DC, Dipl Ac
Chicago Loop
312-243-3338
www.DrNick.net
Women’s Health, Nutrition, Breast Thermography

Services

Describe your services:
I design unique natural medicine approaches for persons suffering with an illness or for those who are looking to optimize their health. My personalized treatment plan addresses diet, nutrition, nervous system function, and other lifestyle factors. This plan is based upon a thorough history, examination, and laboratory workup. For women, I provide Infrared Breast Thermography as a substitute to mammography, alternative approaches to hormone therapy, and comprehensive alternative care for all health concerns, including annual check-ups. I also provide chiropractic adjustments, acupuncture, herbal medicine, and supplement prescriptions.

How does your healing modality work?
My method is to address what I term “The Four Pillars of Health”. The Four Pillars are the fundamental aspects of what makes a person healthy, focused, and at peace. The first pillar is diet. The concept that “you are what you eat” is true, but its validity relies on more than the amount of protein, fat, and carbohydrates in your diet. The types of food you eat will change how your immune system functions and can even alter what genes are activated. My approach is plant-based and remarkably simple. The second pillar is exercise. Regular physical activity is necessary for proper hormone production and to maintain healthy body composition. I use bio-impedance to determine lean body mass, body fat, basal metabolic rate, and intra-cellular and extra-cellular water. Location of water in the body is significant because it can indicate the success, or need, of a detox program. The third pillar is the central nervous system. The brain and spinal cord control all bodily functions including immunity and physiology. Stress—both physical and emotional—can change how neurons in the nervous system function. This can result in an abnormal “imprinting” that can continue long after the original stressor is removed. The nervous system is altered favorably by acupuncture, manipulation and other hands-on techniques. The fourth pillar is the mind-body interaction. Thoughts and emotions will change body physiology. For example, studies have demonstrated meditation can triple the life-expectancy in terminal cancer patients. My approach is to integrate yoga, meditation, and other stress-management techniques to achieve a healthy mind. Serious illnesses like cancer, autoimmune disease, asthma, and inflammatory bowel disease do not happen randomly. They result by chronically ignoring these pillars.

How do you see your services evolving over the next three years?
I am happy with my approach and the results I achieve now, so I really don’t see my services changing too much. I would, however, like to begin group training in yoga and meditation.
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Benefits

What are the benefits/results people see?
My patients experience an improvement in energy within days and an average person can expect to lose fifteen pounds with my “Thirty-Day Detoxification Program” (if overweight). Many who are suffering with digestive problems will experience substantial improvement within one week. Women receiving breast thermography are immediately pleased at having a viable alternative to mammography. Then there are also those women with life-threatening diseases who claim I have saved their lives. In general, people are usually quite satisfied with the results.

Why do people come to see you?
People come to see me to get to the root of their health problem. They are looking for a rational explanation of what’s wrong with them, and what they can do to fix it. The majority of patients I see have gotten little help from conventional doctors or they are dissatisfied with the prescribed treatment—treatment that very often does nothing to address why something happened in the first place. I have helped women with uterine fibroids, endometriosis, cervical dysplasia, PMS, hormonal imbalances, cancer, as well as improve the quality of life in persons who just don’t feel well. This latter group includes women with fatigue, headaches, digestive discomfort, sore muscles and joints, anxiety, and depression.

Who is an ideal client?
The ideal client is the one who is tired of being told their problem is in their head, fed up with pills that address only symptoms and who want to achieve better health. Often I see individuals who have multiple complaints and haven’t gotten satisfactory results with other doctors.

What makes you different/good at what you do?
My approach is thorough and comprehensive. I use both conventional diagnostic laboratory tests as well as “functional medicine” testing. Functional medicine is a new label for the branch of medicine that attempts to find the cause of an illness and is being fueled by recent advances in genetics that have demonstrated that you are more than the sum your genes. Functional medicine tests differ fundamentally in that, for example, where a conventional test would look for liver destruction as evidenced by elevated liver enzymes, a functional test instead identifies how well the liver is actually functioning, By identifying the health and capacity of an organ like the liver, therapeutic intervention can be undertaken long before the damage would be severe enough to be identifiable on less sensitive conventional tests. To laboratory results I add a comprehensive, thorough physical examination, a detailed patient history, and diet history to create a unique and individualized plan-of-action.
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Philosophy/Approach

Describe your healing philosophy:
Ultimately, we must each heal ourselves. Our bodies are inherently capable of maintaining health, but many of us unknowingly, and sometimes knowingly, behave in ways that undermine the natural healing mechanisms with which we are born. My job is to assist a person in determining what needs healing and how it can be accomplished.

Describe your style or approach:
My approach is to listen. Usually it is what a person is saying that carries the most significance. Second only to listening is being thorough with my examination. It is by attentive listening, thorough examination and appropriate lab work that I design an approach that typically includes dietary changes, herbal and/or nutraceutical prescriptions, acupuncture, and chiropractic or other natural therapies.

Why do you do what you do?
Helping others to improve their health gives my life meaning. I also find the “detective work” of medicine intellectually stimulating.
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Education/Background

Education/Training:
UW Milwaukee: BS Human Biology; Post-graduate training molecular biology and endocrinology; NUHS: Doctor of Chiropractic (summa cum laude); Midwest Center for the Study of Oriental Medicine: Ac. T.; NUHS Post-Doctoral: internal medicine and gynecology; 50+ hours per year since 1994 continuing medical education in general medicine. I am currently enrolled in a post-doctoral Master’s Degree program in Advanced Clinical Practice.

Years Professionally Practicing:
Since 1994.

Contributions/Publications:
I have been a featured holistic medicine and women’s health expert at the Whole Life Expo of 1997, 1998 and 2002; the Wellness 2000 expo; Chicago NBC, ABC and Fox news; numerous radio health programs; My treatment for cervical dysplasia and the Breast Thermography that I perform has been published in “Holistic Chicago” magazine. My integrative treatment for uterine fibroids has been published in the Journal of Chiropractic Medicine.
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What to expect

Describe a typical session:
There is no typical. It depends upon whether a person is coming in for a general check-up, for pain control, or thermography, or some other test or procedure.

How long is a typical session?
I usually schedule hour-long appointments. For a comprehensive wellness check-up, I perform breast thermography, basic blood chemistry, a complete physical exam including the more accurate Thinprep pap, all on the first visit. This usually takes about an hour. On the follow-up appointment I then sit down with the patient to go over all of the objective findings obtained on the first visit, discuss the patient’s diet and specific concerns, and then I create a personalized treatment plan. This second visit also takes about one hour. For many health concerns I combine acupuncture, chiropractic adjustments, and myofascial therapy. This treatment visit lasts about forty-five minutes.

Describe your office or treatment room:
Eclectic motif—mostly oriental artwork. I have numerous rooms for different therapies and testing procedures.

How should someone prepare for a session?
No preparation needed.
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Logistics

Office hours/days of the week:
Monday-Friday 9 AM to 5:00 PM and by appointment

Fee Range
$45-350

Take Insurance?
Yes. I am also a preferred provider for BCBS PPO.

Cancellation Policy?
24 hours notice
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Closing comments

What else might someone want to know about you?
I was raised on a farm in northern Wisconsin that had chickens, goats, and horses. This environment gave me a deep appreciation for nature and what it is to live in a healthy setting. My desire to help others achieve health is driven by a personal pursuit of health myself. I was a competitive gymnast, sprinter, and soccer player. I also live what I preach. The basis for the diet I recommend to patients evolved out of my own personal eating habits. I started meditation and yoga, which I perform daily, as a result of personal difficulties. My approach to life is to maintain “presence” and be mindful of the debt I owe to all those around me. I share this information with those persons who are suffering needlessly, and are ready to do something about it.
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