Research on Off the Beaten Path Treatment for Dystonia

[pdpatient]

The Hanger Reflex: An Inexpensive and Non-invasive Therapeutic Modality for Dystonia and Neurological Disorders - PMC

Read the interesting story here :

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articl...

[BlockRuys]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing. I will try it out for the foot.

[DogsWoode in reply to BlockRuys]

How will you do that BlockRuys? Interested to hear, thanks.

[BlockRuys in reply to DogsWoode]

I spoke with ChatGPT about this and we came at some ideas. I'll just copy paste my notes below.

Hypothesizing for Foot Dystonia:

Imagine your foot is twisting or cramping up in a way that’s out of control because of dystonia. Since the hanger reflex works by applying a gentle, controlled pressure to change muscle behavior, why not try something similar on your foot? You could design a device—a sort of cuff or strap—that applies a shearing force on the skin of your foot. The idea would be to trick your brain into “retraining” the foot muscles to move normally.

Hey, if your right foot arches to the right because of dystonia, one idea—totally experimental, of course—is to try something similar to the hanger reflex concept. Basically, you’d need a device (like a custom strap or cuff) that gently applies pressure on your foot in a controlled way to create a skin sensation. For instance, if you want to counter that rightward arc, you might apply a gentle, directed force on the medial side (the inner side) of your foot to encourage a corrective movement. This pressure could help “retrain” the muscle patterns by triggering a sensory illusion, kind of like how the head device works.

It might even help to experiment with adding a bit of vibration, as some studies have suggested that can boost the effect. But remember, this idea is pretty out there right now and isn’t a proven treatment.

[DogsWoode in reply to BlockRuys]

Well, there ya go! Anything's worth a try when nothing to lose, right? Thank you for your response.