Getting to the Root Cause

Renewed Wellness Helps Clients Develop a Healthier, Holistic Approach to Living

Writer / Christy Heitger-Ewing
Photography / Canaan Sellers & Blake Dieringer

For six years, Amber Fair worked as a nurse practitioner in conventional medicine. Prior to that, she worked for 15 years in the local emergency department. During that time, she saw a full scale of ailments. She was especially puzzled by the number of women in their 40s and older who complained that they just didn’t feel well. None of them could put their finger on why, and a visit to their GP didn’t solve the mystery. In fact, it often only made them feel frustrated when their doctors shrugged their shoulders and told them, “Your labs look fine. Welcome to menopause!” Or they might underplay it and chalk the brain fog up to “mom brain.”

“It’s hard to tell someone that everything looks good [from a lab perspective] when you know there’s something going on,” says Fair, who was keen on getting to the root of her patients’ physical ailments. Therefore, she began researching functional medicine.

“I wanted answers,” she says. She admits that learning about functional medicine is both fascinating and overwhelming simply because there’s so much to absorb. But it sure beats shrugging one’s shoulders and essentially telling a patient it’s part of life that they’re feeling lousy.

“One major goal of functional medicine is to optimize hormones and other levels,” says Fair, who notes that in conventional medicine we often get caught up on what’s considered “normal” per lab standards, which isn’t always what is best for us.

“Normal ranges are one thing, but we want optimal ranges because that’s when people feel better,” Fair says. “For instance, a normal Vitamin D level is between 30 and 100, but if your number is 32, you’re closer to the lower end of the spectrum and will likely not feel as well. We want it to be 70 or 80 so you can increase your ability to feel better.”

Therefore, Fair decided to open a place where she could focus on hormones, vitamins, gut health, and overall holistic health. In September 2022, she and her husband Rob, opened Renewed Wellness with a desire to partner with patients on their journey for a healthier, holistic approach to living.

Fair’s sister, Ashley Miller, is a medical massage therapist who was eager to join the staff at Renewed Wellness. Both women—Fair, who just turned 44, and Miller, 42—recognize that life in your 40s and beyond should be rewarding and enjoyable. Even in the later years, it’s all about healthy living.

“It’s called the golden years for a reason,” Fair says. “It’s sad how many people think feeling good as you age isn’t viable.”

Patients who come into Renewed Wellness will engage in a 60–minute new patient wellness consult where they discuss hydration, nutrition, hormones, GI issues, sleep quality and possibly peptides. Blood tests are drawn on-site for most labs and clients have access to extensive advanced functional medicine testing as well. At home medical tests are available at rxhometest.com.

Miller brings to the table more than just massage therapy. She incorporates a saying she heard many times while working with Dr. Sidney Dyer of Dyer Chiropractic that “Motion is Lotion”. Her goal is to get people up and moving better. Miller can incorporate her Graston, bamboo, magnet therapy as well as medi-cupping into your session. Medi-cupping has so many benefits including increasing circulation, toxin release from the muscles, inflammation relief and for stimulation of lymphatic drainage. For example, she had a patient who came in with a frozen shoulder that was so bad she was not able to wash her hair. Medi-cupping helped to lift the restrictions around the joint allowing her range of motion to return. As part of their services, Miller and Fair carefully listen to their clients.

“The main thing people want is to be heard. Then they know you care,” Miller says. “So many places you go to now you feel like just another number, you’re in and out so fast. People feel like, ‘Did the [doctor] even listen to me?’”

Fair maintains that the God created our body with the amazing ability to heal itself with the right nutrients.  We often need supplements in addition to whole foods to help facilitate this healing. Often, removing inflammatory foods from our diet makes a huge difference because they trigger inflammation throughout our bodies, not just in the gut as most think.

“One of my clients had a painful baker’s cyst on the back of her knee,” Fair says. “She took out gluten, dairy, and artificial sugars from her diet on her own and her baker’s cyst resolved. When you take away those inflammatory items, the body begins the healing process.”

Adds Miller, “You learn to become an engineer for your body.”

Fair spends a lot of time talking through these concepts with people, educating them while trying not to overwhelm them.

“It’s baby steps,” she says. “You try to make little plans.”

At Renewed Wellness, they refer patients to an outside health coach to help patients navigate their barriers to lifestyle changes. “We teach that everything is in moderation,” Fair says. “It has to be a sustainable lifestyle. You don’t want to go through life feeling like you’ve completely deprived yourself. That’s no way to live, either.”

Fair and Miller have another sister, Audra Gonzalez, who will be joining the team later and offering mental health counseling services for children and teens.

“Sometimes these youth just need someone to talk to outside of their own family. They are facing some big fears and worries” Fair says. “Audra has a heart for working with kids and teens.”

Fair is a graduate of Franklin College (2000), IU School of Nursing (2003) and obtained her Master’s in Nursing from University of Indianapolis in 2015. She is board certified through the American Association of Nurse Practitioners in Family Medicine, a certified Biote provider, A4M Peptide certified, and continues to work towards her certification through the Institute of Functional Medicine and American Association of Anti-aging.

Miller is a licensed massage therapist with certifications in all the services listed and is seeking certification in physiokinetix so that she can further help her clients get to the source of their ailments. She has been honing her practice over the last 10 years.

Gonzalez is a 2020 graduate of University of Southern Indiana and a 2022 graduate of Indiana Wesleyan University. She currently works for Adult and Child in the school systems. She completed her LSW licensure and will be offering evening counseling sessions a couple nights a week.

If you are interested in optimizing your health and wellness, contact Renewed Wellness today to make an appointment.

Renewed Wellness is located at 107 N SR135, Suite 202, Greenwood, IN  46142. For more information, call 317-348-3444 or visit https://www.renewedwellnesscg.com

Services Offered:

• Wellness consultation with an integrative approach
• Focused massage therapy
• Children/teen counseling
• Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy including pellets
• Medical grade supplement sales
• IV infusion therapy
• Medically supervised weight loss
• On-site blood draws