Bringing Back Wellness

Restore Health & Wellness in Wilmington wants to assist with a patient’s wellness journey as well as get as close as possible to obtaining one’s own “Fountain of Youth” but naturally. The company prides itself on offering a whole-person approach—treating the body, soul, and spirit.

“We offer an alternative to pharmaceutical drugs,” says owner TABETHA SMITH, a certified family nurse practitioner. “A patient is not just a number with us; we take the time to understand a person’s body chemistry.”

Restore Health opened in 2005 with the mission of finding a better way to treat patients individually. Smith, a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill graduate, has a particular interest in women’s health and has a certification specialty as a menopause clinician. “Over the most recent years of my practice, I have focused on wellness and prevention, nutrition, weight loss, and hormone balance.”

Working alongside Smith is nurse practitioner BRITTANY MCNEIL and KARLA VAVRA MELCHER (pictured left to right), a registered nurse. They both have an extensive background in nursing, and like Smith, believe in a natural, organic approach to health and wellness.

“I grew up on a farm in Nebraska, and we ate organic before organic was cool,” she says.

Being surrounded by women breast cancer survivors had an early impact on Melcher and created her passion for women’s health. That experience now fuels her strong belief in hormone therapy, a specialty where she works.

In fact, Restore Health was one of the first medical practices to introduce Bio-Identical hormone therapy to the Southeast region.

The company treats men and women from as young as their 20s and early 30s with the oldest patient in her 90s.

“Sadly, many times women are overlooked and instead of fixing what is really wrong, medical providers tell them ‘this is just what happens’ or prescribe them an antidepressant or an anti-anxiety medication,” Melcher says. “Balancing your hormones fixes so many issues.”

The medical practice sees many clients asking for relief from low energy, brain fog, low mood, anxiety, and hormone issues. “We have seen evidence of quick relief with our hormone therapy treatments,” says Melcher.

Women are not the only ones who benefit from this treatment. “We treat younger men who are first responders or former military personnel whose testosterone can be low due to stress and other factors,” she says. “We also help a lot of men in their 40s and up who are starting to feel the signs of aging and the things that come along with that.”

Part of the approach at Restore Health is to get to the root cause of an issue. This begins with extensive blood work and then a customized treatment based on the results. Practitioners then provide a plan of action.

“We do a lot of patient education and use diet, lifestyle, pharmaceutical grade supplements and vitamins, and bio-identical hormone pellet therapy to treat patients,” says Melcher. Services offered also include acoustic wave therapy, aesthetics, and IV therapy.

Melcher feels she has answered her nursing ‘calling,’ not just finding out what is wrong with patients but setting them on a path to an improved life. “I believe every stage of life is a gift, to be lived well and to the fullest,” she says. “Sometimes I can’t believe that a farm kid from Nebraska who used to daydream about the ocean now lives in this part of the country doing what she loves.”

To view more of photographer Daria Amato’s work, go to dariaphoto.com.

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