Clinical Study: Socks For Balance & Stability
Summary of “Effect of DNS Socks on Overall Balance and Stability Using The Sway Medical Application“
If your foot pain (neuropathy-caused or not) is causing issues with balance, perhaps this information will be helpful as well.
To start, it’s important we outline what these socks are – they’re called Dermatone Neuropoint Socks or DNS for short, developed by Voxx Life.
DNS socks are produced with a specific pattern woven into the bottom of the socks right where you have a dense region of neuro-receptors. Voxx socks are engineered using the principles of dermatone and neuro-activation in order to promote neuro connectivity. All this to mean, this specific pattern woven in triggers a precise signal to your brain, which studies suggest may improve balance, stability, and of course reduce pain associated with diabetic neuropathy.
While additional research is needed, early data is encouraging and we summarize the findings of one of the recent scientific studies below.
Executive Summary
69 people took the FDA-cleared Sway Medical Balance Assessment while wearing regular athletic socks, and then again wearing DNS athletic socks developed by Voxx Life. The Sway Balance test uses motion sensors to measure thoracic postural sway. Sway’s proprietary algorithm calculates stability on a scale of 1 to 100.
A perfect sway score is 100, indicating little-to-no movement during the analysis.
This study (including a one-way Anova F Test to ensure statistical significance) showed that overall stability was 31% greater when people were wearing DNS socks compared to regular athletic socks.
The Study on Socks For Balance
Sample Size:
69 people, 44 male and 25 female with inclusion criteria of:
a) no current pain limiting movement
b) no foot or knee condition that would limit their ability to wear socks
The Method
Step 1:
69 people took the Sway Medical Balance Assessment (FDA-cleared and independently verified) first wearing no-name athletic socks
Step 2:
They then replaced their socks with Dermatone Neuropoint Socks (developed by Voxx Life) and completed the balance assessment again
Step 3:
Scores were compared and a one-way Anova F-Test was performed to ensure statistical significance. An a priori significance level of 0.05 was used for all tests.
The Results
31% increase in Mean Sway Score and 36% Increase in Sway Score with 95% Confidence, while wearing the DNS socks by Voxx.
“The DNS Socks appeared to influence neuromuscular balance and stability control during the Sway Medical testing by increasing the Overall Score relative to the regular socks. The increase between socks conditions was 36.1%
– M. S. Dhaliwal, MSc PT, Dayan Henson
The following chart shows the distribution of Sway Scores from Step 1, while people are wearing regular athletic socks.
The mean balance score for the first test (without wearing socks for balance) was 68.573.
The following chart shows the distribution of Sway scores from Step 2, while people are wearing the DNS socks:
The mean balance score for people wearing DNS socks by Voxx Life was 89.470. This balance score represents a 31% increase over test 1, with normal athletic socks.
In addition to an increased Sway Score in general, the socks for balance had a significant effect on the overall distribution of the Sway balance scores.
As shown in the graph comparisons above, only 16.72% of people wearing the no-name socks had a Sway Score greater than 85. That’s compared to 73.6% of people wearing Voxx DNS socks for balance have a score greater than 85.
Final Conclusions on DNS Socks For Neuropathy & Balance
Balance and stability issues can affect anyone. Even if you don’t realize it. In our course of attending trade shows like the Abilities Expo, Tiny Fest and neuropathy charity golf tournaments, we personally conduct balance tests on hundreds of people every year who range across the healthy spectrum, from people who can barely walk to seasoned athletes.
Pretty much everyone we test shows an improvement in their stability while wearing these socks for neuropathy and balance. Now we have a summary of a clinical study to validate and quantify this effect.
This study looked specifically at Dermatone Neuropoint Socks (DNS) developed by VoxxLife and the effect they may or may not have had on balance and stability, measured using the Sway Medical Balance Assessment.