Wesley Kress, L.Ac, MSOM, MBA
Wesley Kress is a board certified acupuncturist and has a Masters of Science in Oriental Medicine (MSOM) from Phoenix Institute of Herbal Medicine and Acupuncture (PIHMA). He also holds dual-concentration bachelor degrees in Marketing and Finance and a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) with a dual concentration in Accounting and Finance with a specialty in Investments from the University of New Mexico (UNM) Anderson School of Management. After briefly teaching undergraduate and graduate level classes at the UNM Anderson School of Management, he began business consulting for integrative health care practitioners while simultaneously pursuing his MSOM.
Wesley specializes in pain, injury rehab, optimizing human performance and chronic disease management, including autoimmune and systemic medical conditions. Wesley uses an integrative medicine approach to meet each patient’s unique health goals. Wesley is Arizona’s first and most experienced Neufit specialist. He has over 17 years of experience with the technology. He has worked with professional bodybuilders, NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL, UFC, high school, collegiate and semi-professional athletes. Wesley helped train the Chicago Cubs and Los Angles Angles training staff on how to most effectively use the Neufit technology. His background of knowledge in so many areas and personal experiences allow him to help complex cases. Wesley has wide-ranging experience with helping neurological cases such as MS, spinal cord injuries, drop foot, neuropathy, and stroke and has developed unique ways of using the technology with profound results. Wesley has extensive experience working with post-surgical and injury rehab patients and dramatically reducing the time it takes for one to return to sport or physical activity. Wesley has also successfully treated thousands of patients for chronic pain of all types and is able to help his patients achieve lasting pain resolution rather than transient relief.
His own health challenges at an early age ignited an unrelenting passion for everything related to health and led him on a journey to self-educate by reading hundreds of books on health, nutrition, spirituality, mental health, functional medicine, sports performance, recovery, self-development, and everything in between. It was a journey that at times was met with confusion, adversity and many failures, which allows him to give his patients empathy, first hand experience, insight and clarity on their journey towards optimal health. The full account of his life-long journey can be read below.
In 2016, Wesley was blessed to begin an ongoing mentorship with Bryon Leon Powers, L.Ac, whom he credits for facilitating his robust understanding of Chinese Medicine. This knowledge and insight would have otherwise taken 10+ years to obtain due to the amount of misinformation that is taught at most Western schools and the poor translation of Chinese Medical literature.
Wesley has first hand experience in the healing power of Chinese Medicine with both himself and the hundreds of patients he has treated. He also uses Neufit, which he feels is one of the few technological advancements in the field of wellness technology that actually dramatically decreases healing time unlike anything in the area of orthopedic pain. He has had first hand experience with the technology for over 17 years and the results have been nothing short of incredible. He has been fortunate enough to experience most of all the wellness technology devices on the market and feels there is only a limited few that really make a significant difference.
Sports performance, powerlifting and strength training have always been my sanctuary; the one place where I could escape, test and push myself. It is a place of invigoration and exploration. I was blessed to grow up with one of the most supportive and loving families one could ask for. On the outside it appeared as if everything was fantastic and possibly perfect at times. Since I was a kid, friends, family and acquaintances have known my deep passion for health, even as much to think I was a bit crazy. In reflection, I could see why.
What many people didn’t know was that my reason for this unrelenting passion was due to my health showing signs of problems since I was born. Although unknown to many, it continued to deteriorate despite many efforts over the years. The journey through many doctors while growing up and with no answers was difficult, but the worst part was that the help they attempted to provide ended up making things dramatically worse with certain medications. I recall laying in my bed at age 19 with a lifelong accumulation of 70+ chronic signs and symptoms, which included chronic fatigue to the point of not being able to make it down stairs, multiple chemical sensitivities, seasonal and environmental allergies, food intolerances, skin rashes everywhere, digestive disorders, severe depression and anxiety, panic attacks, paranoia, personality changes, inability to concentrate and severe memory loss with the inability to form new memories. There were many more, but I had essentially hit rock bottom at the age of 19.
I had essentially failed despite my best efforts of reading hundreds of books on health, healing and wellness. Doctors had been unable to understand exactly what was going on, only to give medications for acute illness that exacerbated the chronic illness. Unbeknownst to me, I had an ongoing autoimmune disease from when I was born. My case of Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis was triggered by a genetic predisposition, soy formula, and my first five years of life on antibiotics with just a few weeks off. It further progressed and intensified due to certain dental procedures and ongoing medication from the doctors throughout my life. I had another autoimmune syndrome called Hashimoto’s Encephalopathy, which left me with debilitating mental and emotional signs and symptoms.
At age 19 my athletic dreams, especially in the realm of powerlifting and strength training, had to stop based on my own difficult realization that it would be near impossible to heal naturally while inducing a strong stressor on the body in an already near debilitated state. It took about 1.5 to 2 years to put the autoimmune conditions into what I felt as “remission” based on the alleviation of 85% to 90% of the signs and symptoms.
At age 29, I tested myself for autoimmune markers after an initial self-test of thyroid markers showed I was in complete thyroid failure with a TSH of over 150. This likely resulted from an autoimmune attack on my thyroid since I was born. An ultrasound revealed 70% destruction of the thyroid gland. Based on the timeline of signs and symptoms, I was in and out of a hypothyroid state for my whole childhood and in complete failure at the age of 19. I stayed there for the next 10 years approximately.
Due to my lifelong experience of the disease, I did not know what “normal” felt like, thus the reason for no realization of that fact. I was simply thankful to feel somewhat normal or have diminished 85% to 90% of my symptoms through natural methods of healing, which I now know to have been the autoimmune portion. The final 15% of symptoms were corrected with standardized thyroid glandular.
I remember at age 19, my rock bottom and having failed to improve despite a lifetime of trying (in fact quite the opposite had taken place), I was nearly debilitated with an endless array of signs and symptoms. I made a vow that if for some miracle I was able to get well, or even remotely feel normal, I would dedicate my life to helping others do the same.
I share this as I know many people have adversity and struggles that no one else would know. It’s to inspire the courage to persevere even when little progress is made, as wisdom from the failure is of significance. The other is to raise awareness about autoimmunity. It’s the most over looked category of disease because due to minimal to no treatment options in the area of Western Medicine, doctors refuse to even test for it. Chinese and Functional Medicine are better suited at addressing the multi-faceted nature of autoimmune conditions and I am a living testament of that. I feel directly obligated to speak up after a lifelong battle and raise awareness. Also, to help others living with the disease understand that even in the most severe progression of the disease such as in my case, it’s possible to go from rock bottom to high performance living.