RSSKinesiotape in the Wall Street Journal: San Francisco Chiropractor Comments
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Interesting article in the Wall Street Journal today on Kinesiotaping. I use it in the office on a regular basis and patients report benefits. I agree with the article that there isn’t enough research yet, hopefully more will come soon. This brings to light what most people take for granted; that most medical treatments are proven to be effective. But is that really true? And while Kinesiotape might not be an effective healing agent in the long term I guarantee it will not hurt you. Consider the following from the New York Times:
- Recent press reports detailing the dangers of cough syrup for children have noted that cough syrup doesn’t work. True: No cough remedies have ever been proven better than a placebo, either for adults or children. Yet their use is common.
- Patients with ear infections are more likely to be harmed by antibiotics than helped. While the pills may cause a small decrease in symptoms (for which ear drops work better), the infections typically recede within days regardless of treatment. The same is true for bronchitis, sinusitis, and sore throats. Unnecessary antibiotics are still given to more than one in seven Americans each year for these conditions alone, at a cost of more than $2 billion and tens of thousands of serious adverse medication effects requiring treatment.
- Back surgeries to relieve pain are, in the majority of cases, no better than nonsurgical treatment. Yet doctors perform 600,000 of these surgeries each year, at a cost of over $20 billion.
- More than a half million Americans per year undergo arthroscopic surgery to correct osteoarthritis of the knee, at a cost of $3 billion. Despite this, studies show the surgery to be no better than sham knee surgery, in which surgeons “pretend” to do surgery while the patient is under light anesthesia. It is also no better than much cheaper, and much less invasive, physical therapy.
Most of the above treatments can have serious side effects and complications. No doubt the smart thing to do is consider conservative care first. Call your San Francisco Chiropractor first!
