Playing Sports with George Garbis & Viron Wildy
Show Notes:
Mouthguards, can they protect more than just your teeth? With an innate love for sport, Dr. George Garbis and Viron Wildly recognized a need in the football world for more protection. Creating their own mouthguard business, ThermoPact, they are educating on preventative protection and providing mouthguards that are designed not only for impact but for temperature regulation. Dr. Garbis and Viron explain how their mouthguard changes colour according to your body temperature, a huge breakthrough in heatstroke prevention. Plus, we discuss how they have inspired the creation of mouthguard safety tests, some resources on hypothermia relating to concussions, and how research and information have changed in the last ten years. Dr. Garbis and Viron are not just adding an extra safety measure, but they are working to reshape a part of the safety industry!
Key Points From This Episode:
How Dr. Garbis and Viron became interested in the concussion world.
A look at the most common mouthguards used today.
Why parents are hesitant to let their children play football.
The differences in concussions in rugby and football.
How Viron teaches his players to avoid concussions.
Other than education, what else needs to be implemented in preventing concussions?
Why Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is common in the sporting world.
Why professional athletes don’t try to perform their best during practice/before competitions.
Different ways you can get a concussion.
What inspired Dr. Garbis and Viron to create mouthguards.
The process of getting American Dental Association (ADA) approval.
Concussion and hypothermia publications.
How the research and awareness have changed over the last five-ten years.
Learn more about Thermopact here!
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[INTRO]
[00:00:05] BP: Hi everyone, I'm your host Bella Paige, and after suffering from post-concussion syndrome for years, it was time to do something about it. So, welcome to the Post Concussion Podcast where we dig deep into life when it doesn't go back to normal. Be sure to share the podcast and join our support network, Concussion Connect. Let's make this invisible injury become visible.
[DISCLAIMER]
The Post Concussion Podcast is strictly an information podcast about concussions and post-concussion syndrome. It does not provide, nor substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or another qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice, or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on this podcast. The opinions expressed in this podcast are simply intended to spark discussion about concussions and post-concussion syndrome.
[EPISODE]
[00:01:15] BP: Welcome to today's episode of the Post Concussion Podcast with myself, Bella Paige, and today's guests Viron Wildy and George Garbis. Viron is a speed trainer coach from Maryland that has a simple philosophy, train fast. Coach Viron develops sports-specific speed training programs for a variety of athletes, from high school to the pros. Dr. Garbis is a graduate of the University of Maryland. He earned his doctorate of dental surgery from the University of Maryland, Baltimore College of Dental Surgery. During his education and residency, Dr. Garbis cited for several awards, including the Harry P. Schwartz Award for Excellence in fixed prosthodontics and the American Student Dental Association's Award for outstanding leadership and dedication to the community.
Currently, Dr. Garbis is a member of several professional organizations, including the American Dental Association, the Academy of General Dentistry, the Academy of dental sports medicine, the Maryland State Dental Association, and the Howard County Association. Dr. Garbis also donates his time to the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery Ethics Program. Dr. Garbis is fluent in Greek and an avid fan of soccer and loves spending time with his wife and children. Both Viron and Dr. Garbis are founders of ThermoPact, which is the creator of a revolutionary mouthguard that protects athletes in more than one way, which you'll hear more about today.
Welcome to the show, George and Viron.
[00:02:46] VW: Thank you.
[00:02:47] GG: Thank you for having us.
[00:02:48] VW: Thank you for having us.
[00:02:49] BP: So, to start, you both want to share what got your interest into the concussion world.
[00:02:57] GG: As far as the concussion world on my end, I've been a dentist for gosh, over 20 years. I've been a dad and I've played sports. I was a goalkeeper in college, and I've coached football for probably almost, gosh, going on 12, 13 years now with my son. And one of the things I did notice was, we put a big emphasis on mouthguards, and people should be wearing mouthguards. But the reality is, no matter what studies say in terms of whether or not they can't prevent concussions, they certainly can help reduce forces or concussive forces.
So, having had several concussions and remembering clearly, passing out, headaches, nausea, the whole gamut. I've never been sort of clinically diagnosed with post-concussion issues. But I'm sure there are a few there that have lingered. So, just my whole experience in that realm, and then hopefully trying to find something that will help just a little bit if not, help reduce some of those concussive forces. So, I think through the athletic world, through my own coaching and watching my own kids play football and other sports, and then seeing a lot of injuries as a dentist, usually their mouth injuries, but I would say probably eight out of 10 times, there's a concussion involved with some of these injuries that I see.
[00:04:13] VW: And from my perspective, this is a good thing like George and I put together a great product is that I've played football all my life, and I've been coaching it for the past 14, 15 years, and just in practice and games, just seeing certain things, you just see as a coach that in regards to the concussion portion, there are so many different things that as a coach we can do, but also in regards to safety as well. And when I contacted George, we started talking about putting this whole thing together. Coaching for as long as I have, I've seen the concussion and also had it, but we just try to find a way. There has to be something out there or we can develop something that's different that can help because, if you look at the mouthguards today, especially the ones that are on the market, they talk about safety and all that kind of good stuff, but it's mainly just either an EVA plastic, just straight mouthguard or its gel.
Unfortunately, they look good, but are they really doing their job? Or is it just mainly just a resource, where it's just a look. A, the ref sees you have a mouthguard, you must be safe. So, from my perspective, I wanted to come up with something that actually was going to – we can't stop concussions. That's highly impossible. But we want to come up with something that would at least try to take away some of those effects. Because in my world, I trained soccer players, but my world is mainly football and being a football coach and also playing it, you have definitely seen that decline in parents wanting their kids to play football due to injuries.
My sister is one of them. My sister told me when my nephew was born, and he's now 16 right now, when he was born, and he was not going to play football, no matter how much I coached and how much I played. So, right there. That’s my sister, imagine other parents have that same perspective as well. So, one of the things that I have not told George is that we wanted to be a company that educates and also puts out a product that will actually help as well. So, that's kind of where I came from in regards to the concussion portion and we’re just putting that together. And as we started put this thing together, and you can talk to George, is to slowly start to evolve together, of what we need to do and how we can at least take away some of those forces away. But George being that awesome dentist and is an oral surgeon, he understood exactly where things need to be, to hopefully take away some of those that impact. I think that's why our product is going to be very successful.
[00:06:41] BP: Yeah, I really like that you both have a background in the sports world because that's definitely mine. I do understand the football thing. I can't even watch it. I think I was watching the Super Bowl. My sister and my brother-in-law are huge football fans, they like watching it every night it’s on. There's a whole shrine in the basement of all the football gear. I remember watching and I'm like cringing. And they're like, “Are you going to watch?” I'm like, “I’m just in pain for them.” Anything like kickboxing is the same as any type of fighting sports.
[00:07:18] GG: Rugby.
[00:07:18] BP: Yeah, rugby.
[00:07:21] GG: But if you look back at historical data, it's very interesting that concussions increased in the NFL, after the use of the helmet. Because think about it, they were much more protective of their own heads instead of having this false –
[00:07:36] BP: Using it as a weapon?
[00:07:38] GG: Yeah. False sense or a false sense of security.
[00:07:43] BP: I get it. Yeah. Well, I'm very sport pro, like, I think it gives you a lot of drive as a kid and even as a professional athlete. For myself, it gave me a sense of purpose, and I loved it. But I was like, things just look good because I know for myself, I always make jokes because now I'm into motocross and I used to do the show jumping world. And in the show jumping world you wore a top hat, is what I always call it now, and all my friends who are still in that world laugh at me, they're like, “What do you mean a top hat?” I'm like, “Motocross, I wear a full-face helmet.” And you're on a 1,200-pound animal with its own brain, and you're wearing a top hat helmet. I was like, “Think of the logic here.”
[00:08:24] GG: Think about it, you just wear like the leather helmet they used to wear. Like, it's going to keep your ears warm, but that’s about it.
[00:08:33] VW: The good thing about it is that one of the things that George and I are trying to do with our own practice is to educate because when we first started this thing, almost four years ago, we sat down with a neurosurgeon, and coincidence, he's in the rugby world. And at that time, he was come up with some product in regards to cauliflower ear. He made a good point to George and I. Even as a coach, I really hadn't even thought about this. He said, “You guys want to know why the concussions are less in rugby?” And he said, “Because they don't teach those guys to use their head as a weapon.” It's funny, because after he said that, and again, that was three years ago. I've been coaching since and just staying on the sidelines during games and in practice, and hearing the helmets hit and sound like cantaloupes, it's a scary sound. And that's one of the things that kind of drove me too, because these two kids, you smack their heads together, and they bounce back up and go back to the huddle like they just bought some candy. We both know that the collision that they just had was very bad for their body.
So, that's a good thing, too, that we actually were able to talk to someone that explained to us that, you know, if we just educate these coaches to let these guys know, you can tackle it. For example, every day at our football practice, we do our tackling drill, and it's wrap and roll. We don't teach our kids to use any hole, it's wrap and roll to the ground. We don't do any type of head collisions at all. Last year, I think last year, we had zero concussions on our team.
[00:10:04] BP: Wow, that's wonderful.
[00:10:05] VW: Very odd.
[00:10:07] BP: It is odd. I know the one sports concussion conference I went to in Indianapolis for COVID, when you could actually go to conferences, and what they were talking about was when to introduce helmets to football players, actually as kids to see if it would kind of entice them to not use their heads as a weapon. So, it's definitely interesting, and how technique and things like that can have a big play into it. I'm very into sports. And I think like, they can be a very good outlet for kids when they're growing up. And also, can be a very good gateway to get out of your life as a professional athlete, because you can be brought up in a totally different world because of your ability to play a sport and I think it's wonderful.
But what do you both believe could be worked on, in regards to the concussion in the athlete world, other than just educating people? It's a huge problem. I know, people always make jokes, because I got a new helmet for motocross. They're like, “If anyone needs a new helmet, it's you.” I was like, “Whatever.” Actually, everyone on the track –
[00:11:16] GG: Have you seen my podcast? Come on.
[00:11:16] BP: That’s why they know because I wear the hats all the time. Or everyone on the track that I know has helmets that are 10 years old, and it’s not preventing from a concussion, but it's still not safe to be used.
[00:11:30] GG: Number one, pretty much every single program that gives out helmets to athletes has to recertify them every year. So, basically, they have to go to some company, I don't know who it is, and if they're not up to par, like you're saying, some of these people are wearing helmets from three, four, five years ago.
[00:11:52] BP: Yeah, I can tell, because the style is old.
[00:11:55] GG: Yeah, and they may not be – right. So, as they're getting better, the other ones –I definitely think that the technology of the helmets is getting better. But then on the other side, are you still giving them a false sense of protection, and they're going to put their head down? So, education, most of the kids, for instance, on my son's high school football team, came through and had been playing football since they were five or six years old. Those athletes, those football players, I would not say all of them, but the majority of them learned early on how to tackle, how to put your head to the side. That's how we teach it, and a lot of the coaches and a lot of the trainers are teaching them how not to use their heads. But listen, I mean, you're in the middle of a game, it happens. It's a lot different in practice, and a lot different in the middle of the game.
[00:12:45] BP: For sure.
[00:12:46] GG: So, what can we do? Number one is having these discussions that we're having now. Technology is going to be a big deal. But I really truly feel that as long – unless we can figure out a way to cushion the brain inside the head, you're not –
[00:13:03] BP: What is that bird called? Woodpecker.
[00:13:05] GG: Or the ram with the coil. I mean, the rams. The rams bash their heads together. But how can we reduce the amount of force, right? How can we reduce it? How can we, for instance, most football teams don't hit during practice. The NFL doesn't, because that's going to take away the number of hits. You look at linemen, they're the ones that have those issues later on with a disease. My mind just went blank.
[00:13:31] VW: CTE?
[00:13:31] BP: CTE.
[00:13:32] GG: The CTE. A lot of the linemen, because it's constant bang, bang, bang, bang.
[00:13:36] BP: Oh, yeah. They've learned about that, that you don't have to get a concussion every time, and it's interesting because as a professional athlete, you actually do less than you do as a kid in training. It's really weird. For me show jumping, I never jumped my horse, the full height of a show, like the Grand Prix fence, except for the horse show. Because why? They maintain fitness at home and the impact of landing off a jump, eventually, it's hard on their joints and things like that. So, you've saved those for the shows. And people are like, “You didn't jump all week?” I'm like, “No, why?” I'm going to jump at a horse show. They don't need it. And it's interesting because when you get to that professional level, your mindset changes. It's like, “I know what I'm doing. I don't need to practice this. I can just work on being fit and work on the in-between kind of thing.”
[00:14:25] GG: Well, marathon runners, they’re not going to –
[00:14:27] BP: Yeah. They run marathons all the time.
[00:14:30] GG: But they don’t run during the week, they’re going to run 7 to 12 miles, right? They're never going to go, what is it, 24 – no.
[00:14:38] BP: My mom was a marathon. It doesn’t make sense. The education is so important. Even just this last weekend, I was at a track and one of my friends crashed, and the first thing I asked was about the head. You can break every bone in your body and I'm like, “How's your head?” It’s instantly, and I was I was like, “How's your head?” And the one person who was following them on the track who watched the crash. He’s like, “Oh, he didn't hit his head.” I was like, “Technically it doesn't mean anything.” I was like, “He flew off the bike.” I was like, “His head didn't have to hit the ground.” He was just like shocked. I was like, “Why didn’t you know this? You should know that you don't have to smash your helmet up or scuffed it up to deal with a concussion. It's tough because that's the world we live in, just education around it. It's getting better, but it's still lacking significantly. I was shocked. I was like, “How do people still not know this?”
[00:15:32] VW: People don't understand that the brain is just sitting in fluid in your skull.
[00:15:37] BP: Honestly, it's like Jell-O. Just think of it like a thing in Jell-O, it just moves.
[00:15:39] VW: Yeah. And people don't understand, it just takes one small little jolt for your brain to concuss against your skull. It could be just someone just pushing you from the back, it doesn't have to be a blow to the head. That's why you're so right, Bella. There are so many different ways. and also it comes down to just education. Because also, when we're saying, it's also about hydration too. It's about hydration.
[00:16:23] BP: If you're an athlete, like I was, I get heatstroke all the time, because I just won’t forget.
[00:16:28] GG: So, here's the thing, that kind of –I mean, I can segue into talking, just talking a little bit about some of the studies that are doing now, and the sort of impact of hyperthermia or heat or elevated, you don't even have to be at 106, which is heatstroke. People that are in that 101 or 102 range where their body is kind of shutting down, they're not sweating, right? You're not sweating and then you get a concussion or you get hit. I mean, the studies are showing that their cognitive issues, later on, are much greater than not having that hyperthermia that he related.
[00:17:02] BP: That makes sense.
[00:17:04] GG: Yeah, and this is where sort of that, we need somehow to tell whether or not an athlete is in distress.
[00:17:11] BP: Because we don’t talk. I know. That’s how I ended up doing this. I can promise you, as an athlete, especially when you get competitive, yeah, you don’t say, no way.
[00:17:25] GG: I suffered headaches afterwards. I suffered from vomiting.
[00:17:27] BP: I got a concussion and showed up a week after and just told everyone I was doing great.
[00:17:33] GG: Yeah, but you're probably dizzy.
[00:17:34] BP: Oh, fine. It's like, I kind of like threw up after every time I competed. But I was just like, “It's fine.” I didn’t tell anyone. It was like, “You just carry on.” But Viron and George are the owners of ThermoPact, which you can learn more about in the link in our episode description or at thermopact.com.
So, with that, we're going to take a quick break before we get more into their mouthguard and internal temperature with concussion results.
[BREAK]
[00:18:02] BP: Have you joined our Support Network Concussion Connect? Did you know we do monthly giveaways? Next month is a custom Post Concussion Podcast Yeti water bottle. Just for being a member, you get entered to win, become a member and get the support you need by going to concussionconnect.com.
[INTERVIEW CONTINUE]
[00:18:25] BP: Welcome back to the Post Concussion Podcast with myself Bella Paige, and today's guests, Viron Widly and George Garbis. So, what I wanted to talk about was why we kind of got into a little bit of getting into the mouthguard, but why did you decide to create a mouthguard? I know myself, I've thought of creating products, but it is quite the process. So, what got you both into that?
[00:18:46] GG: It is probably about, I would say, a little over four years ago. I was sort of toying around with some ideas with materials. Because again, having been a coach, having been a dad and haven't been a dentist, I wanted to make something that was just better. The start of this is definitely, like what we started with, and what we ended up with are completely different. So, we went through so many variables.
But during that time, V and I were talking one day and it was just around the time when Jordan McNair had passed away. Jordan McNair is a University of Maryland football player who died of a heatstroke. He died of overheating. And I was just –being a Maryland grad, loving Maryland football. I was just like, “How?” There's got to be a way to sort of just say, “Hey, this person maybe getting a little hot here. Let's cool them down before it gets to that point.”
[00:19:41] BP: Yeah, I passed that once.
[00:19:42] GG: I mean, it's literally just a warning sign. And the way we figured that out was, I literally did a study on our own patients, where I took their temperature under their tongue, or took the temperature under their lip, kind of under their nose. What we found out was there's about a two-degree difference. So, if you're at 98 degrees, let's say under your tongue, and I took a temperature under your nose behind your lip, it'd be about 96. So, this guard is developed to change at 100 degrees, which if it does start to change, typically means you're at about 102. I don't say that's a safe temperature, but it's safe enough to say, “Okay, we're going to stop doing what we're doing right now. We're going to cool you off. Let's get you off the field.” Over 90% of the heat-related incidences, in at least football, let's say, is during practice.
And then practice is a much more controlled environment. So, you can have these athletes wearing these guards, have a quick check if it's 100 degrees outside, which I don't think they should be playing if it's 100 degrees outside, but there's Texas, Midwest, they're going to play.
[00:20:41] BP: I used to show in it, so I get it.
[00:20:45] GG: We used to play, I mean, I get you. So, that was sort of the catalyst. We were then blessed with having a medical engineer kind of join our group. His name's Dave Szabo, and he helped us sort of kind of come up with the materials that were needed to do what we needed to do. So, that was sort of the catalyst. And from there, we've just been trying to perfect it. We literally just launched this on Memorial Day weekend. I finally felt it was – I would put it in my own kids’ mouths so I would –
[00:21:11] BP: That’s a good test.
[00:21:13] GG: But the best test of all, the best test of all, you're going to love this. My wife got COVID and the poor things laying in bed with a 103 fever, and all I can do was, “Kids, get the guard.” We shoved her in her mouth.
[00:21:24] BP: I’m sorry. That’s funny.
[00:21:28] GG: Yeah, it’s hilarious. we watched it change colours, but she wouldn't let me video. I appreciate that. You got to kind of take my word for it. And then when her temperature went away, we shoved it back in there and it didn't change colours. So, we know it works and we also know we had a test done.
[00:21:44] BP: Yeah, the testing.
[00:21:46] GG: Yup. We had that done, it’s called biokinetics. They do a lot of NHL, and NFL testing.
[00:21:50] VW: And the military.
[00:21:52] GG: And the military. And they developed a test for us. They had never done a mouthguard test. It was really cool.
[00:21:57] BP: Mind-blowing when you told me that.
[00:21:59] GG: They took this fake mouth, and they boiled and formed our guard and the competitor’s guard. I won't mention their names. And what they found was when they dropped the ball on the mouth, on the guard, or on the mouth, it measured how much energy came through. So, at the bottom of the mouth underneath, there was a little calliper that would measure how much energy was absorbed, or how much would come through. So, hence how much was absorbed inside, and ours was anywhere from 20% to 80% more than some of these mouthguards that people are buying off the shelf for 20, 30, 40. It's just ridiculous the amount of money they spent.
Listen, anything is better than nothing. We can say that, even if you just put a piece of rubber in there, it's better than not having anything. But the goal is to get better. The goal is to give people a better more absorbent guard. Oh, and by the way, we'll tell you if you're overheating.
[00:22:54] VW: You know what's funny, Bella, George is actually being really nice. When we started this whole thing, I had actually come up with something, because out here we have turf. And I was on the turf and I came home with a product that I was trying to cope with called ThermoCap, which would go into the cap. I called George and I said, “Dude.” I said, “We've got to find a way to get heat into the guard.” And he said, Look, “I've been making mouthguards for Nico's team for the past like 10 years, why don't we just do a heat and guard together?” Bam. And here we are.
[00:23:25] GG: No one has ever done it.
[00:23:26] VW: That’s how we started this whole thing. Because we're talking about it, and he's like, “You know what? Okay, let's look into it.” Well, we googled on the internet, like there has to be something out there and there was absolutely nothing. So, that’s ThermoPact.
[00:23:43] BP: When you both told me about the no testing, that just blew my mind.
[00:23:49] GG: So, the ADA, American Dental Association does have sort of, it's more of the materials testing of a guard. They'll say, it's ADA-approved. It has nothing to do with the forces it takes. But it has to do with water solubility. The material that's used, whether or not it's –
[00:24:06] BP: Teeth rubbing.
[00:24:07] GG: Yeah, all that kind of stuff, has nothing to do with how much this thing actually absorbs. Because I feel like when they do, do the tests, they're going to find doesn't do that much. It doesn't do that much. I mean, that is one of the things I would like to change. If I were to walk away from this, and I'm done, I would love this product, to change the way that everybody looked at mouthguards, how they're used, and their importance of them. People can laugh at it and say, “Whatever. Coaches have a bag of these $1.50 mouthguards that they throw their kids if they lose one.” That's great, but we got to be a little more serious about it because it can do damage.
[00:24:56] VW: Bella, when you're talking about the research of the helmet. So, for example, just the other day one of my kids got his helmet back, and there's a sticker inside his helmet, this thing has been recertified for 2022. When we started this, George and I, we had contacted, it's in NOCSAE. They do all certifications for helmets, pads, and everything for across the country. We call them up to ask them to do a test on our mouth shield, and they're like, “We don't test mouthguards. We've never tested mouthguards.” Then we called another company, we don't test mouthguards.
And then, like George said, with biokinetics, they're like, they've tested everything. If you go to their site, military helmets, motorcycle, cross country, and motocross helmets. They do all the testing for that, but they did not have a test for a mouthguard. But now they do because of ThermoPact. So, that's what George and I saying. We're trying to change the industry in regard to safety. So, it's been a really good journey for us in regards to getting this thing out there, because we've now added in an extra component to safety in the sports world, the way I look at it.
[00:26:01] BP: Yeah, I know. It's wonderful. I remember years ago, this was probably three or four years ago. I was getting back into show jumping for the last time, and I emailed every single show jumping, like horse riding helmet company, and asked what helmet of theirs was the safest and why was it safer than the other one. A lot of them sent me the certifications they had, and one of them actually told me that one had an extra certification. The first thing, I went was like, “That means your other ones don't pass this and you know that.” I was just mind blown. I was like, you know that it doesn't pass. One helmet has one extra certification, which means the other ones in pass it, otherwise, they would have it and I was just like, “Wow.” Shocked at it.
[00:26:49] GG: What a good with that is, Bella, is that “Hey, we used to drive around cars that you buy a Honda with airbags and without airbags. So, I'm good with the one without it, because it's never going to happen to me until it does. And then it's too late. It should be a standard. There should be a standard.
[00:27:07] BP: I always tell people, like my niece got a really bad concussion this winter. And her parents freaked because they dealt with me, and I was in the hospital for two years, and they’re like panicked. Every time I get a text, it's like, “What are the signs of a concussion in a child?” I’m like, “Oh, no. Which one?” They have three. I was like, “There's kind of a difference, because the questions you ask a two-year-old and a five-year-old are different, how they understand.” For my niece, I'm like, “Don't ask her the questions on the sheet because she doesn't know what you're talking about when you ask if she sees double – you have to ask it in a way that a child understands.” Because otherwise, she's just staring at you. You ask her if her head hurts, and she just goes, “I don't know.” Or maybe she's throwing up like, yes, her head hurts. Things like that.
So, it's interesting, because I always tell parents and everything, like if they're in a sport and they don't get a concussion, they're lucky. It's part of it. It's very hard not to experience it like you're in an environment where you might get one. Gymnasts might not get a concussion, but the sub-concussive impacts are a huge problem that they're discovering today and all those types of things. So, it's like, you have to be aware of it. I said, “The smartest thing you can do is realize when your kid needs a break, and force them to take that break.” Be the mean one. Tell them not to get back on the ice. Tell them not to get back in the field. They might hate you for a few weeks, but then they won't hate themselves for life for getting back on.
So, we talked a little bit about studies on internal temperature. And I thought it was really interesting because for myself, I overheated a lot. I would get off a horse and I'd be like, like, I couldn't breathe, like no air, I knew I didn’t drink water, and I'm sure my internal temperature was like through the roof. Sometimes I get off and you'd kind of walk funny for a second in the heat, and then like straighten up because you hadn't drunk water all day. And so, do you want to talk a little bit more about the studies, and then we'll continue from there?
[00:29:03] GG: Sure. There are three stages. One was actually the Journal of Neuro Trauma. And the one thing about their studies was all of them had to do with hyperthermia and traumatic brain injuries, whether it's small, large, whatever it is. All three of the studies, the one from the Journal of Neuro Trauma, and the two from the University of Miami, they all concluded that there was an increase in inflammation when there was hyperthermia. So, when you're in a hypothermic state, your body temperature is above 101, 102, and you get a concussion. The inflammatory response is increased and the long-term effects, especially cognitively is increased. And one of the studies that showed that there was a significant amount of more histological damage in some of the – this was a rat study. So, it was a significant amount of more damage done when these animals were sort of heated up, basically. They brought their body temperature up.
So, it's pretty much layman's term. I mean, the studies were done between 2017 and 2019. There haven't been many studies after that. But I really think it's a significant thing that we need to look at, and I would like to contact the University of Miami and kind of talk to them a little bit about that as well. But that's kind of where we are with that.
[00:30:28] BP: I get wanting to look at things. The number of things I could just throw at research companies to study about concussions. If you try this and this and this and this, but I think it's wonderful that they're studying more, and recent studies make sense. Because everything in the concussion world, in my perspective, within the last 10 years, everything before that was pretty like, I've met the on the medical professional, that's like, “I've been doing this for 20 years”, and they're like one out of a thousand. Everyone else is like the last 5, 10 years, it's been –
[00:30:58] GG: Well, nobody wants to start something now. Nobody wants to be the first, and it takes a lot of guts. I've seen a few of your podcasts and I think it's great. I think, there are a lot of people out there that have had these post-concussion issues, and I see it in my practice. I see a lot of deterioration in cognition, I see a lot of just – you see him one way, six months, and then you hear they had a concussion, you hear that an issue. You see him six months later, and they're not the same.
[00:31:24] BP: No. They're a different person. It’s shocking, actually, when you realize.
[00:31:29] GG: Very shocking. So, hopefully this will help a little. It's a simple idea. It's a simple thing. It's a very inexpensive thing to do. Listen, if we have one person, then I feel like I've done my job.
[00:31:40] BP: I agree. Yeah. So, we've talked about a lot, actually, so much, and I've loved having you both on but is there anything else you would both like to add before ending today's episode?
[00:31:52] GG: No, I think we've covered it all. I really appreciate you taking the time to talk to us. I do.
[00:31:56] VW: Yeah, thank you so much. I can say, right now we're just, like I said, as a company, we're just trying to educate and let people know that play any sport that you want, don't be afraid, because like I said, just make sure you educate yourself and understand what you need to do to be safe in that sport.
[00:32:10] GG: And if you can fix the supply chain, we'd be in a lot better shape right now. We don’t have enough supply to make them. That’s the last thing we need.
[00:32:21] VW: It’s coming.
[00:32:21] BP: Well, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing all of your experiences with concussions and the research towards mouthguards.
[00:32:29] VW: Thank you, Bella.
[00:32:29] GG: Thank you, Bella. Appreciate it.
[END OF EPISODE]
[00:32:34] BP: Need more than just this podcast? Be sure to check out our website, postconcussioninc.com, to see how we can help you in your post concussion life, from a support network to one on one coaching, I believe life can get better because I've lived through it. Make sure you take it one day at a time.
[END]
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