Los Angeles: Commonly available paper tape can prove to be a low cost method to prevent foot blisters, scientists have found.
Multiple methods of blister prevention have been tried, including powders, antiperspirants, lubricants, tapes and adhesive pads. But despite the numerous scientific studies on blister prevention over the years, there is little evidence to show that any of these methods work well, researchers said.
Now, scientists from the Stanford University in the US have found that inexpensive paper tape, the kind available at most drugstores, when applied to blister-prone areas prior to exercise, successfully prevents both the incidence and frequency of foot blisters. The tape, commonly referred to as surgical tape, is used for wound treatment.
It is only mildly adhesive - an advantage because it does not tear the blisters if they do occur, researchers said. "People have been doing studies on blister prevention for 30 or 40 years and never found anything easy that works. I
wanted to look at this critically," said Grant Lipman from Stanford University.
In 2014, Lipman and colleagues recruited 128 runners participating in a 250km ultra-marathon event that crosses deserts around the globe. Paper tape was applied to just one of each of the runners' feet. The untaped areas of the same foot served as a control. The tape was applied by trained medical assistants to
either the participants' blister-prone areas or, if they had no blister history, to randomly selected locations on the foot.
The paper tape was applied in a smooth, single layer before the race and at subsequent stages of the race, Lipman said. The medical assistants followed the runners for 250km over seven days. For 98 of the 128 runners, no blisters formed where the tape had been applied, whereas 81 of the 128 got blisters in
untaped areas.
"It is kind of a ridiculously cheap, easy method of blister prevention. You can get it anywhere. A little roll coasts about 69 cents, and that should last a year or two,"
said Lipman. The findings were published in the Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine.
