Why are athletes wearing coloured tape?

 abercrombie saleWhy are athletes wearing coloured tape? In the Euro 2012 Championship, Italian striker Mario Balotelli was sporting three tramlines of blue sticky tape on his back. And at Wimbledon, Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic has had his elbow patched up with the same stuff.So what's behind this latest sporting fad?The Japanese makers of say it gives players an edge by mending injuries.Sticking plaster? Although it might seem like a new idea, the tape has been around since the 1970s. Dr Kenzo Kase says he came up with the design because he found standard taping techniques, like conventional strapping, too restrictive for his patients. Although standard strapping provides muscle and joint support, it limits movement and, according to Dr Kase, gets in the way of the healing process by restricting the flow of inflammatory fluids below the skin.Kinesio tape is different, he says, because it lifts the skin to assist this lymphatic flow, which, in turn, reduces pain and swelling.However, Dr Kase admits there have been to prove these scientific claims.Psychological crutch? Dr Kase says people have been using his tape with success for more than 30 years. But he recognises that only solid scientific evidence can silence critics."We have many people researching but the society of Kinesio taping therapy itself - the International Kinesio Taping Association - is only five years old. We need more evidence. We do not have research reports. Part of the reason people are using Kinesio tape is to find the science." Another element to consider is the power of persuasion or "placebo effect" - if you believe something will work then you will see results.John Brewer, a sports professor at the University of Bedfordshire, said: "Personally, I think it is more of a placebo effect.

abercrombie sale uk There is no firm scientific data to show that it has an impact on performance or prevents injuries."My concern is that there is little that you can put on the skin that will have a real benefit for the muscles that lie deep beneath."The power and stress going through the joints is immense."But, saying that, I can't see it would cause any real problem, other than making you lose a few hairs."In theory, anything that can lessen the oscillations or vibrations that go through the muscle when you are doing intense sport will be beneficial, he said. Phil Newton, a physiotherapist at Lilleshall, one of the UK's National Sports Centres, said: "It's a multimillion-pound business, yet there's no evidence for it. There's a whole host of companies making this tape now. "A lot of medical practitioners do use it. "It is different to the various types of tape that physios have been using for donkey's years to strap sprained ankles and so on. "This is a relatively new type of tape that is thin and light weight. The idea behind it is fascial unloading - reducing pressure in the tissue below the skin."Dr Newton remains dubious. "Looking at the tensile strength of the tape I don't see how it could do it unless it is down to stimulating the senses. The power of placebo is very strong and shouldn't be underestimated."He predicts the Olympics will be awash with the stuff. "It'll be a show of multicoloured tape. "We'll probably see athletes in the Olympics sporting a few union jacks made out of it," he said.Dr Kase certainly hopes so. He said: "Olympians are very top athletes. Top athletes are very different from regular athletes. They are hypersensitive and they worry. My tape will give lots of comfort to them. This is not drugs."

abercrombie ukBefore we had training shoes, people ran barefoot. But in the modern world many runners believe that cushioned, comfortable soles will help to absorb some of the impact of running around our parks and streets. A new trend for barefoot running is emerging. Physical therapists like Rollo Mahon believe that it helps to keep make the body as efficient as possible. He says that once your feet have toughened up a little then it's much nicer to run without shoes. Evolutionary biologist Professor Daniel Lieberman, who's fascinated by the idea of barefoot running, went barefoot as he ran around the campus at Harvard University in the United States. In the laboratory he analysed the gait of barefoot runners, compared with their friends who ran with shoes. The runners with training shoes tended to land first on their heel - sending the high-impact forces up through legs. Without the protection of shoes, barefoot runners tend to land on their forefoot and take shorter strides - all of which makes their running style "less jarring". In his paper in the journal Nature, Professor Lieberman hypothesises that this might mean fewer injuries for barefoot runners than those who run with shoes. "Lots of my contacts in Homs have died, and many people have left," Mr Ali Hamad says. "It's a chaotic situation." Activists in the US who set up the Syria Tracker website say that "with the escalation of violence starting in February 2012, some groups have needed to change their methodologies... and relax some of the controls they are placing" on recording deaths.And what of the danger of exaggeration of the data to garner sympathy for the opposition?"It's not fair to expect people in that situation to be unbiased," Mr Ali Hamad says. "This regime is their ultimate enemy.""So even when I'm talking to people who I went to school with, I am taking into account that they are traumatised people. I don't take their word for everything."

 abercrombie and fitch ukHe says there have been instances where has had to "weed out" sources because they have exaggerated, but says that this hasn't affected the integrity of his work.Those at the Syria Shuhada website are even more vehement. "There is absolutely no exaggeration of the data," they insist. "Anyone who says this is the one driven by politicisation," they add.They say they believe many victims' relatives are too frightened of retaliation to report casualties and that the true figure must therefore be Even some websites that keep separate tallies for civilians and those involved in armed opposition class fallen FSA fighters as "martyrs". Preserving a memory Most of those involved in trying to collect the information admit that current conditions in Syria simply do not allow for an accurate toll."Everyone needs and wants a number - including us - but the cost for us of getting it wrong would be high and could undermine the credibility of our human rights reporting," Rupert Colville says.So should the attempt to compile figures be abandoned?"The UN and NGOs can stop trying, but we Syrians can't," Mr Ali Hamad says."I have lost cousins, schoolfriends in Syria. The only thing that keeps us going is that some day we will be able to hold accountable those who have killed people simply for expressing an opinion," he adds.Those at Syria Tracker say: "In the long run, we don't feel that the specific counts are as important as the individual names, dates and places, which can be edited, updated, and revised over time It opened six months ago, bussing in its pupils in from outlying areas because there are no children living on site to attend.

abercrombie clothingOne student, a 17-year-old called Sebastiao Antonio - who spends nearly three hours a day in traffic getting to and from classes from his home 15km away - told me how much he liked the city."I really like this place - it's got car parking, places for us to have games like football, basketball and handball," he said."It's very quiet, much calmer than the other city, there's no criminality."But when I asked if he and his family would move there, he just laughed."No way, we can't afford this. It's impossible. And there is no work for my parents here," he said.His sentiments were echoed by Jack Franciso, 32, who started work at Kilamba as a street sweeper four months ago. "Yes, it's a nice place for sure," he said.But then he sighed: "To live here, you need a lot of money. People like us don't have money like that to be able to live here."No mortgages And therein lies the problem.Apartments at Kilamba are being advertised online costing between $120,000 and $200,000 - well out of reach of the estimated two-thirds of Angolans who live on less than $2 a day.However, Paulo Cascao, general Manager at Delta Imobiliaria, the real estate agency handling the sales, told the BBC that the problem was not the price, but difficulty in accessing bank credit."The prices are correct for the quality of the apartments and for all the conditions that the city can offer," he said. "The sales are going slowly due to the difficulty in obtaining mortgages."A new legal frame work has recently been introduced to allow local banks to give mortgages, but for the majority of Angolans, even the few with well-paid office jobs, just finding enough cash for a deposit would be a struggle."The government needs to start giving priority to building low-cost housing because great majority of the population live in shacks with no water, electricity or sanitation," Elias Isaac, country director at the Angolan Office of the Open Society Initiative of Southern Africa (OSISA), told the BBC."There is no middle class in Angola, just the very poor and the very rich, and so there is no-one to buy these sorts of houses."According to Mr Cascao, the government has recently announced a portion of the apartments at Kilamba will be designated social housing, which people on low incomes can rent long-term at low prices.No-one is quite sure how that scheme will work or who will be eligible, and cynics have dismissed it as a vote-winning stunt ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled to take place on 31 August.