For Your Consideration: Care in These Times
© Copyright 2025 by Dr. David Meredith, D.Ac.
In 2018, your friendly neighborhood acupuncturist got into a heated debate at a fancy Sunday brunch.
The topic was who had the best healthcare system in the world. His view was that it was the United States (whose healthcare system we both worked in). Mine was that it was, well, not the United States.
His argument was that our country could not be matched for its public health infrastructure and medical research. Mine was that these triumphs didn’t make much difference if they were inaccessible to the people who needed them, or if they didn’t lead to better outcomes or a higher quality of life for people who were suffering, or if we lost sight of the patient’s overall well-being as we reductively scanned their body for smaller and smaller dysfunctions.
In 2025, it feels like the joke was on both of us. Public health and medical research are being decimated, healthcare access is on the chopping block, and the current bureaucratic systems (both governmental and private insurance) are being run with breathtaking greed, incompetence, and even malevolence. The institutional support we relied on for a hundred years to keep us safe, flawed as it may have been, is being eradicated by the day.
So where does that leave us?
If we want to stay well — in body and mind, and as a community — we may have to start thinking differently about where preventative care comes from.
At Very Well, we offer evidence-based therapies that support your body, your mind, your nervous system, your long-term health — your whole life. Our goal has always been to help you feel good, get better, and live fully… and to inspire the people around you to do the same.
This has never been more important as now, in these confounding “post-truth” times. Our services are relaxing and enjoyable — a refuge from the chaos of current events — and they offer broad-spectrum benefits to relieve current symptoms and prevent future illness. And they can relieve chronic stress and protect you from its deadly effects on the body and mind.
When used regularly, these therapies can help:
Strengthen the immune system — so your body is more capable of fending off infections and adapting to daily stressors.
Reduce inflammation (a root factor in nearly every chronic disease) — lowering your risk of long-term conditions like heart disease, diabetes, and autoimmune disorders.
Improve circulation and oxygenation — supporting every tissue and organ in your body with the nourishment it needs to repair and thrive.
Support digestion and detoxification — helping your system process nutrients efficiently and eliminate what it doesn’t need before imbalances develop.
Regulate mood and stress hormones — preventing the damaging cascade of effects from chronic cortisol elevation and emotional overload.
Restore nervous system balance — so your body spends less time in survival mode and more time in a state where healing and regeneration are possible.
Enhance your body’s ability to repair and recover — allowing you to bounce back from illness, injury, or burnout before they become bigger problems.
Here is what we offer:
Acupuncture
This is foundational care — not just for current pain, stress, or symptoms — but for regulating your nervous system, supporting immune health, improving sleep and digestion, and helping your body respond more appropriately to the world around it. In a time when our bodies are constantly being pushed into fight-or-flight mode, acupuncture is a tool for returning to center.
Massage Therapy
Not just for relaxation (though that’s part of it). Massage increases circulation, improves lymphatic flow, eases muscular tension, lowers cortisol, and helps restore your body’s natural rhythms. In clinical terms: less inflammation, better sleep, less pain, more mobility. In human terms: you feel more like yourself again… “yourself after a restorative vacation,” that is.
PEMF Therapy
PEMF uses pulsed electromagnetic fields to stimulate cellular and tissue repair, improve blood flow, reduce inflammation, protect and energize your body, and relax your mind. If you’re managing chronic stress, pain, or fatigue, PEMF offers a safe and effective way to support healing at the level where it begins — the cells.
Red Light Therapy (RLT)
This is a deeply researched modality with benefits ranging from reduced joint pain to improved skin health and mood regulation (and many, many more). It works by supporting mitochondrial function, which is central to energy, repair, and longevity. It helps reduce and protect the body from stress. It’s gentle, non-invasive, and surprisingly powerful. We see astounding results daily with our unique-to-Baltimore full-body therapy bed.
Vibroacoustic Therapy
A quiet revolution for the nervous system. Low-frequency sound and vibration help the body shift into a deep parasympathetic state, which can ease anxiety, release stored tension, and create the conditions for healing — without you needing to “figure anything out.” Other states of mind are also possible: energy, focus, uplift, creativity… however you want to feel.
Salt Room + Infrared Sauna
Far-infrared heat paired with pure salt infusion for detoxification, immune support, respiratory health, and muscular relief. The warmth helps your body soften and unwind; the salt helps you breathe easier. It’s 35 minutes of peace and restoration that lasts far beyond the session. A true vacation from your day.
If you’ve been feeling overwhelmed by the state of things, you’re not alone. But you’re also not powerless.
At Very Well, you can take steps today that protect your long-term health, ease symptoms before they escalate, and reconnect you with what feels steady and whole.
We’re not a substitute for emergency medicine or public health infrastructure — but when those systems fall short, the kind of care we provide can make a meaningful difference in symptom relief and prevention. And where we excel is in restoring regulation, resilience, and a sense of possibility to your life.
We believe in medicine. We believe in science. And we deeply respect the doctors, nurses, and researchers still showing up under impossible conditions. Many of them come to Very Well when they need care themselves — and we’re honored to support the people who support so many others.
We’re not here to replace the healthcare system. But we are here when it falls short. We’re here when you want to prevent illness, not just treat it. When you want to feel like your whole self again — not just pushing through in “emergency mode” during stress and uncertainty. When you want to be there for your family and community and inspire them toward a brighter future.
This is what we do. And in times like these, it matters more than ever.