Balance Chiropractic & Wellness : Provides Functional Healing
Dec 27, 2016 ● By Carrie Jackson
With a combined focus on chiropractic health and functional medicine, Balance Chiropractic & Wellness, in Hoffman Estates, offers patients natural, non-pharmaceutical options to achieve overall wellness. Founder Dr. Kristen Halland, a chiropractic and functional medicine physician with specialties in acupuncture and nutrition, strives to find the root cause of a problem. “Using modern science as a foundation, we provide convenient, customized, evidence-based lifestyle improvements for overall wellness,” she says.
Halland works closely with her team that includes an integrative registered dietitian nutritionist, a massage therapist, other chiropractors and a stellar office staff that keeps everyone organized. In addition to chiropractic adjustments, they offer treatments like acupuncture, food intolerance tests, vitamin and dietary tests, nutritional guidance and thyroid support, all with a natural focus. They will provide referrals to other doctors and practitioners if a patients needs another specialty such as sports medicine.
“I joke that chiropractic medicine was my first love,” says Halland. “As a med student dealing with my own health issues, I was introduced to natural options that were so impactful they significantly improved my life and my overall health. Chiropractic is all about our structure and reducing the structural shifting of our spine. When there’s less shifting, our bones, muscles, tissues and joints all work together in the way they were designed to.” When structural shifts of the spine are corrected, the secondary conditions the shifts cause, such as neck pain, tingling or headaches, are corrected as well.
As a functional medicine physician, Halland encourages her patients to examine their everyday habits and behaviors. “Many of the health concerns I see today are derived from our lifestyle. A poor diet, lack of sleep, inactivity, poor posture and especially stress all contribute to aches and pains and other more serious health problems,” she says. Halland recommends drinking plenty of water, following a diet tailored to our specific nutritional needs and getting adequate deep, restorative sleep.
Modern technology also contributes to structural issues in the body, with people spending hours a day hunched over a computer or their mobile devices. “Everywhere you look, you see people with their heads bent forward, looking at their phones or tablets. I equate it to carrying around a 10-pound bowling ball—about what the head weighs. If you hold it close to your chest, it’s very manageable. The further away from the body the head is, the more the weight is displaced, which causes poor biomechanical structure and can lead to serious chiropractic conditions,” says Halland.
The team at Balance Chiropractic & Wellness uses natural treatments whenever possible, but tailors a plan that will work best for each patient. “When I meet with a new patient, we discuss all of their health concerns in great detail. I’m not against surgery and medications—sometimes they are an important quick fix and can open up the pathways for deeper healing. But I will always look at natural options first. Many patients with conditions like diabetes, high cholesterol and autoimmune conditions are seemingly dependent on medications, but simple lifestyle changes can help to wean them off of them,” says Halland.
The clinic offers comprehensive nutrient testing as part of an in-depth annual wellness profile which looks at 36 common vitamins and minerals to determine risks for body glycemic control, lipid profile, fatty acid balance and other nutritional deficits. “I base my recommendations off objective data, and one of the most impactful tests I like to use is the nutrient test, which allows us to see if the nutrients are getting absorbed in the cells, instead of just floating in the bloodstream. With one quick test, I can look at six months worth of data,” says Halland.
Halland and her team strive to empower patients to take control of their health with natural, safe and effective therapies that address the root cause of the condition. “Patient education is a big part of my practice. When we get lab result tests back, I schedule a 45-minute, sit-down meeting with the patient to go over the findings and discuss my recommendations. We work together to come up with a treatment plan that’s person-centered to meet their goals, one step at a time,” says Halland.
Balance Chiropractic & Wellness is located at 2500 W. Higgins Rd., Ste. 420, in Hoffman Estates. For more information, call 847-310-0303, email [email protected] or visit TheBalanceDoc.com. See ad on page 4 and in the Community Resource Guide.
Carrie Jackson is an Evanston-based writer and frequent contributor to Natural Awakenings magazine. Connect with her at CarrieJacksonWrites.com.
