Northstar Integrated Health

What We Treat

Unlock the locks to your true health potential

Where age old wisdom meets modern scientific medicine.

Chiropractic

The art and science of applying physical corrections that removes nerve interference to the three main nervous systems. The central nervous system which is made up of the brain and spinal cord run tue gross major functions of your entire body. The peripheral nervous system controls sensations you feel and the muscles that make you move. The autonomic nervous system automatically controls deeper muscles that you can’t move with your mind and also vital organs such as your heart and digestion. Chiropractic physical medicine corrections can influence and help normalize function of these three nervous systems.

Physical Therapy

Our office emphasizes three important aspects of therapy goals for helping patients feel and perform better by decreasing pain and increasing form and function.

1. Stretching is any form of muscle manipulation that elongates the muscle fibers. The more flexible you are, the less likely you are to injure yourself! Also your muscles can recover from stress and injury, both acute and chronic by having a therapist actively stretch you.

2. Strength building exercises can help weak muscle and structures build new connections that allow the patient move and perform better – whether if it’s typing at a desk all day or if you are an athlete that needs precise control with your game – we got you covered!

3. Range of motion is key to better form, function and movement. Lots of patients come in with restricted range of motion especially in their neck and shoulders as well as in their lower back! This leads to muscle fatigue and decreased performance especially at work. Our therapists work with these factors to help restore motion and allow for your body to perform in its top peak shape!

Acupuncture

The art and science of placing acupuncture points strategically in millennia old body locations to help alleviate pain and other health conditions. There are 12 major pathways on each side of the body that when blocked can cause dysfunction. There are two ways that acupuncture is explained in regards to how it works. The first way is the traditional explanation. The ancients who founded acupuncture art and science thousands of years ago believed that when the meridians had dysfunctional flow, there would be bodily dysfunction in that area. Virtually any symptoms and sign could be explained by these ancients by applying this theory and technique. Modern day science, believe it or not, has extensively researched acupuncture and its role in healing through academic research studies for just about any condition you can think of. What science has found is that when these key acupuncture points are stimulated, the body begins to produce all sorts of feel good and anti inflammatory chemicals naturally to help heal and bring homeostasis to the body. This in turn brings back a more healthy state of being and the patient begins to improve. No matter which school of thought your prefer to believe, the art and science of Acupuncture seems to work!

Medical Condition Management: Oftentimes when we have a health complaint or illness, we require regular orthodox western medicine. Most of the time this could be some medical tests or even some pharmaceutical medicines that can help with various signs and symptoms that the patent experiences. Our office recognizes that this type of approach has merit snd can prove to be successful as both first and second line therapies for many health conditions. Oftentimes it could also compliment other natural therapies bringing a balance to the equation so the patient has the best if both worlds in treating their issues.

Orthoses: Sometimes the patient will need prescriptive supports that compliment office care to be used at home. These types of orthotics can help the patient hold corrections and keep the proper form and structure to help prevent further injury. Common braces and orthoses include braces for low back and neck, especially for reversed neck curves, and even for fallen arches in the feet which oftentimes can lead to knee pain from gait dysfunction. Other specific bracing is for scoliosis support and correction as well as mid back kyphosis restructuring.

Allergy Testing: Traditional skin testing is used to identify immediate environmental allergies. Naturally compounded serums are then prescribed to counteract the patients allergies which can cause congestion, sneezing, runny nose and sore throat. In addition, various breathing problems such as asthma can be naturally alleviated with our natural desensitization programs. Other food allergies and sensitivities can also be assessed with simple blood tests. Oftentimes, if it’s not a life threatening immediate allergic reaction, the patient can present with delayed effects from foods that can sometimes cause headaches, anxiety, depression, PMS and more syndromes all from what they are eating. Tests can hone in and discover hidden culprits and then avoidance therapy to start healing the digestion and immune system thereby healing the patient.

Knee Program: Knee osteoarthritis is extremely common after the age of 50, which presents with pain and decreased range of motion. Sometimes going up and down the stairs can be troublesome, and sometimes the patient knows they have arthritis and are trying to buy time before the inevitable replacement they ultimately will need. Our office uses physical therapy modalities, specific braces to unload the knee, as well as Hyaluronic acid knee injections to cushion and buffer the knee so the patient has more mobility and better range of motion. Most patients find these injections painless and extremely beneficial to get them back into the activities they once could do before!

Digital radiographs: Our office has a fully digital X-ray machine that takes picture in a matter of minutes thereby giving the doctor and patient the opportunity to see what is going on fast! It doesn’t necessarily have to be quick process but the convenience is definitely a plus! Your clinician can then use this information to make key medical decisions to help you the most for the ultimate success with your care.

On-site Lab Testing: Having blood draws on site is definitely a bonus! No more forgiving to multiple places just to figure out what is going on with your body! Results come directly back to our office and your doctor will review them and make very specific recommendations baes in those results.

Functional Medicine Treatment: Functional medicine is the art and science of applying various lab tests and assessments to determine what might be going on with your body especially from a sub clinical point of view. Oftentimes the patient had symptoms and even some signs but regular medical science is not finding out what is the problem. By using specific tests and nutritional products your clinician can balance out potential pitfalls with your physiology and bring an overall balance to your possible nutritional deficiencies and sometimes gut flora imbalances or even toxic heavy metal poisoning that sometimes doesn’t show up on regular tests until it’s too late!

Soft Tissue Injection Therapy: Sometimes in conjunction with regular physical medicine therapies the patient needs more power to get the pain to decrease and range of motion to increase. Sometimes the patient has tried it even can’t tolerate oral medicines for pain, or even more does not want to get involved with narcotic therapy! In these types of cases we can use very small hypodermic needles we can insert into muscles, tendons, ligaments and other soft tissue structures to deliver very precise accuracy to where the medicine needs to go. Aside from this advantage alone, the patient sometimes can avoid oral non structure specific medications that oftentimes has systemic side effects that also is intolerable. The biggest side effect we hear about aside from gastritis is sedation. Office work and production goes way down when the patient is sedated from oral pain or muscle relaxers. These are some of the reasons patients prefer specific gentle off tissue injections to help support their care and treatment plan.