Fox Valley Wellness Center
Was founded in 1999, by Dr. Steven Meress, MD, FACP and his late-wife Julie, a Registered Nurse. The idea for Fox Valley Wellness Center actually began in 1989 while Dr. Meress and Julie were working together at a local hospital in the Emergency Room, Dr. Meress as Department Chief and Julie as Assistant Manager.
From time to time they discussed how certain patients came into the ER expecting relief of their symptoms, when they actually needed to find a cause for their symptoms. Some patients ended up in the ER due to frustration with their doctors and their diagnosis. Many times the two discussed other types of treatments that they had encountered and experienced. Discussions stemmed from the travels that both Dr. Meress and his wife have done throughout the world. They watched other cultures provide health care for little to no cost and with much less technology.
Dr. Meress started his medical training at St George University School of Medicine, where he experienced Third World Medicine in the islands of Grenada, St. Vincent, and Barbados. He finished his training in New York City, Yale University, University of Minnesota, and England before beginning his Internal Medicine Residency at The University of Wisconsin- Marshfield Clinic.
The concept of finding the cause instead of treating the symptoms became more evident. Dr. Meress and Julie came to realize that treating the symptoms or in other words, using the “Band-Aid approach,” which traditional medicine embraces, would not fit into the philosophy of their clinic.