Kinesiology tape: miracle cure or glorified sticking plaster?

Ellie, 18, is a dedicated disabled swimmer who competes at every opportunity. She suffers from joint hypermobility syndrome, which means that her joints can dislocate easily. After her latest shoulder dislocation, her physiotherapist tried out kinesiology tape on her for the first time. Ellie tells me she thought it was "great", and “really helped to stabilise my shoulder”. But when her consultant saw it, he said: “Ah, so you believe in voodoo, do you?”

Kinesiology is the study of movement and the ‘big idea’ of kinesiology tape is that it is stretchy – which isn’t a bad thing to be, given that it's supposed to stick to the skin of sports people, and their muscles tend to move around a bit. Developed over 30 years ago by Japanese Chiropractor Dr Kenso Kase, the tape is highly elastic: you stretch it over an area of your body, stick it down, and then allow it to 'recoil', exerting a pulling force on your skin.

Take a look at the websites of the main manufacturers and there seems to be little that can go wrong with the sporting body that kinesiology tape cannot fix, from tendonitis and muscle strains to postural correction. And that is before we even start on its use for treating lymphoedema (major swelling in the limbs caused by a damaged lymphatic system).

It's now rare to see sport on TV without spotting these strange strips of tape on parts of players' bodies, a form of 21st century war paint. Gareth Bale and Serena Williams are among the many high profile advocates – but that doesn't necessarily mean the science follows suit. In fact, this sticky-backed panacea is the subject of heated debate and controversy within the medical and sporting worlds.

During his time working as a physiotherapist for Everton Football Club and the Great Britain Cycling Team, Dr. Michael Callaghan has seen plenty of medical fads come and go. Remember the nasal strips that were supposed to help breathing? “It was just a load of rubbish,” he says, dismissively.

As a Research Physiotherapist at the University of Manchester, Callaghan's current area of research is non-operative treatments of patellofemoral pain syndrome, such as taping and bracing of the knee. Few people are better placed to judge the efficacy of kinesiology tape.

I list some of the main claims for kinesiology tape culled from the manufacturers’ websites and ask him for his response. Improves blood flow to the taped region? Check. Helps lymphatic flow? Check. Reduces swelling and bruising? Check. This is looking good, I think to myself. Improves proprioception? Check.

“But so will Sellotape.” says Callaghan. “Or Gaffer tape.”

Oh. Bummer.

It seems that many of the claims that are made for kinesiology tape are true, but they apply to taping in general, not just to kinesiology tape.

“People get mixed up – is taping effective or not? Then: does kinesiology tape do any more than the tape we already have?” says Callaghan. “We know that taping works in certain situations. We know it has effects on a part of the brain, in terms of proprioception. We know it improves joint position sense. We know it reduces the risk of injury – of an ankle sprain by about 51pc, for instance – but the thing is, does kinesiology tape do any more than that? The answer is ‘no’.”

So, why the sudden boom in sport stars using kinesiology tape when the practice of taping has been around for decades? Surely a footballer at the top of his game like Bale knows when a medical intervention helps and when it doesn't?

Roger Kerry, Associate Professor in the Division of Physiotherapy at the University of Nottingham, suggests the explanation might be psychological. He has recently completed a study into best practice for the use of placebos in Randomised Control Trials (RCTs), which is the gold standard test to demonstrate whether something works or not.

Kerry reviewed the RCTs involving kinesiology tape conducted over the last ten years. These are studies where kinesiology tape is tested against a 'normal' tape like the flesh-coloured zinc oxide stuff that bunged up the bath plug hole after footie when you were a kid.

The results don’t look promising for kinesiology tape. Practically all the best quality RCTs Kerry reviewed suggested that there is no real difference between using kinesiology tape and not using kinesiology tape.

“Any trial that has been done like that has so far failed to show that kinesiology tape – based on the theory that it is a little bit special, and a little bit elastic, and it's a bit like skin – has any meaningful difference to outcomes like pain or athletic performance.” says Kerry.

“Lots of things work, to small degrees, and kinesiology tape is just one of them, but it is no better or worse than anything else.”

Kerry uses the effect of kinesiology tape on proprioception as an example: “When you measure proprioception you get a mild effect, a positive effect, but no more than with anything else.” he says. “Even something like three seconds of advice to say: ‘now concentrate a bit more on this task’, has just the same effect as wrapping somebody up in tape.”

Which all makes for disappointing reading for poor Ellie and Gareth, both of whom look like they've been had. But others would say that science is not the whole story. They would claim that the human body is a complicated thing, and the psychological workings of the brain is just as important as the physiological machinations of the body.

Bob Stewart, head of medical services at Gloucester Rugby, uses kinesiology tape on many of his players. Stewart freely admits to having “been around the block a few times”, and notes the trend in physiotherapy towards evidence based practice. “But,” he says, “You can flip that on its head and say that there is practice based evidence.”

There are some players who seem to respond particularly well to kinesiology tape, he tells me, and some who do not. Although the scientific evidence may appear to fall short of conclusive, Stewart is still happy to employ the tape.

Gloucester and England Saxon’s Matt Kvesic is one of Stewart's patients. He has been using kinesiology tape for about four years, and currently has a good chunk of ROCKTAPE (one of the bigger names in the industry) strapped to his toe. Ask Kvesic if the tape makes a difference for him, and he'll point to a catalogue of shoulder and knee injuries before answering, unequivocally: “100%”.

“A lot of boys use it and say they get a lot of joy out of it,” says Kvesic. He has the faith.

"It comes down to individuals,” says Stewart. “If you have good practical reasons to use the tape, and it works, I think you are justified in using it.”

Stewart points to the pressures that exist in top class sport: “If you’ve got a week to turn someone around, you’re going to throw the kitchen sink at it.” he says. And if a bit of psychology creeps into that sink, then so be it.

Importantly, Stewart sees the role of the physiotherapist as being similar whether they are working in the premiership or the NHS – the aim is to make people feel better.

“You are trying to restore whatever functional level they require,” he says. “Whether that is so they can do their job, or to play a recreational sport, or play elite sport, the principles are the same: you are trying to make people feel better.”

Perhaps therein lies the nub of the matter. The scientific evidence may be hazy, but the brightly coloured, waterproof stretchy stuff does seem to make a lot of people feel better.

So if the kinesiology tape marketers were ever to blow away the dubious scientific puff and employ the Ronseal school of marketing, they could always go for: ‘It stretches a lot and it stays on in the bath’ – two qualities which are not in themselves to be sneezed at, particularly in sporting applications.

Besides, come on, whoever looked cool in zinc?