Dr. Joshua Duplessis Joins Integrated Physical Medicine in Joliet
We are proud to announce Dr. Joshua Duplessis, DC, ATC, CSCS, has joined our Joliet, IL office. Dr. Josh is both a Chiropractor and Athletic Trainer and worked closely with the staff and patients in New Lenox before moving to our Joliet clinic. He will be a big addition to the quality of patient care in his new location.
Dr. Joshua Duplessis, received his Bachelor of Science degree in Athletic Training from Northern Illinois University in 2009. After working as an athletic trainer for the Marine Corps and Amazon, he decided it was time to further his education. He graduated from National University of Health Sciences with his Doctorate of Chiropractic degree in 2021.
Dr. Josh has taken courses in dry needling, Graston Technique (IASTM), and Selective Functional Movement Assessment (SFMA). Also, he has certifications as a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS), and Athletic Trainer (ATC). He also has completed course work with the Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) to help golfers Move Well, Often, Pain Free and Strong.
Some of Dr. Josh’s specialities include Sports Medicine Orthopedic Care. You will often find him on a local field or sideline providing assessment and treatments to the athletes.
Dr. Josh is married to his beautiful wife Krystle and they have one daughter, Savannah. When he has free time he enjoys spending time with family, summer BBQ, spending time in the water, CrossFit, weight lifting, and being a wrestling referee for the Illinois High School Association.
Dr. Joshua Duplessis Joins Integrated Physical Medicine in Joliet We are proud to announce Dr. Joshua Duplessis, DC, ATC, CSCS, has joined our Joliet, IL office. Dr. Josh is both a Chiropractor and Athletic Trainer and worked closely with the staff and patients in New...
We are proud to announce Kelly Drudi, MSN, APN-BC, has joined our New Lenox office. Kelly is a board-certified nurse practitioner with full practice authority in the state of Illinois.
We’ve all had a headache before and know how debilitating they can be. Some are occasional, some frequent, some are dull and throbbing, some even cause nausea. They almost always ruin your day and even change the way you live.
Nurse Practitioner Kelly Drudi Joins Integrated Physical Medicine
We are proud to announce Kelly Drudi, MSN, APN-BC, has joined our New Lenox office. Kelly is a board-certified nurse practitioner with full practice authority in the state of Illinois. She received her BSN in 1999 from St. Francis Medical Center College of Nursing in Peoria, IL. Then received her APN from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, IL in 2011. Kelly is board-certified though American Nurses Credentialing Center as Adult Nurse Practitioner.
These two new cutting-edge fields of medicine continue IPM’s mission of offering their patients a team committed to providing well rounded physical solutions to address their unique needs. IPM’s Chiropractors, Athletic Trainers, Patient Coordinators and now Nurse Practitioner, have a full spectrum of expertise and experience to have the ability to offer what others can not – options.
“I’m excited to join the IPM team,” Kelly states. “I’m excited to continue to learn and add my touch of caring.”
In her free time, Kelly enjoys camping with her husband and daughter in Amboy, IL. She loves live music, attending concerts and watching Broadway musicals. She also likes to cook and garden. Kelly is a dog mom to an English bulldog and Mastiff mix.
Dr. Joshua Duplessis Joins Integrated Physical Medicine in Joliet We are proud to announce Dr. Joshua Duplessis, DC, ATC, CSCS, has joined our Joliet, IL office. Dr. Josh is both a Chiropractor and Athletic Trainer and worked closely with the staff and patients in New...
We are proud to announce Kelly Drudi, MSN, APN-BC, has joined our New Lenox office. Kelly is a board-certified nurse practitioner with full practice authority in the state of Illinois.
We’ve all had a headache before and know how debilitating they can be. Some are occasional, some frequent, some are dull and throbbing, some even cause nausea. They almost always ruin your day and even change the way you live.
We’ve all had a headache before and know how debilitating they can be. Some are occasional, some frequent, some are dull and throbbing, some even cause nausea. They almost always ruin your day and even change the way you live.
So how do you deal with a pounding headache? Lie down? Grit your teeth and carry on? Take pain medication and wait? These solutions only provide temporary relief at best. Pain medications have limited effects on many types of headaches. Attention is turning to the use of non-drug options and fortunately, there’s many other techniques that provide alternative solutions that last. But before we get to that, we need to know what causes a headache in the first place.
Headache Triggers
Headaches have many causes. These causes are often called “triggers.” Triggers may include foods, environmental stimuli (noises, lights, stress, etc.) and/or behaviors (insomnia, excessive exercise, blood sugar changes, etc.). Certain foods can also contribute to the development of headaches.
Another more subtle, but equally as powerful trigger is a person’s posture. People today engage in more sedentary activities than they used to, and more hours are spent in one fixed position or posture. This can increase joint irritation and muscle tension in the neck, upper back and scalp, causing the head to ache.
What Can You Do?
Consider these lifestyle strategies to prevent and help alleviate headaches:
Watch what you eat Avoid caffeine. Foods such as chocolate, coffee, sodas and cocoa contain high levels of the stimulant. Avoid foods with a high salt or sugar content. These foods may cause migraines resulting in sensitivity to light, noise or abrupt movements. Some people will need to avoid high-protein foods, dairy products and/or red meat.
Avoid alcohol Avoid drinking alcoholic beverages. These drinks can dehydrate you and cause headache pain. It doesn’t take more than one or two ‘hangovers’ to understand this one. And even if you don’t consume alcohol…
Hydrate Drink an adequate amount of water each day to help avoid dehydration. Dehydration in general is a quick path to a headache.
Take a break If you spend a large amount of time in one fixed position, such as in front of a computer or on a cell phone, typing, playing video games or reading, take a break and stretch every 30 minutes to one hour. The stretches should take your head and neck through a comfortable range of motion.
Get your body moving Low-impact exercise may help relieve the pain associated with primary headaches. However, if you are prone to dull, throbbing headaches, avoid heavy exercise. Engage in such activities as walking and low-impact aerobics.
Avoid teeth clenching The upper teeth should never touch the lowers, except when swallowing. This results in stress at the temporomandibular joints (TMJ), the two joints that connect your jaw to your skull. This commonly leads to TMJ irritation and a form of tension headaches.
What Can Be Done At IPM?
All of our staff at Integrated Physical Medicine have undergone extensive training to help their patients with headaches and migraines. They can look for and identify how tension in the spine relates to problems in other parts of the body, including the head. They are able to then take steps to relieve not just the headache, but the root cause of the headache.
Spinal manipulation therapy (SMT) is a centerpiece of chiropractic care. Research shows that SMT may be an effective treatment option for cervicogenic headaches, which are tension headaches and headaches that originate in the neck.
In fact, a scientific review of research* published in 2020 determined that SMT could be considered an effective treatment for tension headaches because it provides “superior, small, short-term effects for pain intensity, frequency and disability when compared with other manual therapies.”
In addition to their expertise in spinal manipulation, chiropractors are trained to recommend therapeutic and rehabilitative exercises. These adjustments are designed to improve spinal function and alleviate the stress on your system, not just with your head and neck but your entire body.
Our IPM staff can also provide nutritional, dietary and lifestyle counseling. Recommendations for changes in a person’s diet can create amazingly positive results.
Finally, our IPM staff can offer very specific advice on posture, ergonomics (work postures), exercises and relaxation techniques unique to each patient. This advice can dramatically help relieve the recurring joint irritation and tension in the muscles of the neck and upper back, issuing short and long term relief to headache pain.
Call one of our offices today and find out how easy it can be to get fast, effective relief for your headache.
* Fernandez M, Moore C, Tan J, Lian D, Nguyen J, Bacon A, Christie B, Shen I, Waldie T, Simonet D, Bussières A. Spinal manipulation for the management of cervicogenic headache: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Eur J Pain. 2020 Oct;24(9):1687-1702. doi: 10.1002/ejp.1632. Epub 2020 Jul 20. PMID: 32621321.
This information is for educational purposes. It is not a replacement for treatment or consultation with a healthcare professional. If you have specific questions, call any of our offices today.
Dr. Joshua Duplessis Joins Integrated Physical Medicine in Joliet We are proud to announce Dr. Joshua Duplessis, DC, ATC, CSCS, has joined our Joliet, IL office. Dr. Josh is both a Chiropractor and Athletic Trainer and worked closely with the staff and patients in New...
We are proud to announce Kelly Drudi, MSN, APN-BC, has joined our New Lenox office. Kelly is a board-certified nurse practitioner with full practice authority in the state of Illinois.
We’ve all had a headache before and know how debilitating they can be. Some are occasional, some frequent, some are dull and throbbing, some even cause nausea. They almost always ruin your day and even change the way you live.
Debunking Fact From Fiction. How much do you know about this ancient medical art that now has a ton of science backing it up?
Are you considering trying acupuncture? Has it been recommended to you? Know someone who can’t stop raving about it?
Acupuncture has seen a dramatic rise in popularity among healthcare providers as a viable form of treatment because of its ability to alleviate pain, prevent disease, and promote wellness. Despite all this, there’s still some huge misconceptions about acupuncture. And our guess is you may have been afraid to try it because of, well… the needles. (Spoiler alert: That’s our #1 MYTH.) So before you’re convinced that acupuncture is some sort of folk medicine or, even worse, that it doesn’t work, give what we know and have researched a read.
Here’s our top 5 common myths about acupuncture.
Myth 1: Acupuncture is painful. A needle is gonna hurt.
For most people, the thought of needles will send a shiver up their spine. It’s a common reaction. But it shouldn’t be with acupuncture.
The reality is there’s hardly any discomfort with acupuncture because the needles used are so fine and so thin. In fact they are so small, they’re often referred to as “pins.” These pins bear no resemblance to the needles used for injections or drawing blood and are literally about the size of a kitten’s whisker.
You’ve heard athletes use the phrase, ‘no pain, no gain’. But so many athletes at the highest levels of every sport use acupuncture, that the phrase for acupuncture should be ‘No pain and tons of gain.’
“Acupuncture is a gentle procedure which can lead to immediate symptom reduction and sense of calm and relaxation.” Dr. Christine Oakley, a chiropractor at IPM says. “Patients get in a comfortable position on the exam table, and then we start. While there may be a slight little pinch with the pin set-up, a deep relaxation typically occurs within minutes. Most of the time, patients don’t even notice that they’re there. Our goal is to make treatment as comfortable as possible.”
Acupuncture at IPM can be so comfortable that Dr. Oakley points out, “We’ve had patients fall asleep during their acupuncture session.”
Myth 2: Acupuncture is ancient folk medicine. No legitimate healthcare professional would recommend it.
Acupuncture is ancient. But it’s also a widely accepted treatment and is encouraged and used by many medical institutions. Both the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the World Health Organization (WHO) recognize acupuncture as a valid treatment for a wide range of conditions and can help manage certain pain conditions. Even the United States military uses acupuncture.
Several health care and government organizations including The American College of Physicians (ACP), The Joint Commission, State Attorneys General as well as the White House, have highlighted complementary and alternative medicine, including acupuncture as an effective and first line of treatment for chronic pain. In fact, with the rise of the opioid epidemic in the United States, many doctors are limiting opioid prescriptions in favor of natural medicine.
A Los Angeles Times article reported that 42% of hospitals responding to a survey said they offered complementary and alternative medicine treatments, including acupuncture, as a service to their patients. Penn Medicine conducted their own research study with breast cancer patients that showed promising results.
And that’s not all. According to U.S. News, a growing number of medical schools are supplementing their traditional curriculum with courses in complementary and alternative medicine, including acupuncture.
Myth 3: Acupuncture is only for treating pain
It is true that acupuncture does wonders for pain management. However, clinical studies have found acupuncture has been shown to reduce other side-effects and conditions including headaches and migraines, depression, nausea, stress, anxiety, and gynecological conditions as well. The list is quite long. Way too long to include in this article but make sure you check it out on our acupuncture page.
With that said, the most common reason patients receive acupuncture treatments is for pain management. And the most frequent treatments at IPM are done with our rehab patients, those with sports injuries or patients who have recently had an operation.
Myth 4: You’ll need a doctor’s referral or a prescription for acupuncture
So are doctor referrals taken? Absolutely. Dr. Josh Eldrenkamp, an IPM Chiropractor in Roselle notes, “A lot of people do learn about acupuncture and are referred to us from their doctor. But a lot of our referrals are also from friends and colleagues who have simply recommended this treatment so strongly.”
Myth 5: Patients can become addicted to acupuncture.
Acupuncture’s effects are cumulative, building with each treatment. Some people with acute and minor issues respond quickly, often within one, two or three treatments. Others need a course of eight to ten treatments to see a notable improvement.
The response to acupuncture is always an individual one. However, although patients may need to go to a few acupuncture sessions in order to reap the benefits, it is not addictive. As a matter of fact, acupuncture is actually used to help with addiction recovery. Medical journals such as the Journal of Public Health have shown acupuncture, when used in combination with education, is beneficial to recovering those addicted to tobacco. Acupuncture affects the dopaminergic system in the brain and is also used to relieve stress, which can provide a huge help to those battling any type of addiction.
Contact Us Today
If you are in pain or have any other condition that might benefit from acupuncture and would like to find out if it’s right for you, please do not hesitate to call. We will immediately find a time to see and assess what treatment plan, acupuncture or otherwise, may work best for you.
Dr. Joshua Duplessis Joins Integrated Physical Medicine in Joliet We are proud to announce Dr. Joshua Duplessis, DC, ATC, CSCS, has joined our Joliet, IL office. Dr. Josh is both a Chiropractor and Athletic Trainer and worked closely with the staff and patients in New...
We are proud to announce Kelly Drudi, MSN, APN-BC, has joined our New Lenox office. Kelly is a board-certified nurse practitioner with full practice authority in the state of Illinois.
We’ve all had a headache before and know how debilitating they can be. Some are occasional, some frequent, some are dull and throbbing, some even cause nausea. They almost always ruin your day and even change the way you live.
Dr. Christine Oakley Joins Integrated Physical Medicine
We are proud to announce Dr. Christine Oakley, Chiropractor, has joined our New Lenox office. Dr. Oakley grew up in the south suburbs of Chicago. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Law Enforcement and Justice Administration from Western Illinois University in 2007 while actively performing as a starting Division I softball pitcher. Additionally, Dr. Oakley was enrolled in the US Army ROTC program and upon graduation commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant, Aviation officer. She served eight years as a UH-60 A/L/M Black Hawk helicopter pilot, with two deployments to Afghanistan, leaving the service as a Captain in 2015.
Dr. Oakley graduated magna cum laude from National University of Health Sciences – Illinois in 2021. Her athletic career motivates her to take a comprehensive, patient-centered approach to functionally assessing and treating patients with a wide variety of musculoskeletal conditions.
Dr. Oakley is a certified Motion Palpation Institute (MPI) provider and has additional training in McKenzie Diagnosis and Therapy (MDT), Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization (DNS), Acupuncture, Webster perinatal technique, and various soft tissue mobilization techniques.
Outside of the office, she enjoys hiking, exercising, and spending time with her husband Ryan and two daughters, Ayla and Athena. She maintains an active lifestyle through CrossFit and Olympic weightlifting.
Dr. Joshua Duplessis Joins Integrated Physical Medicine in Joliet We are proud to announce Dr. Joshua Duplessis, DC, ATC, CSCS, has joined our Joliet, IL office. Dr. Josh is both a Chiropractor and Athletic Trainer and worked closely with the staff and patients in New...
We are proud to announce Kelly Drudi, MSN, APN-BC, has joined our New Lenox office. Kelly is a board-certified nurse practitioner with full practice authority in the state of Illinois.
We’ve all had a headache before and know how debilitating they can be. Some are occasional, some frequent, some are dull and throbbing, some even cause nausea. They almost always ruin your day and even change the way you live.
