GO TEAM, YAAAY TEAM!!!

Quality healthcare is best achieved by a team, “we are all in it,” approach. Back-in-the-day, before Covid, I was participating in a yearly, multi-disciplinary workshop for the second-year medical students at WMU’s Homer Stryker Medical School. Three other, “alternative,” healing disciplines were also represented. You may ask, “alternative to what?” Alternative usually refers to anything that is not in the “accepted” medical realm. In our case, it included me, a chiropractor, an acupuncturist, massage therapist and a “mindfulness” psychology practitioner. The workshops were also formed from a government directive that required medical students to learn about alternative approaches to pain control rather than relying on opioid medications. In my world, the mantra has always been that one should utilize chiropractic care first, medication second and surgery last when it comes to musculoskeletal-related aches and pains.

The workshop allowed me to open the minds of the mostly young medical students to consider the concept of inward correction of bodily malfunctions rather than controlling symptoms or correcting physical problems coming from “outside of the body” interventions. I also used a concept called “The Triad of Health” to explain the more holistic mindset I have as a chiropractor that really is not emphasized in traditional medical training. The Triad is a model that represents true health as the interplay between three aspects of well-being, structural/chemical/and mental. Optimal health is defined as “a state of optimal physical, mental, and social wellbeing, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”

My area of expertise is the physical or musculoskeletal aspect of the body. I use the FEEL, FORM, FUNCTION model to illustrate that the way one FEELS is a product of the condition of the FORM of the body and how well it FUNCTIONS. In addition, beyond the symptoms of pain, studies now show the physical balance of the body determines the internal physiological balance as well. People with poor posture and limited mobility have more physiologically based illnesses and disease, or as we like to say in the chiropractic world, dis-ease. In my career, I have been blessed to have combined other disciplines in healthcare to achieve success in helping people feel better, stand straighter and move better. Patients heal from the inside out rather than relying on drugs and surgery that alter the body from the outside in. In our own office, we have employed massage therapists and reflexologists. I was part of the Bronson Center of Integrative Medicine for a number of years, meeting monthly with medical professionals, acupuncturists, massage and physical therapists and psychologists. I was also a part of Sol Spring Wellness Center that, in addition to the aforementioned disciplines, also included a nutritionist and a colonic practitioner. In recent years, we shared office space with an Orthopedic Surgeon, Physiatrists, a Physical Therapist, Acupuncturist and Massage Therapists. We are currently sharing office space with Insight Functional Medicine that guides patients to find the root cause of health problems and treat patients by utilizing nutritional therapies, hyperbaric oxygen therapy and other holistic methods. Carrie Palmer, PA-C, IFMPC and her staff provide the care at Insight. We also continue to have a massage therapist on our staff.

If you are looking for a chiropractor that is holistically minded and grounded by an integrative, team player attitude and aptitude, please call us today at 324-0100 for an appointment. If you are wearing yourself down, we will build you back up, and we are eager to do our job of keeping you healthy and fit with our FEEL, FORM and FUNCTION model for healthcare!