Advice to Love for Runners Who Bemoan Foot Blisters

A solution for painful foot blisters may send runners and athletes sprinting to the pharmacy.

Inexpensive paper tape – also called surgical tape – not only helps prevent foot blisters from forming but also cuts down on the number of blisters people develop, according to a new study from Stanford University School of Medicine.

Here’s how it works. Just apply the tape before exercising to any blister-prone area of the foot in a smooth, single layer. If a blister does occur, the tape is only mildly adhesive, which helps not to tear the skin.

“It’s kind of a ridiculously cheap, easy method of blister prevention,” said Grant Lipman, MD, an emergency medicine physician, who came up with testing the tape for blisters after treating endurance athletes who ran 25 to 50 miles a day. “You can get it anywhere. A little roll costs about 69 cents, and that should last a year or two.”

Of all the complaints that Lipman heard from endurance athletes, foot blisters were the most common.

“What I kept hearing was, ‘Doctor, I’d be doing so well, if only for my feet,'” said Lipman, clinical associate professor of emergency medicine at Stanford. “Their feet were getting decimated.”

Runners have tried just about everything to prevent blisters, Lipman said. Powders, antiperspirants, lubricants, tapes and adhesive pads have all been used. 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, he said.

Until now.

“People have been doing studies on blister prevention for 30 or 40 years and never found anything easy that works,” said Lipman, lead author of the study. “I wanted to look at this critically.”

Runners Tested Blister Prevention Tactic

To do that, Lipman and his colleagues in 2014 recruited 128 runners who were going to participate in the 155-mile, six-stage RacingThePlanet ultramarathon event that crosses deserts around the globe, including the Gobi Desert and deserts in Jordan and Madagascar.

After paper tape was applied to just one of each runner’s feet, medical assistants followed the runners to reapply the tape at certain stages of the race.

At the end of the race, 77 percent of the runners had no blisters where the tape was applied while 63 percent got blisters in untaped areas.

“The best way to make it to the finish line is by taking care of your feet,” Lipman said.

Source: Stanford University School of Medicine news release

+ Read about the importance of massage as part of a training program for runners. Bon Secours In Motion Physical Therapy offers several types of massage therapy to help athletes release tight muscles and improve flexibility and mobility.