Services
Nutritional CounselingChinese and Japanese Acupuncture
Testing Services
Herbal and Nutritional Supplements
Certified Detox Specialists
Acupuncture for Pain Relief
Pediatrics
Lifestyle Counseling
Stress Management
Cosmetic Acupuncture
Insurance Filing
Long-Distance Consulting
Nutritional Counseling
No healing can take place without nutrition to rebuild the body!
We are certified Applied Clinical Nutritionists. This is the use of nutrition to treat specific conditions and heal disease by giving the body specific food supplements (not isolated and incomplete vitamins like 99% of supplements on the market).
Working with whole food supplements gives the body all the co-factors and enzymes for absorption that allows healing to occur. This is very different than the typical nutritionist who gives synthetic Vitamin A - for example, there are 200 different compounds in a carrot, which work synergistically with the Vitamin A in a carrot, versus removing it and synthesizing it in a lab, and hoping that it will work in the same manner. In our experience, we have found that adding nutritional whole food supplements to many of our treatments has greatly increased the efficacy and speed of healing.
We can also help you create a lifestyle of nutrition that works for you. Never cook at home? Have kids? Spend lots of time at the office? Athletic? Have specific health concerns? We can work with all of them and create a realistic, do-able and even enjoyable program to help you improve your health.
Chinese and Japanese Acupuncture
We have specialties in several types of acupuncture. Most people are familiar with Chinese acupuncture which uses hair-thin needles to adjust people’s energy, and therefore their health. We also have a practitioner who specializes in Toyohari, an enormously effective Japanese form of acupuncture that is gentle enough that even children love it! For the needle-shy, this is the answer!
Testing Services
We spend a great deal of time each year getting trained in cutting edge holistic care and functional medicine. What this means to you is that our primary focus is to return your body to a fully functioning, optimal health state. Just treating symptoms and "getting by" is not good enough for us. To achieve the level of results we are known for, we use many diagnostic tools including laboratory testing.
Currently we test blood, saliva, urine, stool, skin and hair as well as using physical diagnosis techniques that involve palpation, joint range of motion measurement, Applied Kinesiology, strength testing (testing individual muscles) and much more. We review tests and medical records from other providers to find the gaps in health care that have prevented you from achieving the level of success you are looking for. We like a challenge and our practice is built on it. We test hormones, minerals, toxic metals, immune function, thyroid and adrenal function, digestive function and more. We find and treat food allergies, parasites, yeast (Candida) and other hard-to-find infections.
Combining Oriental medicine, Western medicine and nutrition, we clearly see solutions that are missed when only seeing practitioners within one field. These tests regularly uncover hidden causes for poor health, and we treat them quickly and efficiently.
Herbal and Nutritional Supplements
All of our herbalists are not only Nationally Certified in Chinese Herbology, they are also licensed by the Texas Board of Medical Examiners. This means that your practitioner is trained in analyzing your symptoms and creating a formula specific to your diagnosis.
We use the highest quality professional herbs from around the world, one of which was the only company ever to be accepted and reimbursed by the UK National Healthcare System.
Again, we only use the highest quality nutritional supplements — organic, non-synthetic, based on whole food sources. You won’t be finding this level of quality in your local health food store OR on the web! It is because of this that we get results that other practitioners don’t. We take this extensive knowledge into the field, and lecture nationally to other health care practitioners interested in learning what we know.
Certified Detox Specialists
Cleansing can bring many health benefits and, as certified Detox Specialists, we can provide the support needed for optimal results. We can proficiently guide our patients through nutritional cleanses to get them the results they want. More information about our MWC Detox Cleanse package is available here.
Acupuncture for Pain Relief
The most dangerous words a patient can say are, "Maybe it will go away." Consider that pain is a warning signal to the body, and that ignoring that signal, or covering it up with pain killing drugs, may lead to bigger health issues. There are many ways that pain can be handled. At Merritt Wellness Center, we have experience in several of those modalities.
Acupuncture is widely recognized for pain relief. From dental and surgical anesthesia to migraines, everybody has heard about acupuncture relieving pain. How does it help? In Oriental Medicine, pain is always a result of the body's energy being blocked. When the natural flow of this energy is blocked, it backs up and creates pain and pressure, much like water behind a dam. Acupuncture changes and improves the flow of this energy, relieving the blockage and therefore alleviating the pain.
Massage also moves energy and blood and often can alleviate pain. This is why massage is included in all of our acupuncture sessions.
Oriental Medicine does not just treat the signs and symptoms. It uncovers the source of your pain and corrects it. Not only can we eliminate the dam that causes the pain, we can get to the root of what initially caused the problem. When the problem is corrected, your body can begin to heal at a deeper level.
Don't put up with pain! Chronic or acute, Oriental Medicine can make an enormous difference in your pain and in your quality of life.
Pediatrics
This is not the office that parents take their children to first - it usually the last stop after all other avenues have failed. As such, we are used to solving difficult cases and have developed methods that go beyond conventional thinking.
Kids love this type of doctor’s office! No painful needles, and a lot of attention. Imagine your child is healthy enough to not need antibiotics, or that there are gentle and effective ways to get your child healthy if they are sick. We have solved chronic ear and sinus problems, rashes and dermatological problems, digestive problems and more. Not only do we have effective vitamins and herbs that can strengthen your child, we can also teach you how to help them at home through nutrition. We treat all ages — from newborns to teenagers. Children often respond faster than adults to treatment.
Lifestyle Counseling
We know that people are occasionally “nervous” about seeing a complementary healthcare practitioner – “What if they tell me to stop eating meat?” (we won’t!) or “I’m too tired to exercise every day!” (then we just figure out first why you’re tired). What we’re committed to is that we find new ways for you to break out of your routines, and put in habits and new ways of thinking that support you in your new health goals. We figure out what is already working and build on that. Now, it’s true that there may be some changes that would be good to make, but they will be your choices, not us insisting on anything. We’re all about meeting you wherever you are, and giving you choices, and educating you on those choices, so you can make ones that work for you.
Stress Management
It has been shown by the AMA that 80% of people in the hospital are there because their stress has manifested as a chronic problem that now has to be more drastically treated. Acupuncture and massage have been shown to be one of the most effective ways to limit the damages of stress and induce the relaxation response. This is not just about “feeling good”, although lots of people notice that also! Our body's stress mechanisms ARE designed to support us during challenging times, like in an emergency, not the constant stress to which we are exposed. Stress can be "externally generated" like a difficult boss, an unrewarding job, a less-than-peaceful home life, caring for an aging parent or sick child, uncertainty about circumstances around us, whether they are work, or world issues. And stress can also be "internally generated" - for example, constant worrying, driving yourself too hard, being a perfectionist, or carrying grudges.
When you "put up" with symptoms like insomnia, irritability, fatigue, headaches, “nervous stomach”, mood swings, anxiety, depression, or tight neck and shoulders, the imbalance will only get worse and opens the door for more extreme and chronic health issues to emerge later . At Merritt Wellness Center, we can make an enormous difference in how you deal with stress, both in our office and with tools we can give you to use at home. This is our specialty - come see why our patients return again and again for our combination massage/acupuncture sessions - it's what makes the difference for them to be in peak form in the rest of their lives!
Mei Zen Cosmetic Acupuncture
Your Face Is A Mirror Of Your Internal Health!
We understand that your outward appearance is an important component to your sense of wellbeing, and that you look your best when you’re healthy inside and out!
The skin is our largest organ and reflects the state of our internal health. It is the only organ that we have to take care of internally and externally. In Chinese Medicine, the state of physical health, emotions, and spirit shows on the skin, particularly on the skin of the face.
To help you look revitalized, full of life, and your best, we practice the Mei Zen Cosmetic Acupuncture protocol. The outstanding distinction of this protocol is that it has the side effect of improved health.
At Merritt Wellness Center, cosmetic acupuncture is much more than just a cosmetic procedure—it is a technique that revitalizes and rejuvenates from the inside out. Learn more>
Insurance Filing
We do file insurance. We are happy to inquire with your insurance company to find out if you have coverage, and we will gladly file the paperwork for you. We also follow up to make sure your claim goes through.
PHCS and Multiplan have recently merged and become one entity. We are network providers (and are paid at in-network levels) for all insurance plans that participate with PHCS or MultiPlan. Check your insurance card to see if you have either the PHCS or Multiplan logo, and please call us to check your benefits if you do. Additionally, both PHCS and Multiplan now process claims for some of the larger insurance companies (i.e. Humana, United Healthcare) and so now many of the policies provided by these larger carriers will now have benefits for the services we provide.
We are providers for Blue Cross Blue Shield. Please call us to check your benefits.
Long-Distance Consulting
We know that our practice is very different from typical doctor’s offices, and even from other acupuncturists and nutritionists! We offer long distance consulting for patients who do not live in our area. We have specific paperwork that allows us to diagnose you and prescribe nutritional and herbal treatments that are specific to your health needs. We mail them directly to you along with printed information. We stay in contact with you just like our regular patients to make sure everything is working properly and that you’re getting your questions answered.