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Fox Valley Wellness Center was founded in 1999, by Dr. Steven Meress, MD, FACP and his wife Julie who is a Registered Nurse. The idea for Fox Valley Wellness Center actually began in 1989 while Dr. Meress and Julie were working together at a local hospital in the Emergency Room, Dr. Meress as Department Chief and Julie as Assistant Manager.
From time to time they discussed how certain patients came into the ER expecting relief of their symptoms, when they actually needed to find a cause for their symptoms. Some patients ended up in the ER due to frustration with their doctors and their diagnosis. Many times the two discussed other types of treatments that they had encountered and experienced. Discussions stemmed from the travels that both Dr. Meress and his wife have done throughout the world. They watched other cultures provide health care for little to no cost and with much less technology. Dr. Meress had spent time in Barbados, St. Vincent and Grenada, where he obtained his medical degree and was able to experience Third World medicine.
The concept of finding the cause instead of treating the symptoms became more evident. They came to realize that treating the symptoms or in other words, using the "Band-Aid approach", which traditional medicine embraces, would not fit into the philosophy of their clinic.
Relying heavily on his excellent diagnostic skills from his traditional training and utilizing his knowledge of alternative therapies, Dr. Meress said, "As a physician, who is really a medical detective, it takes time to hear the story and ask the pertinent questions of a patient's history. Most of the time, the story elicits a diagnosis before a physical examination is performed". Word of mouth spread and 3 years later Fox Valley Wellness Center moved to a new, larger facility to offer more therapies and thus more options for patients.
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