Resolved Chronic Joint Pain and Obesity Through Holistic Root Cause Treatment

Having just the general staff all working together towards the same goal - both in our own lives and with our patients - helps to keep us on track. We hold each other accountable. My name is Michele Pullman. I'm in Wichita Falls, Texas and I'm a PA. So, I have battled obesity and joint pain, particularly my hip and my knee, for many years. I had put on a few extra pounds over the last... probably five years. And so I was looking to get some of that weight off and I developed a labral tear in my hip. Couldn't work out because of hip pain. I was starting to gain back some weight - I'd had gastric sleeve about 12 years ago and the weight was starting to creep back on. I'm the PA here at Pinnacle. I'm the one that helps people and so, Dr. Schachter and I created this method. I needed to live the life that I was teaching. Because of my functional medicine training and orthopedic training, I started doing the things that we were getting ready to teach our patients. So I started applying, watching my diet. I did gut health testing, I did nutritional testing. I started using peptide therapies. I had PRP in my hip and ended up not needing it in my knee because just losing the weight and using the peptides, I was able to resolve my knee pain completely. I had tried physical therapy with minimal success on the knee, and no success on the hip. And for weight loss I had tried other methods including some of the newer weight loss drugs which helped, but it was really more the overall approach. One of the things that I like is having both Dr. Schachter and Caroline - who's our life coach, who is, you know, PhD in immunology, she's super smart - she's helped me with anti- inflammatory diet cues... looking at my nutritional testing, my Pinoe, which is our cardiovascular testing, to really help fine- tune food choices, exercise methods, things like that. I've been a world traveler for years. That's my love, my passion. But I was actually able to do a two-week hiking trip in Ireland back in October with my husband with absolutely no pain. So I'm much more active. I sleep regularly and I sleep well. And I hadn't been some of that was my hormones, because I also have been able to get my hormones under better control. I feel better so that everything else I do works. The biggest thing for me, I think I notice, is I can get on the floor to play with my grandson and get back up without help and without pain. And I can lift him up and throw him in the air and catch him which is something I could not have done three years ago. So, I think that Pinnacle is the best choice for somebody who's looking for an all-around holistic approach to their joint pain, who doesn't want to just get a shot and go about their life and really not get any better. So, if a patient is really interested in changing how they feel and what they're doing and just need guidance, but also want to attack the problem at the root cause and not just put a band aid on it with another shot or another pill or another surgery, that's what Pinnacle does. That's what they specialize in. I tell people, "if you want the right way, not the quick and easy way... that's what we do." And that's what Pinnacle is the best at - getting rid of joint pain by attacking it from all sides. Women, especially - but even men go through midlife hormonal change, called andropause - I push that you really got to get your hormones under control or you will only have worsening joint pain. That's one of the reasons why the Pinnacle method works is because it's attacking it at the root cause.