As far back as her memories extend, Mallory (Piva) Province recalls knowing she wanted to be some type of physician.
She has no recollection of some dawning inspiration or awakening. In fact, she said, the knowing seemed to be an innate sense of purpose.
“I was born with this need to help and coach people,” she said.
That sense remained unfaltering, and by the time she was in high school, was only enhanced by instructors, like her honors biology teacher LeAnne Burris, who fostered her interest in science.
Lou Martino, who taught college prep at PHS, told Mallory that Pittsburg State University had a great pre med program, so that is where she headed after graduating from Parsons High School in 2006.
“While I was in the pre med program I shadowed a couple of different physicians through a program called Premeds With Promise and decided I didn’t want to be in the traditional Western medicine role. So my senior year of college I decided I wanted to go to chiropractic school instead,” she said.
Premeds with Promise was run by a physician named Dr. Garner, an internist in Pittsburg.
“She played a real integral role in me deciding, ‘Yes, I want to be in pre med. Yes, I want to be in the medical community, and yes, I want to manage more complex cases,” Province said. “But then the opioid epidemic was kind of starting to rev up right at that time. That was kind of the thing that made me want to go away from Western medicine, because I wanted to find other ways to manage people’s chronic pain.”
Following graduating from PSU in 2010 she was accepted to Cleveland Chiropractic in Overland Park.
A great many people think of chiropractors as someone who adjusts the spine, and most often don’t seek one out until they are in pain. However, chiropractors graduate with a full scope of understanding of medicine, allowing them to treat pretty much any chronic disease, nutritional deficiencies, or other illness, but they do it naturally.
“The only thing we do not have is prescription rights,” Province said.
She completed a 4-year doctorate of chiropractic and concurrently, while she was doing that, she completed 300 hours in postdoctoral on weekends. That comprehensive postdoctoral training program provided Province with advanced knowledge and skill in diagnostics, functional medicine, food sensitivities in adults and children, natural solutions for hormone imbalance and many other conditions.
“Yes, it was a lot, but that opened me up into the functional medicine world,” she said.
Functional medicine is a science-based, patient-centered approach to healthcare that focuses on identifying and addressing the underlying causes of chronic diseases. It takes a holistic approach, considering factors in treatment such as genetics, diet, lifestyle, environment and stress, to help restore balance and improve health and well-being.
When she graduated in 2014 she took a job in Joplin, Mo. and practiced there for two years. Then she ended up in an integrated clinic in Rogers, Arkansas, called Integrated Medical. There, she found her place.
“I’ve been there for about eight and a half years,” she said. “We are multidisciplinary. We’ve got chiropractors, functional medicine, nurse practitioners, we do bioidentical hormone replacement therapy, IV nutrition and pretty extensive diagnostic lab work testing. So we see very specialized chronic illnesses and cases where people have fallen through the Western medicine cracks.”
When a patient comes into her office, they don’t just circle a spot on a piece of paper where it hurts. They talk about everything that is going on with their health, as many symptoms can be tied together.
“I run more of what you would think of as clinical office visits with patients, and I talk with them about dietary management, supplementation, and then co-manage with the nurse practitioner who will then treat their hormones and their thyroid, or other needs,” she said.
As it turns out, that inane sense that first drove her to medicine, and the decisions that followed, landed her in a position to be able to not only help others, but better help herself, too.
“It’s important to note that I discovered I have a connective tissue disorder. It's a genetic connective tissue disorder that I was born with. It’s called Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and so it creates kind of complex symptomatology: chronic fatigue, digestive issues, menstrual cycle issues, headaches, histamine intolerance, vascular compressions. Being in the natural medicine community, it does allow me to manage my symptoms better. It’s also opened doors to a lot of physicians I would not have found,” she said. “Since I discovered I had that going on, I work with a lot of patients who have these chronic genetic issues. So I found my niche with my group of people that the medical community doesn’t really know what to do with them.”
Working in a great office, doing what she loves, and her two young boys loving living in Rogers, Province said she has found her place.
“Not a lot of people have the opportunity to work multidisciplinary like this,” she said.
That type of environment provides other opportunities, too. For example, she said, she is currently trying to get hooked up with a new clinic in Little Rock.
“They just set up a Ehlers-Danlos clinic at UAMS in Little Rock,” she said. “They have asked us to take some kind of role in that, too.”
Who knows what added opportunities the future will bring.
One thing Province said she has learned along the way is, “perseverance of whatever you set your mind to, you can achieve, regardless of financial background, medical background, or support system. If you really want to do it, you can make it happen. You can find a way to do it.”
To current students considering the medical field, she would encourage them to do lots of shadowing, explore different fields, and really get a good understanding of what is available as far as alternative pathways, and different types of education, such as what they are able to do as a nurse, versus the APRN, versus the MD, versus the chiropractor, versus a naturopathic doctor.
“There is so much out there,” she said. “The big thing in this area is the Alice Walton School of Medicine. They are teaching interdisciplinary things. They are teaching their medical students alternative therapy. Like acupuncture is part of the curriculum in medical school.”
Schools of thought are always changing, so gaining fresh perspective from varying sources is important. One need only look at the fact many older DO’s and MD’s are anti-chiropractic medicine, causing it to be a mystery to many patients a chiropractor’s true role in medicine. With chiropractic medicine’s holistic approach to healthcare and overall wellness, its appeal is increasing with patients and doctors, moving it more to the preventative side of medicine rather than curative.
“It is becoming more widely accepted and more well known that a chiropractor isn’t just someone who takes care my neck pain and my back pain. We have just the same amount of schooling on anatomy and physiology, on diagnostics, and other things, as other doctors,” Province said.