My husband made me a pair of the Tass gloves, and so far I have tried them for three rounds. Below are my experiences:
Round 1: use the original 167 setting, four fingers for 5 days, 2 hours each day. Feeling a little dizzy, stiff, panic attacks in the morning couldn’t get up from bed. So I stopped.
Round 2: two fingers only, thumb and index finger, 2 hours a day. During the second session, my right leg suddenly felt very relax, almost normal. I haven’t had this feeling for many years. My other improvements include: flexible hands, better coordination, better balance. However as I continue, the morning panic attacks come before, and my hands and feet shake uncontrollably, so I stopped.
Round 3: middle finger only, 2 hours a day. Right from day 1 , I felt significant improvement in muscle stiffness , including my tight throat. However my body became so weak, hard to move, especially to initially a movement. I guess it needs other fingers to go together, so the weakness gets an offset.
Obviously the gloves do work to affect our brain functions. It’s only that we need to find out a right combination, or setting, or routine that fits us. The questions are:
1 . Does anyone know which nerve systems each finger is connecting to? This may help us to analyze the reactions and make better decisions.
2. Does anyone know why the thumb wasn’t included in the glove settings?
As everyone is different, my experience may or may not be your experience, but hopefully this provides some references if you’re trying the gloves as well! Laura
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Of course, the benefit of vibration was revealed by charcoal last century, so any vibration may have some result. But Peter Tass and Stanford are looking for much more than that. According to Dr Tass desynchronization needs a minimum of 3 stimulation points.
According to what Tass just said within the last hour on the webinar they didn't include the thumb merely to provide some better dexterity for the user. He also responded to a question about how many fingers are needed to be stimulated. Sounds like they're going to be experimenting with that in some upcoming pilot studies starting this summer.
I'm guessing the recording of the webinar will be on YouTube within the next day or so. He addressed these issues in the Q&A portion.
It's Tass so it will no doubt be based in initially at Stanford. He said first studies would be in US but he did mention that after initial studies they would be doing a multisite study.
We have been in communication with Synergic the company that was making the gloves in Eugene. They have given gloves to some research participants. Then I read that it is possible that Peter Tass is no longer working with Synergic. I saw a post that said that they would do a clinical trial at OHSU in Portland, Oregon but that has not materialized. This is part of why I was wondering what he was saying about future research
I emailed synergic in Portland and the response was you had to live in Portland to participate. You can go to Dr Tass website and fill out a questionnaire to be included in pool of people for trials at Stanford.
I don't know the answers to your questions, but I've been on the gloves 2 months, about four hours per day (8 fingers). As I read the Tass articles, it may take 4 to seven months to get maximum benefits. I mostly use the "noisy" algorithm. So far: I can walk better; I can turn better; I can turn my head rapidly to the side when walking; I can do one of the neurological tests for PD vastly better. I still get "freezing" of my legs, but it's psychological and only occurs outdoors when I'm in unfamiliar places; I can sometimes walk across a room with my eyes closed.
I'll bet everybody has a somewhat unique experience with the gloves. The early trials seem to have lasted 4 to 7 months, as I read the various Tass papers. So I'm hoping that I'll see more benefit in the coming few months.
I'm on DIY gloves. I was able to buy the EAI C-2 vibrotactile units Dr. Tass used early on. I heard somewhere that he may have switched piezoelectric vibrotactile units.
The C-2 vibrotactile units cost me $1200 apiece. I know you can buy a small bag of piezoelectric transducers for about $10. Probably they would cost more if they were custom made.
Hi Glovemaker, We have been on the waiting list for the Dr. Tass gloves trial for many months. Could you possibly explain the DIY gloves? Do you know of any other options? Thanks, Tunasalad
My wife has been splitting time between the board and the gloves. The board is synchronous (same finger on both hands stimulated at the same time) while the gloves are asynchronous (same finger on both hands stimulated at different times). I pushed her to get more time in per day, which meant having her focus more on the gloves than the board. Interestingly, I saw some of her tremor returning when she focused on the gloves only. She calls the board "soothing" and the gloves "chaotic". (keep in mind, both are referenced as methodologies in the Stanford papers).
If you are not using the random Sketches, you can wire both gloves to one battery (you would use the same Y cable from the board design). This initiates both gloves at the same time and causes them to run synchronously. I have moved her to this configuration on the gloves and she says they are "soothing" now and her tremor is gone using either platform.
The diagram depicts running both gloves off of one battery. You may want to try this configuration as it sounds like you are finding the asynchronous stimulation as "chaotic" to use my wife's term.
Best of luck.
description of battery to switch to Y cable to glove connection
here is the link youtu.be/6U4mtEEcbI4 and I believe all the information including the part list are in the GitHub . Mr. Pdbuzzboard did very good job on it and helped lots of people like me . I owe him millions of thanks. 😊😊
I really need to get these gloves, I live in USA, I am not sure who I could hire to make these? I am at a point where I may have to consider DBS. I am currently using 2.5 C/L PILLS every 3 hours. please adives, thanks
See my comment on the next thread explaining why, whatever else they may be, the buzzboard glove is not a "Tass" glove. That does't necessarily mean that you won't feel better, or different by using it, but there are some quite specific anatomical reasons why it isn't going to be working like the set the news reporter wears in Dr Tass office.
Hi my father and uncle got diagnosed with PD in the same month just this year. This recently pushed me to start developing my own version of the gloves based on the study. I’m very close to making them available to people as soon as I do some more testing. My gloves use a coin vibrating motor on a z axis to achieve the goal of 250hz. Im also really into 3d printering and own many different printers. So I save time and money printing my own parts. I also own two software companies which has helped me get this off the ground. Feel free to contact me I’m still in the early phase, but I’m making a lot of progress. Hence the reason I’m posting this at 2am my time. Best of luck.
how are you doing now (8 months later)? I am thinking about building gloves. Here is some advice I found.
Hi Cgreg - absolutely . I might add that that there was another person in the room who witnessed this - a specialist ER doctor !!. Indeed - I am not looking for 100% effectiveness for each PWD ( person with disability ) but a ratiometric delta - depending on the condition & severity. I work on Essential Tremor trial participants and for someone who has head/neck tremors - a mere 20% improvement ,is huge . As I mentioned previously - there was no effect on Lewy Body but .now ....as they say Patience is a Virtue ! For those using the Vibrotactile strategy my suggestions/tips are :
a) Start with 30mins and go increment gradually.
b) It is prudent NOT to over stimulate the fingers - that is ,do not swamp the pacinian receptors in the first 2cm of the active finger tips/ P -field.
c) That is a key reason why the trial vibros/tactors are of a " plunger " design - cos the asserted surface contact area is SMALL. >> no swamping of pacinian active field but targetted.
d) Another " trick " - control the V ( supply ) to the tactors separately.
e) For those using the ERM methods - for whatever reason - buy a stack of them. Then use a 1.5V battery and SORT them and select the best 8 x that will run on 1V5 with max vibration. In conjunction with V ( tactor , coin motor ) you can now have very fine controlled assertions to the finger - i.e. a poor man's compromise to AudEx - audio exciters.
f) Best NOT to use a full size glove or pseudo glove that is dense. Why ? The thicker the mass of the " glove " the more the vibratory signals will propagate to the whole hand - fingers included ! Thus the ' ideal' glove is a " skeleton ' glove + plunger tactor.
g) Depending on the finger pod design - ENSURE either the ERM/LRA/exciter etc is well isolated from the casing - i.e. have shock absorber material surround the device. Dense " foam/sponge " is great or the speaker noise isolation grade is also suitable.
h) For the ERM users - if you have an oscilloscope - even a cheap $50 kit will do - connect the input of the scope to a piezo element. Then apply 3V to an ERM and hold it VERTICALLY against the piezo element. Bingo ! - you'll see the frequency of the ERM . So , as above, buy 50 of them and select the 8 x fastest ERM s for the glove - small price to pay for an optimised set of tactors. - see photo for my version.
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Dr Peter Tass's Vibrating glove for PD
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