www.therapyexpo.co.uk
22nd and 23rd November 2017 NEC Birmingham
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BREAKING NEWS: RockTape UK Movement Summit to be held at Therapy Expo 2017! RockTape UK will launch their inaugural UK Movement Summit at Therapy Expo 2017. Taking place at Birmingham’s NEC on 22nd & 23rd November, the RockTape Movement Summit and Therapy Expo are simply unmissable for therapy professionals, with two days of the latest insight, education, demonstrations, networking and training. What’s more, we are pleased to welcome back Therapy Expo 2016 Speakers Paul Coker and Daniel Lawrence, who will be part of the outstanding 2017 speaker line-up at the UK’s first RockTape Movement Summit. Promising to be an event to remember, the RockTape summit programme includes dedicated demonstrations and hands on training in vital clinical skills including; kinesiology taping, IASTM techniques, movement screening, manual therapy and therapeutic movement and exercise prescription. Taking place over two days, and hosted in the Therapy Expo Demo Zone, delegates will be able to drop in and out of sessions to suit their session schedule. Paul Coker, Medical Director, RockTape UK said: “Therapy Expo is an incredible opportunity to showcase our treatment concepts and education to therapy professionals. We share a commitment with Therapy Expo to support therapy professionals in developing their clinical skills and knowledge. Therapy Expo is the perfect fit to showcase and share our continued work, knowledge and insight.” By registering for Therapy Expo 2017 you will gain access to the RockTape Movement Summit and all its content, plus the full Therapy Expo conference programme and exhibition floor.
BENEFIT FROM: • Over 50 hours accredited CPD • A programme of unparalleled cross-specialty training • World-class speakers and experts in their field • Four dedicated education streams covering MSK, Neuro Rehabilitation, Business and Sports & Biomechanics • CPR training which is included in the price of a Therapy Expo ticket
• The opportunity to research and source new products and services from over 130 industry suppliers • Live demonstrations of the latest technologies the industry has to offer • Networking with over 2,600 colleagues and peers For more information visit www.therapyexpo.co.uk/ rock, or call 0207 013 4998. We look forward to seeing you at this year’s RockTape Movement Summit at Therapy Expo.
Kinesiology Tape, Stretch, and Pain By far the most common reason therapists apply kinesiology tape to patients is in an effort to reduce pain. There are lots of opinions out there on how tape should be applied to optimise its pain reducing effects. Whilst there are plenty of RCTs that support the fact that tape can provide clinically meaningful, drug free, pain relief. There is, frustratingly for clinicians, much less evidence to lean on when it comes the nitty gritty of how tape should be applied. This has allowed opinion the run rife in the absence of hard facts. Depending on which taping course you attend, or book you read, you may have been told that intricately cut shapes or directionally specific applications will lead to better outcomes, however these ideas are not borne out in the research. It is also widely taught that by applying kinesiology tape with some added stretch, it causes convolutions to form in the skin and this is vital to tape producing pain relief. Whilst this might be the case in certain clinical conditions a recent paper adds weight to the idea that this is not the case all of the time
usual activities. The tape was then removed and the test repeated.
This Brazilian study from 2015 compared the pain reducing effect of kinesiology tape applied with 25% stretch, with an identical taping applied without any stretch. They recruited 85 healthy, young University students and divided them into 2 groups. One group were to have the stretched tape applied to the back of their non-dominant hand/wrist and the other group were to have the same application without stretch. Firstly, both groups completed a baseline test of pain induction by cold water immersion. Their hands were placed in 0-2°C water and the time taken to report pain was recorded, along with the total time they were able to keep their hand in the water. The subjects also rated their pain on a VAS scale.
So, whilst it appears that kinesiology tape reduced the cold-induced pain, the authors state that the effect would need to be explained by some other mechanism than the convolutions formed by the stretched tape. The exact mechanism by which tape works to reduce pain remains somewhat speculative. It would seem plausible that tape applied to the skin stimulate some mechanoreceptors and free nerve endings regardless of whether or not it has stretch applied, particularly in a very sensitive area such as the hand.
The subjects were then taped according to their group allocation – stretched tape or unstretched tape. They left the tape in situ for 24 hours whilst performing their
Interestingly the time taken for the onset of pain significantly increased for both groups. The total time of immersion also increased for both groups. The reported VAS level of pain was also significantly less for both groups. The study found no differences in the pain relieving properties between the stretched tape group and the unstretched tape group.
Perhaps if the tape had been left in place for the second immersion, there may have been some difference in results? It is also possible that the improvement in pain tolerance was due to the learning effect, as the order of testing was not randomised, adding a control group (no tape) would have improved the robustness of the study. Continued on page 7
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