Balanced Health & Wellness

Physician and Balanced Health and Wellness founder Dr. Mary Alavi may not be a mapmaker, but she does understand that knowing where you are is the first step toward getting to where you want to be. She created the center after years of watching her patients suffer from premature aging and degenerative diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and obesity, knowing full well that many cases could have been preventable had her patients merely stopped to examine the signs. Her whole-person approach to health care includes a detailed exploration of each patient's history, lifestyle, genetic factors, and favorite episode of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, which allows her to outline a custom treatment plan. This road map to wellness might include medical screening or lab testing, nutrition plans or fitness protocols led by a certified personal trainer, or even visits with a life coach. Dr. Alavi's balanced approach to wellness also inspired her to make changes in her own life—since 2003, she's lost and kept off an inspirational 60 pounds, and she continues to share her own personal successes and failures to encourage her patients to stay on track.

The patient-centered philosophy at Balanced Health and Wellness is evident in the lobby, where guests relax in antique-style chairs and make small talk with a grandfatherly hardwood clock. Staffers present clients with tea or flavored water before directing them to sessions with a massage therapist or an aesthetician, or to a consultation with the office's certified laser technician, who sets his smoothing sights on hair, spider veins, fine lines, and age spots.