Chambers Center by PALM Health

Last week I had the great privilege to go on a private tour of the new Chambers Center by PALM Health. PALM, which stands for “Personalized Advanced Lifestyle Medicine” , is just that. A beautiful 18,000 sq. ft. space that has its members’ well-being in mind first and foremost. At PALM, they strive to create personalized care for each member no matter what level membership you decide. Memberships range from Total members, which encompasses everything and provides maximum support for complete whole person care, down to PALM Wellness which offers services for prevention and health promotion.

When I arrived at the Chambers Center, I was greeted by Anney Perrine, the Director of Membership and Programming at PALM Health, and she became my host for the 2.5 hours I was there. My couple of hours at the center did not make me an expert there so I encourage you to check out their website or pay the center a visit if you want to check it out for yourself, but keep reading if you want to see the center through my eyes and just what I did that day!

So as I mentioned Anney was my host and guide and she is so awesome and warm! She’s a good example of the staff at Chambers Center, because everyone I met was very friendly and welcoming. If you’re a long time follower then you know that sometimes I get invited to blog/blogger events and I feel awkward or out of place (luckily lately I’ve been feeling much more comfortable!). I didn’t feel awkward at all at Chambers Center and Anney and other staff made me feel at ease right from the get-go! Anney told me that because the concept of PALM Health is to have personalized care, they really do want to make it a personal experience. People will know you, make conversation with you, create a home away from home. Now, I’m not a member and Anney had never met me, but she made an effort to know who I am and even asked me about my recent vacation to California because she had been reading my blog!

We started off at the Cafe, which is really cute and aesthetically pleasing. Basically, the entire center is aesthetically pleasing with modern touches, a calming feel, and natural light.

The cafe has a variety of baked goods, smoothies, coffee, etc. that can work for people of all different diet restrictions. They have items that are gluten free, dairy free, work for elimination diets, etc. because they feel like the worst thing is to leave your doctor or nutritionist (both available at the center!) with certain diet instructions and not be able to eat anything at the cafe. I may have loaded up a little plate with carrot cake, banana bread, a brownie…

Next, we toured some more of the Center. I saw one of the fitness rooms which uses state of the art machines that are gentle on the joints. There are a variety of fitness and wellness classes to choose from ranging from yoga, cardio, pilates, meditation and more. The fitness rooms are not large, but it works for PALM Health because they keep their class sizes small (around 8-10 people) to keep your sessions personalized to you.

I didn’t get a photo of the exam rooms, but they were really nice. No medical posters on the wall and they didn’t have a cold, sterile feel. No beds with crinkly paper! Just a comfortable medical chair, a nice modern countertop with sink/cabinets etc for medical instruments I’m sure, and a desk with a computer for the doctor. There’s also a window with natural light. The rooms are really nice and the layout helps to facilitate real conversations between the member and doctor. Side note: most doctors only have time to see their patients for 15 minutes before they need to move on, but doctors at PALM Health can spend an hour with you to really get to know you and work with you!

So we’ve covered fitness, the cafe, and seeing a doctor. What else does Chambers Center by PALM Health offer? They have IV Nutrition which is getting really big now. I’ve seen it all over social media. You can go in for things like an immune boost and sit in their zero-gravity chairs which puts less stress on your organs while you sit during your treatment. I tried out one of the chairs and it’s so comfortable! I never thought about the strain you might be putting on your organs by sitting, especially for people who are unwell.

The Center also offers so many other services like coaching, acupuncture, chiropractic care, nutrition consults, neurofeedback, body and skin treatments, stress management, and more.

Something I tried out while I was there was the Trilogy, which is a session of cryotherapy, infrared sauna, and salt room (halotherapy). It was so cool! I believe the actual order people do the trilogy in is the way I listed it above, but as Anney and I were just chatting as we toured around we did it out of order.

We did a 25 minute session in the Salt Room, which was beautiful and amazing. We just lounged in there and chatted about the center. Salt inhalation therapy is a “treatment that involves breathing in ionized salt particles in a relaxing room lined with purified Himalayan salt.” Some benefits are improved skin conditions, a reduction of inflammation, relief from chronic congestion and sinusitis, reduction of stress. It was seriously so relaxing and again, so pretty!

Then, I tried the Cryotherapy, which I’ve been wanting to try! I was a little nervous that I would be freezing, but I was excited at the same time. It actually wasn’t that bad! Sure, my teeth were chattering while I was talking to Anney and the technician, but it wasn’t painful and didn’t feel like torture or anything. Just cold! Cryotherapy is “a treatment that exposes the body to subzero temperature (-130 –  -180 degrees Fahrenheit) for a period of one to three minutes”. It’s used to reduce inflammation, facilitate injury recovery, relieve muscle and joint pain, increase endorphins, improve mood disorders, etc.

The technician gave me thick socks, little booties, and knit mittens to put on. I stepped in to the chamber and stepped on a little platform so my head was sticking out. I disrobed leaving my underwear and all the socks/booties/gloves on and was there for 3 minutes. They suggest moving around, turning in place, jogging in place, to keep your body moving. They told me that most people sleep really well at night after a session. I think I slept about the same, but I can tell you that when I got home and after I ate lunch I fell asleep on the couch for over an hour! And I hardly ever nap!

Lastly, I tried out the Infrared Sauna. The infrared sauna “uses light to warm the body directly, whereas a traditional sauna uses a heat generator to warm the surrounding air. Radiant energy in the form of a band of light penetrated the skin to a depth of at least one and one half inches. The infrared sauna emits far-infrared waves instead of near-infrared waves.” Infrared saunas are designed to relax, de-stress, and detoxify. Some benefits include decrease oxidative stress, ease chronic pain and fatigue, improve heart function and circulation, decrease cortisol levels, improve muscle recovery and exercise tolerance.

I only stayed in there for about 5 minutes, but it was much more tolerable than a regular sauna. In regular saunas I feel like I can’t breathe, the air is thick, and it’s just so hot!

After changing back in to my clothes, Anney and I went back to one of the little lounge areas to talk a bit more about the Center. The idea of PALM Health is to have “everything for your well-being under one roof” as their tagline says. And it’s true – you can totally personalize your care because your doctor is there and they may have recommendations for you – for example they may want you to work on your diet and instead of referring you somewhere else or leaving you to figure it out on your own, you can just go to the nutritionist down the hall. Maybe your doctor wants you to work on your fitness and they can work with the trainers to create a regimen for you. Perhaps you have a chronic illness and on top of regular medication, you could benefit from the IV therapy for an immune boost. The Center allows all these people who have your best health and wellness interests in mind to help you. Their other tagline is “Personalized medicine and wellness club”.

I had a great time at the Chambers Center by PALM Health and I think what they’re doing is amazing! It is membership based so, again, if you’re interested I would check out the website and maybe schedule a visit. Big thanks to PALM Health for the invite and tour and to Anney for being such a great host and always offering to take my photo so I didn’t have to awkwardly ask for any!