POSTURE CORRECTOR NEUROBAND® TECHNOLOGY VS COMPRESSION

The human form is an extraordinary structure of bones, muscles, joints, and circulatory systems that support an upright thinking body. The process of keeping this body healthy is complex and is not likely to happen by way of chance. What we do know for sure is that the alignment and posture of our body will largely determine how we look, feel, perform, manage pain, injury, and disease.   AlignMed recognizes this critical fact, and our contribution is a disruptive innovation in wearable health and fitness that will allow anyone of age to take an active role in how they look, feel, perform and fight pain. The dynamic mechanism for the posture corrector consists of an anatomic matrix of panels, bands, and seams using high-quality elastomeric fabrics and sophisticated weaves, which we trademarked as NeuroBands®.  We trademarked this distinct category of posture clothing as InterActive Apparel™. NeuroBands apply controlled resistance to train or retrain overused and underused muscles and misaligned joints. The idea of InterActive Apparel as an alternative therapy may be unique, but it is not theoretical. Resistance training to targeted muscles is the foundation for physical therapy and physical fitness routines. Furthermore, all physical improvement strategies are time and energy-dependent and require a great deal of conscious intervention for optimal results.  InterActive Apparel products, such as the SpinalQ® Rx, , Posture Shirt®, Taping Shirt™, AlignMe™ Sports Bra, and Gel-Lign® Insoles have the strong advantage of providing an adjunct to existing therapies that requires little discipline or change in behavior, outside of periodically wearing comfortable form-fit Apparel under or over the clothing. There is a carry-over effect of muscle memory when worn intermittently. 

InterActive Apparel differs from bracing in that braces by their very definition are designed to restrict natural movement and disproportionally balance joints. Misused braces can cause muscles to atrophy over time. Because NeuroBands have elastic memory, they influence proportionately and provide a dynamic resistance, whereby muscle activity and muscle regeneration is improved.   

In the markets of performance apparel and compression garments, there exist a variety of claims that performance and a physical function can be improved using compression. The implication is garments that apply pressure to the skin, and the underlying soft tissue will positively impact the bodily functions that regulate performance, fatigue, circulation, injury, and recovery. Although compression shows to improve blood circulation in the lower leg and swelling caused by lymphedema, it is not logical or physically sound to believe compression will sustain an improvement in performance and help to recover from an injury or prevent one. A review of the National Library of Medicine returns only 15 research studies in these categories. Of those studies, none were peer-reviewed, and less than half were well-controlled scientific investigations. Why? For starters, compressing skin has no foundation in wellness or fitness. Muscles do not compress; they contract in complex sequences to optimize the motions of our unique individual bodies. The primary goal of InterActive Apparel is not to squeeze or compress skin and muscle. Instead, the variable elastic properties of NeuroBands simultaneously: 

1. Activate muscles to contract
2. Influence the motor and sensory systems that control movement
3. Provide dynamic support to the musculoskeletal system.  

If a garment cannot augment or otherwise improve the way motor control and sensory information interprets and passes back and forth from our body to the brain – we are wasting our time. Placing a brace or compression garment over a joint to improve its function is akin to putting gloves on a pianist. No matter how thin or fantastic the material is, they will not enhance the musical performance. Further distinctions of InterActive Apparel versus compression garments include:  

1. InterActive Appareland NeuroBands are active when sitting, standing, sleeping, and exercising.
2. Because the therapy is delivered subconsciously, minimal discipline or change in behavior is required to have a measurable result. This key fact is significant when it comes to those who suffer neurological disorders such as cerebral palsy, autism, Parkinson’s, dementia, spinal cord injury, Ehlers Danlos, and ALS, which often make conscious physical therapy difficult or not possible.
3. Aptly to conform to all body types, i.e., large, tall, small, we use non-linear construction techniques that are patented. We do this comfortably without restriction.
4. The posture corrector products can be worn under or over the clothing.
5. Using the posture correction products intermittently, you can accomplish a carry-over result of muscle memory.
6. Postural Fitness™ and postural awareness are actionable goals.

These AlignMed distinctions do not demean big brand companies’ skilled use of design and fabric technology. Companies often use sophisticated fabrics that do a great job of moisture management; fighting odor; blocking UV rays; controlling cold and heat, all while looking great. As such, we include these functions when choosing fabrics for our InterActive Apparel.   

Performance and compression apparel companies excel in the use of three factors that influence a buyers decision:

1. Marketing – Clever, well-financed sales campaigns using people and events that shape our behavior  
2. Placebo – we think it works
3. Vanity – it looks good on us 

These are essential factors, and making function fashionable is as vital to Alignmed as the understanding that poor posture (i.e., forward head and neck, sloping shoulders, tilted hips) significantly reduces physical attraction and the appeal of confidence.   

AlignMed has taken on a leadership role with independent research, FDA registration of our products, approved prescription reimbursement, and observational analysis from over 400,000 users to date. InterActive Apparel presents a disruptive innovation in health and fitness because it offers a simple means for anyone, from athletes to the elderly, to take an active role in how they look, feel, and perform. The ramifications for InterActive Apparel as adjunctive care can save a predictably tens of billions in an overburdened healthcare system. Once the public becomes aware of AlignMed’s current and future posture correction technology and products, I believe we can impact the sociologic and economic burden of musculoskeletal health, chronic pain, and sensory processing disorders.

Most sincere,

Bill Schultz

President and Founder AlignMed 

ALIGNMED RESEARCH HISTORY NARRATIVE

AlignMed first brought a garment that could help prevent or help recover an individual from an injury to the attention of the research community twelve years ago. In the form of upper body vest with tension bands originating at the pectorals and traversing over the clavicle, crossing the scapula, down to the lumbar spine, and terminating at the anterior pelvis.  Subsequently:

• Ben Kibler, MD, Tim Uhl, Ph.D., reported the garment with controlled tension bands could improve the scapula position and enhance proprioception. This fact led to the first AlignMed product, trademarked as the S3® Spine, Scapula, Shoulder system. The S3 became the catalyst for AlignMed investment, design, and production. 
• The Kerlan-Jobe Orthopedic Research Foundation, Los Angeles, reported an increase in internal and external rotation of the shoulder when testing shoulder/rotator cuff strength using Biodex equipment. To test this, we used UnderArmour® Compression shirts and No Shirt at all as controls. The S3 and Posture Shirt outperformed UnderArmour and No Shirt in all testing categories. No Shirt exceeded UnderArmour. 
• Duke and UNC reported and published improvement in EMG patterns when applying variable strap tensions to the S3.  
• We used high-speed fluoroscopy images at the Steadman Philippon Clinic, Vail, CO, to show a 1-2mm improvement in subacromial and coracoacromial space on male subjects with no known shoulder pathology. The increase in joint space area occurred immediately (time zero).  
• Tom House, Ph.D., and the USC Keck School of Medicine showed an improvement in arm vascularity, accuracy, and velocity when reviewing data from 15,000 pitches by six professional baseball pitchers using the Posture Shirt®.
• The City of Colorado Municipality reported and published improvements in strength, productivity, vascularity, and posture when testing 93 computer users wearing the AlignMed Posture Shirt® over 30 days. 

These studies, feedback, and observational analysis from over 400,000 users to date, including hundreds of professional athletes and over 2,000 prescribing physicians, have led us to conclude that tactile touch and tensile resistance placed on specific anatomy via a form-fitting garment can influence a return to anatomic neutral positions. This analysis was the beginning of a physiologically sound therapy alternative. Whereby muscle contractions (including fascia, ligaments, and tendons) and joint alignment, can be influenced by way of how they interpret internal and external information from an exoskeletal intervention. Information is sent kinetically to neuromechanical pathways above and below the targeted muscle tissue. It is this synchronicity that influences improvement in anatomic neutral, good posture, and overall homeostasis. Placing a brace or compression sleeve on a joint to improve its function is akin to putting gloves on a pianist, no matter how thin or fantastic the material; it won’t improve the musical output. In contrast, the use of resistance bands, placed anatomically on the arms, shoulder, scapula, spine, or anywhere on the upper body of the pianist, could improve posture and joint alignment and thus the reflex response required to perform may improve.  

Athletes would have a desirous effect on performance whether they wear AlignMed garments before, during, or after their event or game. The same physical logic applies to those who consistently use a keyboard, a computer, or perform any type of repetitive, awkward behaviors that ultimately disrupt joint mechanics, or interfere with body homeostasis to bring about the cycle of inflammation, cartilage erosion, arthritis, and chronic pain. 

Whether an athlete, writer, musician, dentist, surgeon, computer user, gamer, airline pilot, first responder, etc. we all need help correcting and maintaining our posture. AlignMed and its esteemed Medical Advisory Panel (AMAP) understand the process of muscle balance and joint alignment. With conviction, we believe it can improve using InterActive Apparel that synchronizes garment construction with controlled resistance.  

Ironically, our greatest challenge may not be in clinical validation, but in making function fashionable, a challenge we will take on and flourish.         
        

AlignMed Research     Condensed Version

Study 1:

The Influence of a Dynamic Elastic Garment on Musculoskeletal & Respiratory Wellness in Computer Users – Michael Decker, PHD, StevenJ. Narvy, M.D., C. Thomas Vangsness, Jr. M.D.

Study 2:

The Effects of a Posture Shirt on Throwing Velocity, Throwing Accuracy and Blood Flow in Professional Baseball Pitchers  - Department of Orthopaedic Surgery – Keck School of Medicine USC

Study 3:

The Effect of a Postural Enhancing Device on Sub-Acromial and Coracohumeral Distances during Shoulder Abduction: A Bi-Plane Fluoroscopy Imaging Study – Steadman Phillppon Research Institute Vail, Colorado

Study 4:

The Effects of a Posture Shirt on Rotator Cuff Muscle Strength – Kerlan Jobe Sports Medicine Institute, Los Angeles, CA

Study 5:

The Effects of the S3 for Shoulder Pathologies – Steven Smith, Kerlan Jobe Sports Medicine Institute, Los Angeles, CA

Study 6:

The Influence of the Posture Shirt on Musculoskeletal and Respiratory Wellness in Computer Users – AAOS, University of Southern California School of Medicine

Study 7:

The Effects of Anatomic Enhancing Garments on Knee Performance and Injury during Skiing – University of Denver, Anne Bevington-Director of Health and Safety – Vail Resorts

Study 8:

The Effectiveness of a Scapular Brace on Scapular Kinematics in American Society of Shoulder and Elbow Therapists Uhl TL, K. W., Tripp BL, Spigelman TH, McClelland R

Study 9:

The Spine and Scapula Stabilizing (S3) Brace has an Effect on Posture and Muscle Activity in Overhead      Athletes with Poor Posture – University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Department Exercise and Sport  Science (Athletic Training)

Invention Title: NeuroBand Touch-Tension-Technology (N3T).  

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY NOTES:  

• Due to the general inherently conformist nature of human physiology, our bodies change throughout different stages of life. Conscious intervention to evade physical deterioration is arguably less effective than a subconscious application. 
• In physics, elasticity is the ability of a body to resist a distorting influence and to return to its original size and shape when removing that influence or force. If the material is elastic, the object will return to its initial shape and size when these forces are removed. Hooke’s law states that the force should be proportional to the extension. Likewise, the elastic memory of NeuroBands should be proportional to the elastic properties of the muscle tissue, which they interface. For fabrics and textiles, such as spandex, lycra, and other elastane, elasticity is caused by the stretching of polymer chains when forces of body movement are applied. When deforming an elastic material due to this external force, it experiences internal resistance to the deformation. It restores it to its original state if the external force is no longer applied. There are various elastic moduli, such as Young’s modulus, the shear modulus, and the bulk modulus, all of which are measures of the inherent elastic properties of a material as resistance to deformation under an applied load. The various moduli apply to different kinds of deformation, all of which are relative to utility patent claims that are justifiably valid and unique. For instance, Young’s modulus applies to extension/compression of a body, whereas the shear modulus applies to its shear.
• The elasticity of NeuroBands is described by a stress-strain curve, which shows the relation between compressive stress (the average internal force per unit area of muscle tissue) and strain (the relative deformation). The curve is generally non-linear, but it can be approximate or negligible as no other patent claims exist. The utility is that muscle tissue (muscle, ligaments, tendons, fascia, etc.) exhibit plastic behavior, that is, they deform and do not return to their original shape if a stress intervention is not applied.    
• Elasticity is not exhibited only by solids; fluids, such as viscoelastic fluids, will also exhibit elasticity in certain conditions quantified by the Deborah number. In response to a small, rapidly applied and removed strain, these fluids may deform and then return to their original shape. Under movement strains, these fluids may start to flow like a viscous therapeutic liquid spanning muscle groups.
• Describing the elasticity of a material in terms of a stress-strain relation, the patent utility of NeuroBands must define the terms stress and strain without ambiguity.
• For general purposes, any of a number of stress measures for garment/body interface can be defined and patented. It is generally desired (but not required) that the elastic stress–strain relation of NeuroBand/Muscle interface be phrased in terms of a finite strain measure that work to conjugate selected stress measure, i.e., the time integral of the stress measure with the rate of the strain measure should be equal to the change in internal energy for any enhancing process that influences an improvement in dysfunctional muscle tissue adaptation. 

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

As stated above, the symptoms of a wide variety of human conditions in which musculoskeletal, neurosensory and circulatory systems are compromised, can be abetted with an intervention of exoskeletal stimuli delivered via garments that conform to the unique environments in which we think, work and play. The NeuroBand touch-tension-technology (N3T) invention claimed here combines a non-linear construction of panels, bands, and seams using textiles with distinct elastic properties that provide the therapeutic modalities of tensile resistance, tactile touch, and biomechanical support - over convenient periods of time. The result is localized biomechanical support, resistance training, and tactile stimuli to train, retrain, or maintain afflicted anatomy, thereby resulting in symptom reduction.

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