky black tape that is suddenly all the rage.
It's called Kinesio, and physical therapists expect more patients to ask about how they might use it for treatment after the tape became famous during the Summer Olympics on the shoulder of Kerri Walsh, a gold medal-winning beach volleyball player.
Shock head athletic trainer Laura Ramus attended a training course on Kinesio, and she keeps it in her tool kit. She swoops the stuff around Nolan's left ankle, supporting a sprain from a 2007 game in Russia. On the right, the stretchy tape pulls Nolan's big toe straight when it would rather cheat inward from a bunion. The tape doesn't restrict movement; it makes her more stable, Nolan said.
Without the tape, "I feel it all the time," Nolan said of her injuries. "I wouldn't be running up and down the court as much as I do."
Ramus also tapes an upper-foot muscle for Shock guard Elaine Powell to help support the smashed ligaments that hold up her arch.
But Kinesio is not just for athletes, even though most people learned of it from Walsh, who used it to support a weak shoulder. It's elastic and flexible, making it perfect for overuse or repetitive-motion injuries, said Kim Dunleavy, a physical therapy professor at Wayne State University.
Between skin and underlying muscle are fluid and connective tissue. The tape is meshy, with wavy bands of adhesive that are said to tug on the skin, pulling it away from the injured muscle or connective tissue, said Ramus, who also works as a physical therapist for the Detroit Medical Center. The practice opens up the space between the skin and muscle to promote healing and reduce swelling.
Dunleavy uses it for back injuries, to pull tight the muscles that help people sit up straight.
Kinesio is a Japanese product developed by a doctor 25 years ago. It has been in the United States for 10 years. It comes in colors, including pink and light blue, that supposedly promote cooling for swelling injuries and heat for soreness and cramping. It's available on the Internet for $10 to $12 per roll, and people can use it themselves. But Dunleavy said, at first, it's best for patients to work with a physical therapist.
But does Kinesio work?
"It doesn't fix every single problem," Dunleavy said. "It's hard to say if it's the only thing that works because it is part of other treatments."
There are only a few research studies on Kinesio tape available from the National Library of Medicine, none of which confirms its claim of opening the space between skin and muscle. The Army Physical Therapy Service in Ft. Stewart, Ga., said there was immediate pain-free movement in its study of shoulder injuries. The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago suggests the treatment may improve arm and hand function in children with neurological injuries.
Contact MEGHA SATYANARAYANA at megha@freepress.com.
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