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A group of physiotherapists in Melbourne have found that strapping the knee can help relieve the pain of osteoarthritis. The fun-run season is beginning. Baby boomers in their thousands will be out pounding the pavement, pathetically pretending they're 20 years younger. As their knees clap out at kilometre 12, they'll discover you can't beat the years indefinitely. But now a group of physiotherapists in Melbourne seem to have a solution that might keep ageing try-hards going a little longer. They've done a three-week trial of continuous knee taping in people with osteoarthritis of the knee. One group got active taping which aimed to make the kneecap move straighter and closer to the midline as well as relieving pressure below the joint. The person ends up with therapeutic strapping above and below the knee cap. A second group got strapping in a similar position without the effect on the knee cap, and a third group got nothing. The active strapping was associated with a significant reduction in pain. That group had seven times the benefit of the controls and about twice the benefit of those who'd had the dummy strapping. The effects seemed to last after the trial although the two taped groups came closer together. It's a relatively cheap treatment which avoids medication side effects – but no-one knows why it works.
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