We are spilling a best-kept secret and a Wilmington hidden gem today: Brittany McNeil.
Brittany McNeil, a family nurse practitioner at Restore Health & Wellness, helps patients with their overall health, wellness, nutrition, prevention of disease, and hormone balance. In the beauty department, she offers botox, Juvederm, micro-needling, and more.
How She Started
Brittany’s career began in hospitals, where her work spanned different settings, from the ER, surgical, neurological, and her favorite — cardiac care. But after years of caring for patients in the hospital, she said something was missing.
“I felt like we nurses were treating the disease and not the person. I grew very conflicted about that,” she said. “It felt like we weren’t helping patients get to the root cause of their issues. What we did was more ‘reactive’ medicine — fixing problems after they’ve started.”
Eventually, she found her way back to school to become an FNP, wanting to partner with her patients in a way she wasn’t able to before. As an FNP she could help patients focus on a foundation of health, healthy lifestyle, and disease prevention. In her last semester of graduate school, she met Tabetha Smith of Restore Health & Wellness. She trained under Tabetha for Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy and Functional Medicine. Brittany said she found the missing piece to the puzzle she was looking for.
Health & Hormonal Imbalances
When it comes to healing hormonal imbalances, Brittany said she hears all too often from men and women about how they were told at other practices something was all in their head. Because the symptoms are similar for so many other issues and diseases, the problems can be tricky to pin down.
“Sometimes my patients tell me they are tired, they have brain fog, anxiety, can’t sleep well, no sex drive. And when their labs are normal, they are told it is all in their head,” she said. “Our approach here is very individualized. I take what I find in bloodwork and we look at gut health, food sensitivities, allergies — all sorts of stuff. It’s never one-size-fits-all.”
But the healing can sometimes come with hard work. It can be tougher to clean up your diet, exercise, and manage stress rather than just accepting the negative symptoms, she said.
Stress & Beauty
Another common factor she sees is men and women coming to after experiencing burnout, as young professionals are part of a culture that glorifies stress and busyness. She and the team at Restore are skilled at giving patients the tools to manage stress and find new ways to be the best version of themselves.
As for beauty, on the side, Brittany has always been a huge fan of cosmetics. She said helping patients look their best is all part of helping them feel their best too.
We highly recommend giving Brittany a follow on Instagram to learn more about what she does at Restore. Check out @brittany.thenp for more.
Check out our guide to self-care around Wilmington.
