Kinesio Taping At Raffles Institution

A few weeks ago I received a call from the Physical Education Head at Raffles Junior College (or known as Raffles Institution now) to teach their PE teachers Kinesio Taping. They had seen an increase of self taping by their students in school especially during PE classes and/ or training sessions. They needed to know if the students were doing it correctly as most were just following instructions looking at youtube.

Just so you know, participants who have attended the Kinesio Level 1-2 courses must sign a disclaimer that they cannot post any videos of what they've learnt online. Hence, whatever videos you can find online are not the real Kinesio Taping techniques but are from other copycat or imitation tapes.

So there I was showing the PE teachers there from year 1 to 6 some pointers on how to tape. The emphasis was on understanding concepts rather then simply giving them "recipes" on how to tape.

We've had lots of people asking when Sports Solutions will be hosting the next Level 1-2 Kinesio Taping course where they even learn about what the homunculus has to do with Kinesio Taping.

Well, I was informed by Kinesio Taping International that they were tweaking the Level 1-2 course from June 2017 onward. They were making some changes to the course world wide. As of now, the Kinesio Taping Instructors recertification courses are slated to take place between October 2017 to January 2018 in USA, South America, Europe and Asia.

I need to clarify some of the content changes at the next Kinesio Taping Instructor Recertification course that I will only attend in early January 2018. I want to ensure that I'm not shortchanging the future participants that I teach. Hence, I've decided I'll only teach the next Level 1-2 course after I've attended the next Instructors Re-certification early next year.

Yes, Kinesio Taping Instructors have to re-certify themselves every three years to be able to keep teaching.

We will definitely inform those who keen to attend the next Kinesio Level 1-2 taping course on our website and Facebook page when dates are finalized.

Can Sports Injuries Lead to Osteoarthritis In Your Joints?

Picture by Liji Jinaraj from Flickr

The first question I get always get asked when an injured athlete sees me in our clinic is "How quickly can I get back to training?"

Actually it's not just the athletes, every single weekend warrior or physically active patient that I see will ask when they can get back to their usual activity or exercise.

I'm guilty of doing the same. That's exactly what I asked my doctor after my bicycle accident.

There is now evidence to show that if you rush to get back to playing, whether as part of a team or elite sport or simply just your usual weekly recreational tennis game or jogging you may not allow the injured joint to heal fully.

Adequate recovery includes strengthening the structures the support the injured joint. This will allow joint stability to reduce risk of re-injury and stave off irreparable joint damage. If you're not careful, irreparable joint damage can eventually lead to post traumatic osteoarthritis (OA).

OA is a degenerative joint disease. It happens when the protective articular cartilage lining the surfaces of bones wear out. This causes pain, stiffness, swelling and often disability that diminishes one's quality of life.

Post traumatic OA don't just happen to older patients. It can affect adolescents or young adults too.

Researchers suggest that acute joint damage can lead to a deterioration of the surface of the bone itself and structures that cushion and stabilize bones of a joint like the knee (Anderson et al, 2012).

That same study found that OA can develop in more than 40 percent of people who seriously injure their ligaments, the meniscus in the knee or articular surface of a joint.

They also found that people with a history of knee trauma are three to six times more likely to develop knee OA.

In order to better manage post traumatic OA, a group of Athletic Trainers (ATC) has suggested a more aggressive approach to both preventing and managing post traumatic OA. Especially in younger patients who get injured playing sports.

They suggested that having less deficits (between both legs) in muscle strength, endurance, balance movement quality and stability will reduce a person's risk of getting injured. After the initial injury, it should be properly managed to prevent additional injuries to the same joint or other joints to minimize OA developing. Ideally a structured rehab program should be maintained for six to nine months.

So don't be too impatient to return to your usual physical activity especially after a joint injury. You may have to modify the activities you do in order not to place unnecessary repetitive stress on the injured joint. Remember our articular cartilage likes and needs weight bearing forces for nutrition. Inactivity will cause the articular cartilage to deteriorate.


References

Anderson DD, Chubinskaya S, Guilak F et al (2012). Post-traumatic Osteoarthritis: Improved Understanding And Opportunities For Early Intervention. J Ortho Res. 29(6): 802-809. DOI: 10.1002/jor.21359

Palmeri-Smith RM, Cameron KL, DiStefano LJ et al (2017). The Role Of Athletic Trainers In Preventing And Managing Post Traumatic Osteoarthritis In Physically Active Populations: A Consensus Statement Of The Athletic Trainers' Osteoarthritis Consortium. J Athl Train. 52(6): 610-623. DOI: 10.4085/1062-6050-52.2.04.

Don't Drink The Pool Water!

During the last couple of days over National Day, we took a family staycation at the Goodwoodpark Hotel. I ended up spending lots of time in the pool with my two boys as you can see in the picture above. Probably ended up drinking some too.

Not the greatest thing to do if you read what Canadian researchers found when they tracked two public pools for three weeks. Olympic swimmers have admitted doing it and now evidence shows that the rest of the general public are doing it too.

Doing what? Peeing in the swimming pool that's what!

The researchers tracked the concentration of an artificial sweetener, acesulfame potassium (ACE), which is found commonly in processed food and passes through our bodies unaltered. Great for the researchers if you happen to eat processed food and pee in public pools.

By tracking ACE levels, the researchers calculated that swimmers released 75 litres of urine (enough to fill a medium sized dustbin) in the first public pool (830,000 litres, about one-third the size of an Olympic pool).

There was 30 litres of urine in the second public pool, which was around half the size of the first pool over this two week period.

The research team sampled a total 31 different swimming pools and eight hotel jacuzzi hot tubs in two Canadian cities. ACE was present in 100% of the pools and hot tubs!

Number of pool visitors were not monitored, but the results also suggested that urine content in the pool was added several times each day.

If you thought that the pool readings were bad, measurement in the eight jacuzzi hot tubs were much higher. One particular hotel jacuzzi had more than three times ACE levels than the worst swimming pool.

Just so you know, urine is sterile, but the compounds in urine (urea, ammonia and creatinine) can react with pool disinfectants cause eye and respiratory irritation. Long term exposure to these compounds has been linked to asthma.

The results were not surprising as another anonymous survey showed that 19% of adults polled admitted to having urinated in a swimming pool at least once. Professional swimmers have confessed to being among the worst offenders.

Have you ever peed in a swimming pool? Hmmm, let me ask Jo Schooling when he next comes and sees me in the clinic.


References

Blackstock LKJ, Wang W et al (2017). Sweetened Swimming Pools And Hot Tubs. Environ Sci Technol. 4(4): 149-153. DOI: 10.1021/acs.estlett.7b0043.

Wiant C (2012). New Public Survey Reveals Swimmer Hygiene Attitudes And Practices. Int J Aquatic Research Edu. 6(3): Article 4. http://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/ijare/vol6/iss3/4.

Researchers Lindsay Blackstock and Xing Fang Li testing for ACE

Joseph Schooling At Sports Solutions

Jo at Sports Solutions

For the past few days, our staff were already talking about taking pictures with him when they saw his name booked in for an appointment in our clinic today.

I was treating another patient when Jo arrived, so Jo went to see Aized for his appointment. My next patient was running late so I went to say hello to Jo. Aized said the first question he asked was "Where's Uncle Gino?"

Yes "Uncle Gino" is what Jo still calls me. We used to swim together from 2004 until early 2008 when we were both swimming at the Center of Excellence (COE) under coaches John Dempsey,  Au Yong Kim Moon and Herbert Yu. I used to treat all the swimmers there including Jo.

That was my agreement with head coach John Dempsey. He would allow me to swim with the COE swimmers (while I was still training for triathlons) on the condition that I treat all the swimmers who needed help.

In fact I first treated him at a swim meet in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2004. Jo used to kick my behind in the pool even when he was nine years young!

Great seeing you today Jo! As Aized said, our pleasure and honor to be treating you when you're home.