Between parties, Thanksgiving feasts and the traditional treats that come with the holiday season, some people often put off getting healthy until the New Year. In April 2016, Dr. Minni Malhotra founded Anchor Wellness Center to help patients not only feel better and get healthier but to identify and address why they were unhealthy in the first place, she said. “We believe that beauty inside is just as important as outside,” Malhotra said. “So we look to get to the root cause of these chronic diseases and work to reverse these changes at the cellular level.” The center specializes in personalized weight management programs, hormone treatments, intravenous nutrition therapy and functional primary care that differs from a traditional doctor-patient setting to address underlying causes of common diseases, Malhotra said. Malhotra—a board-certified family physician—said many patients often come to her with conditions, such as diabetes, infertility, hormone imbalances, autoimmune conditions and sleep disorders. “[Health care is] not a cookie-cutter plan—it varies from person to person,” she said. “Many times people come to us and they’ll be on eight-10 prescription medications, and a lot of times when they’ve completed treatments with us, they’ll be able to get off of most of those.” Malhotra said the center works to attract new patients through free seminars and classes held throughout The Woodlands area. While initial consultations for programs are $300, program packages vary by person and health goals. While the center does not accept insurance because most plans do not cover wellness programs, payment packages and financing are available, Malhotra said. One of Anchor Wellness Center’s biggest programs is weight management, in which Malhotra said she works with patients to show them how to eat and exercise. “The thing is when you go to a weight loss program … they give you the diet chart, and they give you everything you are supposed to eat, but they never teach you to exercise,” Malhotra said. “They never teach you why you are eating. We do educational classes to teach them why we are doing these things. It’s easy to tell someone, ‘Here is a diet plan; go do it.’ But it is hard to actually show them how to implement it. We show them how to implement those things.” Malhotra said the center also hosts weekly fitness and yoga classes at its studio as part of the wellness program, and personal trainers and health coaches are on staff to help patients stay motivated. “[Patients will] get a call from a health coach every week—we text them, we message them, we email them,” she said. “They have accessibility to the health coach or to come in and see the personal trainer. We have many classes to keep them accountable.”
Anchor Wellness Center 4810 W. Panther Creek Drive, The Woodlands 832-246-8437 www.anchorwellnesscenter.com Hours: Mon. 9 a.m.-6 p.m., Tue. 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Wed. 11 a.m.-8 p.m., Thu. 9 a.m.-6 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m.-3 p.m., closed Sunday. Consultations are available by appointment.