Phoenix NeuroStim Therapeutics’ vibrating insoles offer a big step forward to better health

fancy footwork: Phoenix NeuroStim Therapeutics President Steven Metzger in his company’s Providence office, which is bringing to market vibrating soles to help people with diabetes. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY
fancy footwork: Phoenix NeuroStim Therapeutics President Steven Metzger in his company’s Providence office, which is bringing to market vibrating soles to help people with diabetes. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

PBN INNOVATIVE COMPANIES 2020 BIOTECHNOLOGY & LIFE SCIENCES (SMALL COMPANY)

Phoenix NeuroStim Therapeutics


IF YOU SUFFER from diabetes, Phoenix NeuroStim Therapeutics may one day soon prevent you from having severe health complications brought on by the disease.

Phoenix NeuroStim, which has a Providence office, is currently bringing to market vibrating insoles. The product makes use of a process known as stochastic resonance. The idea is for nerves in the feet that have been stimulated with faint vibrations to send more regular signals to the brain, in turn “reawakening” the portion of the brain responsible for processing precisely such signals.

- Advertisement -

One effect is to decrease the incidence of diabetic ulcerations in feet and the hundreds of thousands of nationwide foot amputations they lead to each year.

A South African study monitoring the insoles’ effectiveness included one subject who initially refused to return the product to the researchers.

“You may not have them back, they have profoundly changed my life,” the man said to them.

The team at Phoenix NeuroStim has seen an improvement in communication between the brain and feet in the 20%-25% range, with the benefit lasting – and even growing – after the insoles cease to be worn, something the South African patient had no way of knowing.

The team, which includes Executive Vice President of Marketing Jonothan Tierce, has one test subject a little closer to home – Tierce himself.

A lifelong athlete who developed peripheral neuropathy 15 years ago, Tierce wore a pair of vibrating soles for 45 days during the recent COVID-19 pandemic lockdown and it improved his health over time.

“I literally got feeling back in the bottom of my feet again,” he said. “My balance is better, I can walk around at night without feeling I’m going to stumble into walls, and I can walk down the little windy path to the beach without fearing I’m going to fall. It’s been amazing.”

No posts to display