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Alina Fish, LPT, is the co-founder of Action Physical Therapy. She has over 20 years of clinical experience specializing in orthopedics, manual therapy, and pelvic floor rehabilitation.
Alina’s great grandmother inspired her to go into physical therapy. “I was born in Russia, and medical care is very poor there,” she said. “My great grandmother was 84 when she had to overcome arthritis on her own by devising an exercise program for herself. She lived to age 99.”
She completed advanced coursework in Maitland manual physical therapy techniques for the spine and extremities as well as specialized training in the treatment of bladder dysfunction and pelvic pain issues from Herman and Wallace Pelvic Rehabilitation Institute.
She is in charge of community education programs, and teaching classes on various topics including women’s health and musculoskeletal issues. She is also a member of the American Physical Therapy Association.
As she approaches retirement, Alina has been thinking about how to transition into a new role. “Physical therapy is a lot of manual work,” she said.
Alina had already turned to Functional Medicine to support her own health challenges. One of her practitioners, also a physical therapist, recommended Designs for HealthⓇ supplements to support her own well-being.
As she began addressing the root causes of her own symptoms, Alina wanted to deepen her professional knowledge as well.
She recently completed the Functional Medicine Fast Track program, and immediately started offering functional medicine, testing and Designs for Health supplements to her physical therapy patients.
Several of Alina’s patients have complex health issues, which often come with multiple symptoms. Stomach pains, diarrhea, headaches and body aches are common complaints.
“Once I started learning Functional Medicine, and I started telling them about what they could do to support the root causes of their symptoms, many of them said, ‘Sign me up!’” she said.
With this high demand, Alina is now offering Functional Medicine along with physical therapy to her current clients.
One of the things Alina appreciates about Designs for HealthⓇ is the support she receives from her Health Educator.
“Brianna has been amazing,” she said. “I’m new to Functional Medicine, so I am still learning a lot. My health educator has been able to help me figure out which specific supplements and protocols will work better for my patients.”
Alina uses the patient education sheets to help her patients understand how their supplements support their health. She also uses the clinical research from Designs for Health to support her decisions and recommendations.
Just getting started, Alina has mostly used Well WorldⓇ for supplements-only e-scripting to her patients. “It’s very elegant,” she said.
Using GI testing as a starting point, she then started offering the candida protocol and nutrition plan to her patients. To better understand how it all works together, she also signed herself up as a patient in her own Well World practice.
“It’s pretty fascinating. The nutrition plans are well thought through, with the shopping lists and recipes,” she said.
Her patients love using the Well World app, too.
“It is very patient-friendly,” she said. “I have used other platforms and this one is much easier for my patients to use. I like that it has tons of information that I can easily pass on to my patients.”
She’s looking forward to exploring and using more of the nutrition plans and protocols together.
As her new Functional Medicine practice continues to grow, Alina is looking for ways to take a step back in her physical therapy practice.
In the future, she is considering offering group programs to her current and future patients. “I see a lot of potential for my new practice,” she said. “Because my new offering is so popular, I have to be careful not to grow too quickly.”