Dr. Stillwell

Dr. Stillwell: 0:00

Imagine if we could do like scanning your foot today and do it like every six months into the future or something like that. Yeah, we document what's happening with the changes, on CMT, that kind of stuff. And the cool thing to Chris is that then what you're doing is you're able to translate that 3d scan into a 3d printed mold. Basically, what's happening is you're creating a custom foot orthotic.

Chris Ouellette: 0:29

Welcome to CMTA, official podcast CMT, for me, the podcast, where we delve into the remarkable stories of individuals who live every day with courage and determination, despite a diagnosis of Charcot Marie Tooth disease, and each

Elizabeth Ouellette: 0:44

episode will introduce you to real life, individuals exploring their journeys of facing tough obstacles head on and emerging victorious. These aren't just stories. They're inspiring silos of resilience, innovation, and unwavering spirit.

Chris Ouellette: 1:03

Well, join me Crispo let me Lizzo as we unravel the narratives of these incredible people who refuse to be defined by physical limitations from navigating a world not always designed for them to showcasing the power of adaptation and community support. These stories are as dynamic as they are uplifting, so

Elizabeth Ouellette: 1:23

get ready for action packed adventures filled with twists and turns and triumphant moments. It's not about beating challenges. It's about rewriting the rules and proving that the human spirit is an unstoppable force.

Chris Ouellette: 1:38

Our podcast isn't just about these remarkable individuals. It's a celebration of inclusivity accessibility and the shared responsibility create a world where everyone can thrive. These stories aren't just changing lives. They're changing perceptions. And with

Elizabeth Ouellette: 1:55

32 episodes and counting, Chris and I we are

Chris Ouellette: 2:00

ah. So buckle up for another CMT for me podcast where our guests show how they turn every challenge into an opportunity for trials.

Elizabeth Ouellette: 2:13

Now I feel pumped. Ah,

Chris Ouellette: 2:15

well, so I gotta say, that was a whole new intro. I hope our listeners like it. We stumbled a little bit. I noticed you had trouble with the word individual. So I know that's a tough word. Inclusivity No, I said that perfectly. A lot of big words in the intro, folks, we might change that up. Not the best. We're gonna have to change that up. Okay, let's see. Here we are. We got

Elizabeth Ouellette: 2:38

a joke. I have a joke. Oh my god, Before we introduce our next guest, I have a foot related joke. Really? Okay. Okay, let it rip. Why did the foot break up with the sock? Why? Because he said you are smothering me. Look at Brandon over there. Good.

Chris Ouellette: 3:02

Why did the foot go to therapy list? Oh,

Elizabeth Ouellette: 3:05

no idea.

Chris Ouellette: 3:06

He felt the D ID. Oh my gosh. Okay, let's

Elizabeth Ouellette: 3:16

get serious. I don't think we should be listening

Chris Ouellette: 3:18

to this podcast. Hang in there. Don't turn it off. I know that was pretty lame, but got some exciting things.

Elizabeth Ouellette: 3:25

People in the medical field who know a lot about CML, and today we are talking to a foot specialist. He's not only a podiatrist, but he knows everything about CMT, feet, CMT, hands, fo surgery, orthotics, and so much

Chris Ouellette: 3:43

more. Wow. And I'm telling you, I'm excited to introduce our guests here. And that's right, Liz. Oh, we're talking about Dr. Greg Stillwell. And didn't he create this thing called the stand strong arch support, which I'm sure we'll hear more about and worked as a podiatrist for over 30 years. Imagine that and he still remains super involved in the field. As I learned from our podcast pre interview. I'll let him tell you more about all of that. So with that welcome, Greg. And his sidekick Brandon, who was an intern but Welcome, guys.

Dr. Stillwell: 4:17

Thank you. Thank you.

Elizabeth Ouellette: 4:18

I don't like the term. I don't know. Cute kid next to

Chris Ouellette: 4:26

the word brass. There you go. Brandon does everything. So where do you find Brandon?

Dr. Stillwell: 4:32

So San Juan College is a two year program here in Farmington, New Mexico. And Brandon is an intern is the technical stuff. Thankfully. That's why we're here today. You know that? I'm not sure I could do it by myself.

Elizabeth Ouellette: 4:44

Thank you, Brandon. Thank you for helping.

Chris Ouellette: 4:47

did take I get a question. That technical thing did take Brandon 20 minutes to connect on Zoom.

Dr. Stillwell: 4:52

Yeah, it would have taken an hour and 20 minutes. That's true. We

Chris Ouellette: 4:55

wouldn't have had the podcast. I think on the positive side. We're here. So where are you you guys right now. Are you in a lab? Or where are you?

Dr. Stillwell: 5:02

We're speaking to you live from the gate lab it be a standard strong facility, Northwest New Mexico, which is also known as the garage, the garage.

Chris Ouellette: 5:13

Yeah, what exactly do you guys do in this lab? Like, what are you working on?

Dr. Stillwell: 5:17

Well, from yesterday, you know, Brandon helped us do a video of cutting apart a shoe. Now, that might sound weird, but it's kind of cool to see his new balance running shoe like split apart with a blade cutting it open any kind of action packed, we think we might want to put music with it. Yes,

Elizabeth Ouellette: 5:36

but why are you cutting up? Right?

Chris Ouellette: 5:38

What's behind that? Sorry? Why cut up a shoot? What are you guys doing?

Dr. Stillwell: 5:42

I said, what do you learn from these popular shoots? These ones that you see cultures or whatever, you know, what are the barefoot shoes, whatever brand, that there's one we didn't like, there was a new balance. And it's just interesting to see how one is made so much differently than the other. And so that's kind of what we're doing. Is it with our ForcePlates stuff is, uh, we're looking to see. Okay, so where is the abnormal pressure on the bottom of foot, with CMT, you get a uniquely shaped foot and you get to pressure points on a bottom that you don't always feel those can be kind of a high risk area. So

Elizabeth Ouellette: 6:15

what kind of shoes are best for people with CMT, who have high arches, and then there are people would have flat arches. So what do you recommend?

Dr. Stillwell: 6:23

I know if I'm saying is, there's like, it's kind of hard to recommend, especially cutting these things apart. Is it any cushion if you have a high arch floater, that classic pavis, you know, like, like a tea of ours, she didn't drive a truck under that doesn't absorb shock in his hands. So you get it right. I wear a lot of these Hoka shoes that was running.

Chris Ouellette: 6:40

I do too. I have multiple pair of nose. So it's worked for me if they work well. So

Dr. Stillwell: 6:44

for my own foot drop him saying because I don't want to wear an AFL where I don't like earphones, or whatever. But with the rocker bottom, you can postpone a lot of painful. Oh,

Elizabeth Ouellette: 6:55

that's interesting. So the hook is Yeah, and yeah. What do you get? You get the really high ones? Because do you think that destabilizes you? I know, yawns life has changed since he's worn focus? Yeah, I mean,

Dr. Stillwell: 7:08

forward, but sometimes I get in a closed environment. Like if we were at a cocktail party or something like that. I mean, I mean, I'd have to stand close to Brandon, because otherwise, it'll look like I'm drunk or something.

Chris Ouellette: 7:19

But I have a question on it. Just something that hit me here. You're cutting up that shoe. And you said, it's interesting to see where are the areas of the shoe that may affect someone the most? So Could someone go in and try a pair of shoes and feel great in the store and walk around, but then a week later, it's hitting these pressure points that they don't know right away?

Dr. Stillwell: 7:41

I think the short answer is yes. Have you heard of memory foam? I think yeah, this is out of somebody's shoe. And so that memory foam in memory foam is nice because it bottoms out in the sense that if there is high pressure, the idea is kind of supposed to make a little pocket like a little area of less pressure for that bonus sticking up the bottom your foot and we find those if it's really severe, then like you said, like a week later than that things bottomed out and you're like tea they were comfortable in the store with that must have been why they were on sale for $39.

Elizabeth Ouellette: 8:12

So Greg, you have CMT? Is that right? Yeah,

Dr. Stillwell: 8:15

my brother as of my, my mom had a couple of our kids have. So yeah, it's been a family thing. When I was an undergraduate, we did a thing with a geneticist, because it was my mom's family from North Carolina that had it strongly. And the geneticist at the University of Colorado at that time, was saying that there was some thought that it had to do with a small mountain town thing. I mean, I don't want to say inbreeding, but that's kind of what it was saying in the sense that there's a limited genetic pool. So his thought was that it could start that way. I've never heard that said, so I don't know if it has any truth or not.

Elizabeth Ouellette: 8:49

But it has given you valuable insight into CMT, CMT foot, and why did you decide to become a podiatrist?

Dr. Stillwell: 8:56

My mom had gone to a back when she was in high school, it was a residential hospital. And she spent, I think, like, three months there, whatever and had this hierarchy surgery done when it was a place, you know, that they would stay, and she got to know all that, I think was like Catholic nuns or something like that. You know, and, you know, they turned into an orthopedic hospital later as part of the Shriners and it was nice that they were able to train these young foot naked surgeons who they had this opportunity so she had quite a few surgeries on her feet and ankles, lower leg, this kind of stuff, innovative stuff at the time. When was that 1940s Whatever. And meanwhile, her foot was left very short and shoot very rigid and still had a lot of pressure points on the bottom. So anyway, it's that kind of stuff that like I don't even know what podiatrists were right when I was in undergrad that I was going to be an either an architect or an orthodontist or something like that. And so the idea of there was a profession where you could work on feet, but also do like reconstruction stuff. I mean, that's cool. That's why I enjoy doing surgery. Now I feel like in a lot of ways, one of my calling Here's more about this whole thing about offloading about prevention and about helping people want more like a shoe insole. You mentioned the stance from our support to 60. Your foot is something that offloads or helps you to take weight and pressure off of these calluses on the bottom of the foot that a lot of us with CMT have.

Chris Ouellette: 10:17

So you're really it sounds like exploring and doing research in the area to to treat CMT, in the absence of getting surgery, not just going from point A to point B being surgery, but what's the interim

Dr. Stillwell: 10:30

I so people that do hierarchy fairly early, it's a real hard fun and but I surely that it isn't always a singular operation that, that here's everything that a lot of times, we have to do multiple operations. And then even then maybe there is one toe that Brian and I were trying to figure out. But then on the one image that shows, I think on the left foot, that's the third toe has a lot of pressure pushing down. But why is that? And then how do we offload that? And then how do we get the other tools to even out some of the pressure? So it's little surprises like that? They don't necessarily when you look at the toilet isn't like oh my gosh, I think it looks like it bears twice the weight of the other. So thankfully, there's enough, whatever elasticity to the tissues that say, so that the pressure doesn't cause hopefully, a kind of an open, sore and ulceration, those kind of things that are tough to heal and easy to infect and stuff like that.

Chris Ouellette: 11:18

Yeah. So real quick, I think about what you're working on now. Like, do you ever give feedback to say new balances era path or an avenue to provide that type of feedback from your research to these these companies that manufacture these shoes?

Dr. Stillwell: 11:32

Probably. So far, what we've been doing is working like through LinkedIn, for example, not just to the footwear groups, there are some really good companies that do footwear research for these various Yeah, I think that would be an awesome idea, especially with the CMT niche.

Chris Ouellette: 11:45

Yeah. Just educating them with the research that you're doing right now, I would think they'd have a fun interest in that.

Dr. Stillwell: 11:51

But there's a lot of overlap between diabetic feet and feet with a sharper MRI to the neurological changes that occur in both make it where a lot of times you can't feel because of the nerves have gone crazy. There's deformities and happen, there's alterations, if not, then there's pressure that can occur. So what we're trying to do anything just kind of a selfish interest is preventative thing.

Chris Ouellette: 12:13

Liz, I'm just thinking about yourself. Right? Not that was CMT. But I think of how many shoes you have tried on and have gone through, and just where you think you have it right, you don't. So

Elizabeth Ouellette: 12:25

Greg here, I am going to tell you a little story about myself that Chris knows, and Johan knows is that I keep ordering shoes from Zappos hoping that they're going to work. And then I look at them. I'm like, I'll try them on later. Because I have foot problems. And so the heel toe drop is very important to me, because I've really tight Achilles. So if it's like 10 millimeters, that's cool. But if it's a it might not feel good, and then my calves are hurting. But what I do is, I don't return them because I'm like, oh, maybe I'll be able to wear them. And then I look, I'm like I definitely got to get rid of these. And then it's already past a year. So I have accumulated like 50 pairs of shoes that now I'm selling on eBay and Oh, shoe

Dr. Stillwell: 13:07

hoarder. Yes,

Elizabeth Ouellette: 13:10

I feel insecure. Tons of shoes at my disposal. So that's a short word for it. Yeah, a shoe hoarder because I feel like I'll never, I don't know. And I ended up wearing the same shoes all the time. Once you send Brandon

Chris Ouellette: 13:23

a few pair brand new,

Dr. Stillwell: 13:25

we could turn this into some kind of a shoe drive for people with CMT. And the same because it sounds like you're talking about the heel to toe drop and the tight Achilles and this kind of stuff is there's a lot of misconceptions in my opinion with what these high arts feet especially or tight feet, let's call them have to do like in what kind of shoe is best saying and so it's one of those things where I mean 50 pairs of shoes and it sounds actually about right and a lot of ways Chris Sanders, maybe littles got it right.

Elizabeth Ouellette: 13:55

It's too stressful. It's too stressful. But then two people will see me if they have high arches, like my arches, unfortunately have like, flattened out. And I used to be a size 10 woman now I'm a size 12 woman and a size 11 men and I have monster fi and I'm not comfortable in everything. And it's a real problem.

Chris Ouellette: 14:15

Yeah, can I just say one thing Alyssa was targeting selling her shoes to the NBA. And she is not a size celeb and she's like a size 18. So what's your size? Yeah, exactly.

Dr. Stillwell: 14:27

You might make her podcast actually. Yeah,

Chris Ouellette: 14:30

I'm writing that down now so I can remember.

Elizabeth Ouellette: 14:33

So seriously, though, coming back to shoes for people with CMT POCUS are the best.

Dr. Stillwell: 14:39

I think that the extra cushion can't do much wrong. And oh, because when they first came out had lousy support, kind of like you're saying that you're sitting up on a three inch platform and no lateral support. If you ever get off kilter. I mean, good luck catching yourself. Yeah, I don't know if anybody's really studied much to fall risk, like in C and T but that might be something that Brandon I have to look at in the Since it with alternatives are a little lower than OCAs, they seem to have the cushion. And classically you talk about the heel counter touches a plastic heel seat that goes around the back of the heel, that can help to control a foot on top of the shoe so that it doesn't sprain your ankle. Or if you have flat feet, or like Liz was talking about that earlier, just flatten it out and flip to becoming a blogger that normally associated with that has some side to side deviation and some lateral breakdown where the where the foot will try to go side to side on. And so I think that's where you can go too far. The other way, you can say, oh, and the orthopedic, whatever shoe space, when I said that I need to be in a shoot, it gives me a lot of control, it really locks me up good with the promise that a lot of times you'll lose that you'll sacrifice a lot of shock absorption for that stability. Does that make sense? So it's kind of like where you have stability on one hand.

Elizabeth Ouellette: 15:54

And on the other? How do you figure it out? If you have CMT? How do you figure out without,

Dr. Stillwell: 15:59

I mean, that's why I love Zappos. And we had this whole idea of that they have an easy return policy and all that is that there's nothing like going in and having shoes trade on there, even if it's one of those discount places. And at least we get to try and line and walk around the store. And

Chris Ouellette: 16:13

I was just I just had this thought like I walk in to buy sneakers, and you're the salesperson, right? I mean, a company would benefit from you being on the shop floor selling shoes to folks think of the education they would get applied

Dr. Stillwell: 16:27

for a good, it's a good 10 cents over the minimum hourly wage to think could be a new career path.

Chris Ouellette: 16:34

I'm just trying to think of like your next move here, your next milestone. So just thinking Greg, listener to the podcast that has CMT. So tell us a bit more about exactly what you do. And maybe why I would want to reach out to like, give us a little bit more detail on what you're working on, and how that relates to someone with CMT, who may be listening to the podcast, if

Dr. Stillwell: 16:58

there's anybody that would consider traveling to Northwestern Mexico to have their feet scanned on our pressure plate, that would be amazing. To add to the repository of gait analysis information that we're trying to accumulate with sharper MRI to being able to document kind of like we had done with early MRI studies of a calf were showing how there's fatty replacement within a muscle tissue. When you do cross sections across the calf muscles with CMT, what we're doing is trying to show we're just at this point, even document I mean, okay, the commercial people say, Oh, you're just there itself standard, strong. And it's really more about trying to take pressure off the bottom foot and saying, We just happen to have a gel at six to the bottom foot. So what I ran was just them right there, set the bottom of the foot so that when you walk, have them on it that they stick on the shoe and that way, you wash them at night, and then they're good to wear the next day. And as the foot changes, the cMpL changes and pregnant the feet change. We'll help you turned 35 yet,

Elizabeth Ouellette: 18:03

just barely just as last December. Oh, yep.

Dr. Stillwell: 18:06

So you'll find your feet are starting to change as you get over that age. And we're trying to figure it out on a document, which is kind of fun. I'm saying we're trying to help Brandon out, he probably should have perished in the college says and so

Chris Ouellette: 18:18

don't stick to the bottom of your foot. Is that what I just saw?

Dr. Stillwell: 18:21

Exactly? Yeah, it's a proprietary gel. Yeah,

Chris Ouellette: 18:24

it's a gel. And how thick is that gel? That's

Dr. Stillwell: 18:27

part of the whole patented thing. It depends on the size. This particular one Oh, that's that's a medium, I think that we're currently selling to women. And we're only doing three sizes. There's two versions, there's a zebra version that here for sports that have more athletic type thing because it sticks more strongly that the pink one, we actually consider more of a medical thing we're probably, I don't know, random, I disagree. But the people will seem to typically start with a pink one because because they didn't want to try to offload take the pressure off sore spots, to where if you're somebody like that marathon runner, you might want to start with Zebra ones. Because right away, you're going to be out saying Dad, you know, have more elasticity. When I when I run I feel more shock absorption. I don't know what you feel when you put them on. But for me it just like I feel like there's this weird balance between cushion and balance and this whole thing about kind of like stability. What it does, it kind of asks your ankle to find that center part of your foot. Interesting. That will have to show you eight studies how it shows you where the center of mass is. Why

Elizabeth Ouellette: 19:33

don't you make a unisex version instead of having just a female version.

Dr. Stillwell: 19:37

We have the computer drawings for a men's line one for an athletic line. We'd like to when we're working with a venture capital firm on doing computer design one that would be a custom one. And we're just we're an early startup and we're trying this a woman on company that benefits women and Stan's tries trademark as well as a standard clean Same thing refers to not only the soap that cleans the gel off from the net bottle, I think no. And so this is a proprietary soap to clean them every night so that they get sticky again and that the next morning when coupled with the soap paint puff in case your dog here on it or

Chris Ouellette: 20:16

chat here, just hairless cats, so

Dr. Stillwell: 20:19

Oh, I was trying to tee it up so she could do the plug for the hairless cats.

Elizabeth Ouellette: 20:24

Imagine you want to be a podiatrist.

Brandon: 20:27

I'm more like the physical therapy side. Okay,

Elizabeth Ouellette: 20:30

so what did you learn about CMT? Not to put you on the spot or anything from working with Dr. Greg here.

Brandon: 20:36

I've actually learned quite a bit working alongside Dr. Greg about CMT. And when I first started, I didn't know what CMT was, I didn't know what was in so now. It's honestly I believe more people should know about its people were heavily in greatly. CMT, I don't know, it's weird to explain,

Dr. Stillwell: 20:52

briefly, he has been super helpful. We've been using like, these first lady images were used and not the Nordic walking poles. I think Elizabeth knows, I've been frankly with those for a while. And so you can really change it's fun to be able to document how they really do affect the weight shift, as well as what are the pressure points are in the bottom of fluid, and I've been singing the praises for the pools for years about the spine, my scoliosis and all this kind of stuff. And so Brandon's been super helpful and trying to help with all that.

Chris Ouellette: 21:23

Yeah, that's awesome.

Elizabeth Ouellette: 21:24

So Greg, let's get into the emotional part of having CMT. How do you feel about I know, I almost wonder if you, and this is just conjecture. you delve into this world of CMT, and feed and all this research you've done, and Paul Walker, you've done so much for the community, sort of to get your mind off that you have CMT, and you're going to be helpful for people? So you don't have to? It's just a way of dealing with it. Is it a coping mechanism in a way

Dr. Stillwell: 21:52

Spoken like a true life coach? Probably, you know, saying is it my undergraduate is in psychology, I always prided myself as a podiatrist as a financial sort of whatever by being able to read people's minds, no. It's kind of the same thing as that, where you kind of continue helping the community in whatever way possible. Yeah, that's great with a CMTA. It's interesting that you guys are in this whole international reach. And it seems like the world has become smaller now and the advent of things like PubMed, and these Google academic searches, these kinds of things where you can reach out to scholarly articles or where people write things about shrubbery to with about things that they're doing for hierarchies, feet, and progressive nerve disorders, and how this stuff starts to bleed together. And it's been super energizing for me, and especially having young people like Brandon around Yeah, it makes

Chris Ouellette: 22:43

me think about your commitment and dedication to this field. I'm just thinking what you just showed us in terms of the product that stands strong art support. It's not like you wake up one morning, and you manufacture that in one day, right? I'm sure it's taken multiple versions and testing. And maybe you're still not satisfied where you are, and you're looking at other opportunities to expand it. But that takes a lot of effort, right? And commitment. Oh my gosh,

Dr. Stillwell: 23:05

yeah, this whole idea of 3d printing, or the molds and stuff that our hope is that there is a lot of handheld scanners he's been doing with a phone. And most of them are waiting for iPhone and not so much Androids, for whatever reason. But these handheld scanners, iPads, that kind of stuff that you can capture a pretty decent 3d resolution under the bottom of a foot, what would be super cool, was like, imagine if we could do like scanning your foot today. And do it like every six months into the future or something like that? Yeah, we documented what's happening with the changes, on CMT, that kind of stuff. And the cool thing, too, Chris, is that then what you're doing is you're able to translate that 3d scan into a 3d printed mold. Does that make sense? And so basically, what's happening is you're creating a custom foot orthotic from computerized scan. So instead of having to stick your foot in a box of foam or thinking a plaster mold on your foot, you're using 3d. It's an informal editor that how they actually scanned about a foot I don't know, some kind of digitize it so that you're coming up with a computerized any sort of pilot foot. Yeah. This is making sense.

Chris Ouellette: 24:16

Yeah. I mean, if you could match, if you could match the technology, to stay in pace with the progression of CMT, that'd be pretty cool, where you're, you've got that history, and then you're, you could be looking say, on that progression, maybe two years from now, where potentially those pressure points are in you're already in the development for those situations. That'd be cool.

Dr. Stillwell: 24:39

My goal and we'll see how this all plays out, as I told you that we started this thing back in the late 90s. My next door neighbor was a radiologist who had bought one of these MRIs that when they first came out with those units where they can stick your leg down in him, and you could do from the knee down and capture so you could do a weight bearing quite innovative for the time in the late 90s. So anyway, that he was having trouble Oh, can you schedule with this thing because uh, not a lot of people knew about. And so I had this great idea. Let's do CMT scans. And so we hooked up with as radiologists up at the University of Colorado. And so the three of us wrote this article on how to evaluate this thing. And so my goal is, if we could tie this in with this plan to our research, have you heard that term planter or planter? People say, I got two planners, it's the bottom of the foot PLA and T AR plantar knees apart on the foot personnel, you

Elizabeth Ouellette: 25:28

were talking about peanuts? Yep. It's one of the few words

Chris Ouellette: 25:33

of the P word is getting hungry now.

Dr. Stillwell: 25:36

It's like makes me want to have those Carolina peanuts when you cook them in them, wherever you see them in the broth from the ocean.

Chris Ouellette: 25:44

So got us off track here. Here we go. Now the rest of the episode is about food. Here we go.

Elizabeth Ouellette: 25:50

Greg, what have you done to your own feet to manage your CMT?

Dr. Stillwell: 25:56

Let's see, I had surgery on both of them already. multiple ones, but two major ones, one, a multiple hour out of body experience kind of thing. Yeah, different kinds of orthotics. I mean, that's how I got started in it, there's a whole orthotic thing, right, because they they had this gel, it sticks to the skin for some number of years, in one form or another. It initially was used to line the inside of them by angle splints with that kind of stuff. And then we started using it second directly to the skin, but then you run into this technical issue of how to keep it clean enough where it'll stay sticking to the skin. Or if your feet perspire a lot, or a certain things like that, where maybe you've got dry skin or whatever skin condition that we're heaven forbid, you've got dry skin and your feet are waiting for you to say my feet are a little dry. And then I was gonna say you should dry the newsstands clean, but cleaner, guaranteed to help you a 100%.

Chris Ouellette: 26:51

So I just typed in stand strong arch and apcom Stand strong arch.com. That's your site. That is I have my picture on it. I don't know, I'm just trying to think for our listeners. Got everything you can find. Yeah, by now get the facts and get all your information there. So stand strong arch.com. Folks, now

Dr. Stillwell: 27:12

we got to make sure that there's links on there to bring more I think there's this section on there, what the doctor ordered and but I'd like to see us do is to create a better list of let's say socks, for CMT, that kind of stuff. Because there's a couple of brands like photo that I really liked. We should put together a list maybe of that does the CMTA publish anything like that

Elizabeth Ouellette: 27:31

we will put I'm at that would be a really good idea. Because I know in the past, you've done a lot of presentations and the information that you have. Remember that. So you reminded me of that conference in Florida, you had like 92 slides of CMT stuff and all this put stuff and the wealth of information that you presented like like in milliseconds, it was just like so much that people could really use like Dr. Jill's book, things and this and that, and everything for the foot everything.

Dr. Stillwell: 28:01

Yeah, we were trying like an experiment in neuroplasticity and to see if we flesh each of those 92 slides for five nanoseconds. How did how much do they get out of it? And it was interesting, because I think we had time for one question. And then then you came back to this stage and threw me off physically?

Elizabeth Ouellette: 28:19

Cane? No, this

Chris Ouellette: 28:21

site is very, very comprehensive. We're not talking about this product just for those with CMT. I mean, it's just pretty amazing what you have on this site. Actually,

Dr. Stillwell: 28:30

what we're trying to do, Chris is to boil this stuff down. I mean, when you start looking back at what they've talked about, there's two columns to the foot that I'd love to be able to show this to you. We're sharing it outside and the inside of the foot that's kind of fallen off the radar when you go back to the literature, the 1700s. I mean, they didn't really start publishing stuff until the 1800s. But you start reading this thing. And that was one of the first things people look at you cut all the muscle off the bones, it's like, well, gee, this thing breaks in half. And that's, you know, today, that's that mean that the architecture of February hasn't changed that much in however many hundreds of 1000s of years, probably, but, you know, so anyway, so my thigh is that start trying to reinvent some stuff for cuboid pad was one of the doctoral shows for US patents. A cuboid is like you might think a square bone, a cube shaped bone on the outside of the foot that is considered a keystone of the arch. Now, have you ever heard that term Keystone other than a place just goes to go ski but the stone Lucky's Keystone? So it's kind of like we're the bridge abutments meet in the middle? Does that make sense? You know how? Yeah,

Chris Ouellette: 29:38

actually in on your site, you actually refer to the cuboid comfort zone here? Oh, that's a great diagram. They're almost there.

Dr. Stillwell: 29:45

Thank you. That's like it's very gratifying to that we get a lot of feedback about our site. Most of it is people who say that it's hard to navigate this kind of stuff. So thank you so much for that state of evolution and trying to make it where it's more access Boolean friendly to those who are just enter the new world at CMT, and feet. Thank

Chris Ouellette: 30:06

you for Brandon's picture on there, you get a lot of traffic. There's a new marking granted

Dr. Stillwell: 30:11

insurance is a podcast, and he's in charge about 800 million followers.

Chris Ouellette: 30:17

That's a full time job right there. Gosh,

Dr. Stillwell: 30:20

no, we're just starting our podcast. And what we're trying to do is to now we've got this game, we've got this great way of being able to bring in like biomechanics, people, PhDs who know, way a lot more about gait than me. And so they can help us look at people who are walking on this kind of stuff and trying to give us therapy. So super helpful for people. And I'm saying, We've been really grateful for our support from sidewalk college and being able to provide students. So

Elizabeth Ouellette: 30:49

go ahead. Sorry, I just, I'm trying to figure out what how your research is going to benefit people with CMT. And

Chris Ouellette: 30:57

I guess it kind of ties in lists. So what I was thinking to like for Greg is, if you had a fast forward the next 10 years, what are things look like, from your perspective, in terms of what you're working on, etc. Tying back to this question, what do you hope to accomplish the next 10 years,

Dr. Stillwell: 31:12

I wish that I could just flippantly tell you that we're going to do this in three years, I feel like this has been such a realization of a dream. We want to continue our path publishing, and trying to create academic research and part of it is ran a little bit of an isolated location. And what we're doing is a lot of interesting stuff more about barefoot things. There's a whole set of native runners that would do things barefoot, and this is a podiatrist who tell people CMT, to never walk without shoes, oh my gosh, protect your feet at all cost, because you could step on a pan and not feel it, this kind of stuff. What if you could be in a protected environment where you actually start to stimulate the foot, the soul of the foot, that's the nerves of the foot, these kinds of things so that you're walking on binaries is unheard of this barefoot movement. But we're, apparently I have it on good authority that there's some kind of electrical charge in the earth, I guess you can stand barefoot, on naked ground or whatever, that have you ever heard at this level, like on grass or whatever? That apparently it helps with all kinds of things, you know, I'm saying and sounds a little bit like, whatever, witchcraft or something. But I have enjoyed this idea that, you know, we keep our feelings, ensconced in these shoes. You know, except I keep mine right by my bedside. So I can put my shoes on right, as soon as I get up in the morning, whatever. But what if instead, there was a defined purpose, a certain period of time where you got your feet barefoot. And so this is where I hope this is answering your question, Elizabeth, as far as where we're going with this thing is that I think that this is all part of what we're doing with a mission with the sandstone arch as well. So we're kind of riding multiple horses. And I think with the CMT, what we're doing is we're trying to get the word out to the message out and some of this, thankfully, is generic enough that it can be applied to multiple disciplines. You know, a pressure under the fifth metatarsal head, can be from the separate tooth, or that pressure on the outside of the right behind the baby toe can also be from diabetes can be from all kinds of things.

Chris Ouellette: 33:12

So don't feel like we have to just go out and accomplish something. Invent something.

Elizabeth Ouellette: 33:16

Absolutely feel like I'm doing nothing. Yep, yeah.

Dr. Stillwell: 33:19

So that's where we feel like this whole thing about I'm so fascinated with this whole thing about this computerized technology about being able to transfer some of this manufacturing to me whether it be robotic or just even just using some of the technology so as to make it easier to create people call them insults. I mean, to me and an insult something that goes in the shoe. So the six your foot, is that still an insole? I guess that's a question for another point.

Elizabeth Ouellette: 33:44

I want to thank you both for all this wealth of information that you've given us. I just I have you seen those 3d printer? Chris's?

Chris Ouellette: 33:51

Yes, Chris. Chris. Is this me here? Chris?

Dr. Stillwell: 33:54

Chris's. Chris has his own 3d printer brand line. Yeah, for teeing that up.

Chris Ouellette: 33:58

Yep. Thank you very much. Yeah. Mine's a 3d printer. It's pretty amazing. What

Elizabeth Ouellette: 34:03

makes me earrings, it makes me these things. Just amazing. I can see you making yourself orthotics after scanning your feet. Brandon, I'll

Dr. Stillwell: 34:11

just real quick, hooked up with the Saudis national labs here in New Mexico, Los Alamos Labs, Oppenheimer, this kind of stuff that these labs are still very much going and get huge government funding for these exact kinds of projects. And so what we're hoping is that we can use that as a CMT things so that we could we can actually do customized. I mean, what we're going to do is figure out, I mean, how do we get the scanner to the Juniper? I mean, I don't know. I mean, because yeah, you're doing mail it to him, whether we got to be able to get somewhere. Maybe he's just an app on his phone or something like that. So many

Elizabeth Ouellette: 34:44

ideas, so many ways,

Chris Ouellette: 34:46

I think, to connect given technology to right the advancement of technology, it's just so rapid, it'd be pretty interesting to see where things go and what those applications are. Because

Dr. Stillwell: 34:56

I'm so grateful that you were very much interested in this because This is such a passion of mine. So thanks.

Chris Ouellette: 35:02

Yeah, no, it's awesome. I'm learning every day so that the American

Dr. Stillwell: 35:06

College of an ankle surgeons were like we're going to Tampa hit in two weeks for their annual foot surgery conference. But the theme is lifelong learners.

Elizabeth Ouellette: 35:15

There you go.

Dr. Stillwell: 35:16

I guess we could do 10 year goals. I mean, maybe we should do like I used to continue to go out there became much shorter become like, that's have fun today. Yeah.

Chris Ouellette: 35:24

It's just always I'm thinking, what's the vision? Right? I mean, you have a vision you're continuing on, it's not like you're giving up this research. You're exhausting all options and opportunities. And I think it's fantastic. I'm interested when you launched the stand strong two. So

Dr. Stillwell: 35:39

the two is the man's version? Oh, I

Chris Ouellette: 35:42

don't know, hey, it's up to you. Oh, no, because this is like

Dr. Stillwell: 35:46

number 222 That we're on right now.

Chris Ouellette: 35:50

We should put that in there. The stamp strong arch number 222. Next year 221. Coming out.

Dr. Stillwell: 35:58

Brad and I were having a discussion about how to make yourself, let's see what was the word brand and not dysfunctional, how to make yourself. Let's see, and not particularly useful. Where my vision for stands strong is to make it where it's already a woman company. So that part is access, training intensity, owns the company and sampling benefits women that are coming out of trouble, that to me that by itself is already a home run. And so now we get people like Brandon, who are here to take over, like you said that the pace of technology is so fast, there's certainly one person not going to be able to keep up with it. And so the more we can create a team of people like this that can kind of Shepherd this whole technology on to the next generation. I mean, much as I'd like to say that this is the final iteration. This is the angle stick on our support. I mean, I think we all know that. There's more to it than that. And yeah, that's a good thing. Yeah,

Chris Ouellette: 36:47

you guys are a great team. I'm watching like Brandon's face as you speak. And it must be so much fun, brand new working with Greg. Right. It's just got to be a great, really exciting internship. So I don't know how I'm gonna go back to a normal job after this. I mean, you're learning so much and working with a great you guys. Obviously, you can see the connection that you guys have. I think it's awesome.

Elizabeth Ouellette: 37:07

I'm on track, Brandon, because he has so many ideas. That's the thing is mind just goes in all directions. Right? You have so many great ideas. How do you choose just one or two? Oh, I

Dr. Stillwell: 37:19

think that we should talk about that real quick. Because about ADHD and CMT.

Chris Ouellette: 37:27

So, should we move on to the crazy questions because we're getting short on time here. Yeah. Would you like to start all right.

Elizabeth Ouellette: 37:34

What would you pick for your last meal ever? whooshing Sumos.

Chris Ouellette: 37:40

local town local Caterpillar roll. Okay. Nice.

Dr. Stillwell: 37:45

Oh, meatball bonus say? There's nothing like good Italian food.

Chris Ouellette: 37:51

You go. All right. And the last question, Brandon, I'll start with you. What is your favorite word? You have one word, Onomatopoeia. I liked that. I liked that. And what about you, Greg? Oh,

Dr. Stillwell: 38:06

we were talking earlier about Pantone is that I like to say that I'm bilingual. But pantalones is one of those words that we all pretty much know whether it's in Spanish or not. But there's a new Panther tequila called Pantone. I think that could be helpful for my CMT. Oh,

Chris Ouellette: 38:21

it's perfect.

Elizabeth Ouellette: 38:22

Does that mean foot punter.

Dr. Stillwell: 38:28

I took my pantalones off one foot at a time.

Chris Ouellette: 38:33

All right. That is a wrap. That was very incredible. And I thoroughly enjoyed that. So folks are the best. Thank you very much. You guys are a lot of fun and to our listeners. So don't forget to follow us all on our social media platforms. We're on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, et cetera, et cetera, etcetera.

Elizabeth Ouellette: 38:56

And check out all our episodes on our pod page website. I hate saying this WWW dot pod page.com/cmt. For me, CMT the number for me. Leave us a review on pod page, Apple podcast or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Chris Ouellette: 39:15

That's right. And we're always looking for new podcast guests. So if you'd like to tell your story on CMT, for me podcast, either write to us at info at CMTA usa.org and pitch your idea or fill out our inquiry form on CMTA usa.org.

Elizabeth Ouellette: 39:32

Near You go. And lastly, we have a phone line. We got a phone line, we

Chris Ouellette: 39:35

got a phone line. You can leave us or call me call this Oh,

Elizabeth Ouellette: 39:39

don't call me call this line 941-231-1352 And leave us a message tell us if you want to be on our podcast and why

Chris Ouellette: 39:50

941231135 To just how to say it one more time.

Elizabeth Ouellette: 39:55

It's right, bro. Gotta

Chris Ouellette: 39:57

go ahead like that, bro. Gotta go on. are useless Oh till next time folks thank y'all thank y'all y'all y'all