Armor For Your Skin
INNOVATION
Nick Martichenko
DC
When COVID-19 hit Europe, I can still remember the sick feeling I got seeing the images of so many medical professionals with battered and bruised faces appearing all over my news feed. The long hours of wearing masks had literally burned the faces of the doctors and nurses responsible for saving lives. Soon after that, kinesiology tape facial applications designed by skiers, snowboarders, and motorcyclists as protection from the natural elements started showing up under the masks of our doctors and nurses. At this point, I started to understand how valuable kinesiology tape as “armor for your skin” can be.
The secret to what makes kinesiology tape the perfect protection for our skin is that the cotton tape and wavepatterned adhesive is engineered to mimic the elasticity and thickness of human skin. In this article, I’m going to touch on different ways that kinesiology tape is currently being used as armor for your skin with the hope of enhancing your creativity when using kinesiology tape in your practice.
1. Promotes Better Self Defence
This is one of my favorite applications of kinesiology tape. When the body is fatigued, injured, or recovering, kinesiology tape can provide an invaluable boost of afferent information to the brain to help normalize the neural function and control. In this situation, the tape acts as a vitamin supplement for your nervous system. T. Thedon et al. concluded, “By adding kinesiology tape on the skin, we found that this cutaneous stimulation had no effect on the postural perfonnance before fatigue, but was significantly efficient for counteracting degraded postural performance when the ankle extensor muscles were fatigued, significantly improving postural performance”1. The study showed that when you’re in a state of homeostasis and the brain receives sufficient proprioceptive information, tape is not needed. However, when a deficit exists, the extra afferent information from the tape has shown to be the boost needed to counteract the effect of exercise-induced fatigue. In a study by Liu et al., kinesiology tape was shown to improve proprioception, balance, and functional performance in subjects post ACL rupture2, and Hosp et al. showed that it helped older men overcome the significant deterioration in dynamic balance and postural stability after exercise-induced fatigue3. This could potentially have a very important positive effect on fall prevention in older adults.
2. Physical Protection from Friction, Pressure, and Natural Elements
The recent boom in kinesiology tape being worn under medical face masks as protection is one of the numerous unique ways tape is being used.
“The face protection mini i-STRIPs have become quite popular,” said Dr. Marc Jeschke, MD, PhD, FACS, FRCSC, a senior scientist based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. “All day long, our teams have had to wear face masks resulting in sores and irritated skin in this sensitive area. The mini strips work so well as a protection layer that our staff can work pain-free again and protect their skin.”
Some of the other unique ways that kinesiology tape is used as armor for your skin include dermatological skin regeneration programs, post-cosmetic surgery to prevent traction and compression damage, reinforcing sutures and scares, and during any sport or activity played in extreme cold, heat, or wind.
3. Protection from Bacteria, Particles and Air Pollution
COVID-19 has created a huge demand for face masks to be worn by the medical community and the general public. It turns out that kinesiology tape can make for a very effective do-it-yourself face mask. Independent lab testing has shown that 4 in. SpiderTech kinesiology tape has a bacterial filtration efficiency of 91%, and when wax paper backing paper is used with the cotton kinesiology tape, the filtration efficiency jumps up to 99%. The unique benefit kinesiology tape offers of molding and moving with the features of someone’s face makes it very comfortable to wear, and it prevents glasses from fogging because of the seal it creates around your nose and cheeks.
References
1. T. Thedon et al. Degraded postural performance after muscle fatigue can be compensated by skin stimulation. Gait & Posture 33 (2011) 686-689
2. Liu K, Oian J, Gao O, Ruan B. Effects of Kinesio taping of the knee on proprioception, balance, and functional performance in patients with anterior cruciate ligament rupture: a retrospective case series. Medicine 2019;98:48(e17956).
3. S. Hosp et al. Does Kinesiology tape counter exerciserelated impairments of balance in T the elderly? Gait & Posture 62 (2018) 167-172
Dr. Nick Martichenko, DC is the Director of Education for SpiderTech kinesiology tape in Toronto, Canada. He is Head of Manual Therapy and Strength & Conditioning for Golf Ontario's Development Programs, a member of Denis Shapovalov's Performance Team and a member of Tennis Canada's Junior Development Program Performance Team. He is a proud alumni of Robert Morris University, Pittsburgh, PA, where he played NCAA Div 1 Golf before attending the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College. Contact Nick at [email protected]
