Clinical Programs

Metabolic Balance

Integrative Medicine Clinical Programs

At Illinois Multi-Med, we believe that chronic illness occurs when the body's metabolic systems fall out of healthy balance. To better understand and treat illness, we need to look at the whole picture. We need to think about genetics, nutrition, digestion, energy level, sleep, exercise, mood, hormones, immune system function, and more, when considering how to treat any form of chronic illness.

The body is made of many complex interacting systems. When these systems are healthy, you are in metabolic balance. When you are acutely ill, you are out of metabolic balance. When you are chronically ill, you are stuck in a state of metabolic imbalance.

We feel that it is very important to address nutritional status in patients needing physical therapy. If you walk into an office with back pain, assessment of your problem should include a focused history, a look at posture, gait, and joint alignment, focused examination maneuvers, and questioning to help determine whether nutritional, hormonal, or other metabolic factors might contribute to a poor treatment response.

What matters is kind of framework your doctor uses to diagnose and treat medical problems. In many settings, the doctor's clinical problem-solving framework is, "name the disease, name the drug for the disease, next patient." The sad truth is, it takes 30 seconds to prescribe a drug, but it make take 30 minutes to adequately discuss non-drug approaches to a medical problem. Given the time pressure most doctors are under, drug prescriptions become the answer by default, because they're the quickest.

The same can be true for managing injuries and chronic musculoskeletal conditions. That is, the framework may be "name the injury, name the therapy for the injury, next patient." In this situation, the thing to avoid is a cookie-cutter framework to physical therapy. At Illinois Multi-Med, we believe that an integrative medical framework offers patients the best value.

All of the clinical programs we offer have been designed with these principles in mind.

Fibromyalgia
This program is designed for patients with fibromyalgia. The diagnosis and treatment protocols use an integrative medicine framework to blend medical science with the healing arts. Each patient receives a comprehensive, individualized treatment plan, adjusted where needed during follow-up visits. Treatment plans address pain, fatigue, sleep, as well as nutritional, immune system, circulatory, hormonal, and toxicity status.

Back and Neck Pain
This program begins with a thorough neurological, orthopedic, and biomechanical assessment, and continues with treatments ranging from physical therapy and chiropractic adjustment, to acupuncture and massage therapy, with a full range of alternative forms of bodywork available as well. Services also include functional capacity evaluations, supervised exercise sessions, and ergonomic advice. Prescription medications are also used as needed.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Using traditional physical therapy measures, acupuncture, and special carpal tunnel distraction methods, our program aims to get patients out of the acute pain and inflammation phase, and into a corrective phase as soon as possible. Attention is paid to easily overlooked issues that can explain poor response to treatment, such as nutritional status, sleep, exercise, and stress.

Weight Control
This program identifies roadblocks to weight loss, and teaches you how to maintain a lower weight. It is especially helpful for people who have a combination of obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and insulin resistance. Calorie, fat, and carbohydrate restrictions are designed into a balanced diet tailored to their metabolic needs. Obstacles to weight loss are given special consideration. While people do lose weight with our program, it's not about slimming down as much as it's about feeling better.