In the month of February, we will be running a special called Doctors with a Heart. It’s important for us to give back to the community that we serve. We have at least 3 events each year in which we donate to a charity. Past recipients have been Open Doors for Youth, CAER Food Shelf, and Feed My Starving Children, to name a few. We have been running the Doctors with a Heart program for the past 12 years. We offer new patients a great deal on their first visit, and since 2012, we have donated their payment to a charity that hits close to home for us, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Specifically, for Team Dylan.
Dylan Mertz is our twenty-two-year-old patient who has been living with cystic fibrosis (CF) his entire life. Dr. Jeremy has had the pleasure of being his chiropractor since Dylan was 8 years old. He has overcome so much, as he complies with all that is asked of him to keep him healthy. He takes nearly 60 pills a day, does an hour of chest physiotherapy (using a vest), and has to take inhaled medications as well. He has always stayed active and wants to be sure he stays healthy for when a cure comes.
One of the ways he stays healthy is with regular chiropractic care. Most people think of chiropractors as back and neck doctors, but really, we’re concerned with how your nervous system is working. We just use your back and neck to access your nervous system. Your nerves control everything in your body from your muscles, organs and glands to your blood vessels. So, if your nerves aren’t functioning right, the rest of you won’t work right. It is especially important for someone like Dylan, dealing with a genetic disorder, to have an optimally functioning spine and nervous system. This will allow his body to focus on fighting cystic fibrosis (CF).
We recently had the opportunity to catch up with Dylan’s mom, Pam, who gave us an update on him!
“Dylan continues to enjoy thriving as a 22-year-old in his fourth year of college. He recently took a pulmonary function test and scored 111% of normal. As an adult, this is not an easy task! He has also gained some weight recently, using some nutritional advice from Dr. J. This made his dietician very happy!! You see, with CF, it is very hard to keep weight on, and CF patients must consume 4000-5000 calories a day just to maintain weight. This is due to the malabsorption that is a part of CF, as well as the extra calories burned in the simple act of breathing. Every breath takes more energy for CF patients than for you and me. Dylan continues to use Ideal Health to optimize his health and well-being. He has received chiropractic adjustments regularly since early childhood, and also enjoys acupuncture, and some physical therapy as needed. With his health care team, he feels able to continue to manage his cystic fibrosis well. This allows him to focus on the things he is discovering that he loves to do! He is now an avid waterfowl hunter, being located in Grand Forks, near the waterfowl flyway. He is also enjoying “clean” cooking and is often hired by friends and acquaintances to prepare meals for them. As he continues his studies in public policy, he is keenly aware of the underdog, and the underserved. He has a passion for pursuing a career in advocacy and it will be exciting to see where he lands! He has a bright future and the amazing team at Ideal Health has helped him achieve this level of wellness. We, as a family, are so grateful for this Ideal Health family to help us navigate CF and provide peace of mind, knowing Dylan is able to pursue his dreams like any other college student. By helping the CF Foundation, we are able to continue to do research that will help all CF patients with the needed antibiotics, therapies and hopefully that cure that we all pray for. Until it’s done, we continue to raise awareness and are so grateful that Ideal Health is a part of Team Dylan! We are blessed!”
We are honored to help this amazing family! Please visit https://www.cff.org/ for more information about cystic fibrosis and the great work being done to discover treatments and cures.