![Nichelle Renk, Anesthesiologist | Pain Medicine](/doctor_images/2/24/81225441.jpg?v=24f3)
Nichelle Renk
Anesthesiologist | Pain Medicine
2000 Abbott Road, Unit A2 Anchorage Alaska, 99507About
As an interventional pain physician, Dr. Nichelle Renk believes the most successful treatment involves identifying the appropriate diagnosis and then implementing a combination of modalities truly tailored to her patient. This multidisciplinary approach to pain management includes the potential use of procedures, limited use of medications, physical therapy, braces and devices, pain psychology, complementary alternative medicine (e.g. acupuncture), and nutrition/lifestyle modification. With a precise diagnosis and multifaceted plan, Dr. Renk achieves dramatic long-lasting results for her patients. Dr. Renk is passionate about getting to know and educating her patient. She goes over every diagnosis and each component of the plan in detail. Dr. Renk uses anatomical models and reviews the imaging with the patient to make sure the diagnosis is well understood. She provides a personalized handout at the end of the first visit listing the patient’s identified diagnoses and the plan for each multidisciplinary modality. Dr. Renk performs advanced procedures head-to-toe but specializes in procedures for the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine, sacroiliac joint, and other nerves and joints of the body. Dr. Renk is one of a few pain management physicians in Alaska to perform cooled radiofrequency procedures, a cutting-edge technology that creates a unique shaped and larger radiofrequency lesion to interrupt pain in the patient’s painful area of the body. Additionally, Dr. Renk performs epidural platelet rich plasma (PRP) injections which can heal diseased discs and nerves in the spine. She plans on adding ultrasound-guided platelet rich plasma (PRP) and stem cell injections for joints, tendons, ligaments, and fluoroscopic-guided intervertebral disc platelet rich plasma (PRP) and stem cell injections to her practice in the near future. Finally, Dr. Renk relieves chronic migraine headaches with Botox injections. Dr. Renk completed her Medical Doctorate (M.D.) at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia, Anesthesiology residency at George Washington University Hospital in Washington DC, and Interventional Pain Medicine fellowship at Stanford Hospital in Palo Alto, California. She is board-certified in Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine by the American Board of Anesthesiology. For the four years prior to joining private practice, Dr. Renk served in the United States Air Force as a Major and Director of the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER) Pain Management Clinic. She had a great experience taking care of her fellow airmen, troops, retirees, dependents, and VA beneficiaries. She won several awards in her tenure there and consistently achieved 99% or greater patient satisfaction. Outside of work, Dr. Renk enjoys spending time with her family, hiking, and traveling.
Education and Training
Virginia Commonwealth University MD 2006
George Washington University Hospital Anesthesiology Residency 2010
Stanford Hospital Pain Medicine Fellowship 2011
Board Certification
American Board of Anesthesiology
Pain Medicine (Anesthesiology)
Provider Details
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Nichelle Renk's Expert Contributions
How Effective is Spinal Cord Stimulation?
Persistent chronic pain involves abnormal pain signals transmitting through your spinal cord to register as sensations in your brain. For some types of chronic pain, effective treatment involves stopping these pain sensations at the spinal cord, a procedure called spinal cord stimulation...
Why Are Autoimmune Disorders Becoming So Common?
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3 Indications for Stellate Ganglion Blocks: CRPS, PTSD, and Long-Haul COVID
Long-term conditions like complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and long-haul COVID-19 can be difficult to treat. Symptoms of pain, fatigue, anxiety, headache, smell or taste difficulties, or brain fog make just getting through each day a...
3 Lifestyle Changes to Slow Osteoarthritis Progression
Receiving a diagnosis for osteoarthritis (OA) means you’re at risk for progressive degeneration of your joints. OA can be painful and limiting to live with. How should you handle your OA diagnosis? While OA can’t be cured, that doesn’t mean you should ignore treatment. At Alpenglow Pain...
Little-Known Causes of Back Pain
Does low or mid back pain keep you up at night, or keep you from getting or staying active the way you’d like? You’re not alone: Back pain affects nearly all adults at some point.Back pain develops for some common reasons, like a muscle strain, arthritis, or a herniated disc. Or, your back...
Myths and Facts About Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome
Nonexperts often misunderstand diseases like hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS). Harmful myths about what it’s like to have this connective tissue disorder can lead to adverse health outcomes, mental health stress, and social alienation for people living with it.When you and the important...
Chronic Pain: Can Radiofrequency Ablation Help?
Chronic pain seems to echo around your body, felt everywhere and nowhere, without a clear physical cause like an injury to explain your pain symptoms. As a way to give lasting relief from chronic pain, blocking nerve pain signals with radiofrequency (RF) ablation shows promise.At Alpenglow Pain...
5 Benefits of Using Botox to Treat Cervical Dystonia
Cervical dystonia, a movement disorder that causes you to develop involuntary muscle spasms in your neck, can be uncomfortable and limiting. Did you know that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved medical Botox® injections as a first-line treatment for cervical dystonia?...
Diabetic Neuropathy Risks and Treatment Options
In people living with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, long-term cases of high blood sugar levels create health and wellness risks. Among the potential complications of diabetes, peripheral diabetic neuropathy can become a serious problem.At Alpenglow Pain & Wellness, interventional pain...
COOLIEF® Radiofrequency Ablation: What to Expect
When you suffer from chronic pain, you need effective treatments to relieve pain and maintain full mobility and quality of life. Cooled radiofrequency ablation (RFA) treatment can address chronic pain with minimal invasiveness, often with better results than other treatment options.At Alpenglow...
Ketamine for Severe Depression: What to Expect
The symptoms of severe depression, ranging from persistent sadness to sleeplessness and including constant feelings of exhaustion or loss of interest in hobbies and personal goals, can feel like a boulder on top of your chest. Seeking treatment only seems to present more challenges. How can you get...
I'm Ready to Start a Journey to Wellness: Where Do I Begin?
As a new year starts, many people’s minds turn to assessing health and wellness. Are you healthy? Are you operating at optimum wellness? And, looking ahead, are you setting yourself up for years of continued good health and wellness?This time of self-reflection and self-assessment can do a lot...
Cooled RFA for Shoulder and Knee Compared With Steroid Injections
Chronic shoulder or knee pain due to conditions like osteoarthritis reduces your mobility and limits your quality of life. Innovative interventional pain management treatments seek to address and resolve your joint pain. With new treatments and therapies like radiofrequency ablation, we’re...
Why Ketamine Might Be the Right Treatment for Your Migraines
Chronic migraine headaches disrupt your daily life. Whether your migraines come with or without a pre-headache “aura,” headache days mean sensitivity to sensory stimuli, including light and smells, as well as intense, often localized headache pain. You may need to miss work or skip important...
4 Reasons to Include Supplements in Your Diet
You do your best to eat right and give your body the nutritional support it needs, but it can be challenging to get sufficient levels of essential vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients from diet and lifestyle alone. Your body might need more than your diet can provide. Many men and women struggle...
Treating Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome with Lifestyle Modifications
It has become increasingly clear that people living with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) need specialized care, treatment, and lifestyle modifications. That’s why interventional pain management physician Dr. Nichelle C. Renk and Dr. Mary Beth Calor specialize in EDS diagnosis,...
What is Triggering Your Migraines?
The Migraine Research Foundation notes that around 12% of all adults in the United States deal with migraines. Migraines are more common in women than in men but can affect patients of all genders. Your migraines are chronic if you suffer from 15 or more migraine days per month.Migraines are...
What Can I Expect During a Spinal Cord Stimulation Trial?
Could you benefit from a long-term, non-pharmacological interventional pain management solution for health issues like chronic back pain? Spinal control stimulation (SCS) often provides effective, patient-controlled pain management results.Dr. Nichelle Renk and the team at Alpenglow Pain &...
Calm The Nerves That Are Causing Your Back Pain With Spinal Cord Stimulation
Chronic back pain causes aches and discomfort at all hours of the day, keeping you from getting around during the day and getting to sleep at night. Pain signals that travel from your spinal nerves to your brain don’t let you rest — or stay active when you want to.Talk to board-certified...
I Never Had Migraines Before — Why Do I Have Them Now?
Migraine headaches come with a range of unpleasant symptoms, including pain, sensory sensitivity, nausea, and vomiting. You may experience discomfort and warning symptoms before a migraine as well. People who go through at least 15 migraine days each month have chronic migraines and need...
PRP: How This All-Natural Therapy Relieves Pain in the Shoulders, Knees, and Hips
You get up in the morning and you’re greeted by achy knees or hips that make you wince with every step. Or, perhaps you hit the shower and find washing your hair to be nearly impossible thanks to a painful shoulder. These types of joint problems have a way of hijacking your life in ways you never...
The Link Between Your Mood and Your Nutrition
If you’ve been struggling with low mood, mood swings, or other emotional disturbances, questions about your diet could be furthest from your mind. You’re more likely to get stuck thinking about your personal life, your personal history, or all of the things that worry or upset you.Nutrition is...
Calm The Nerves that Are Causing Your Back Pain With Spinal Cord Stimulation
Chronic back pain causes aches and discomfort at all hours of the day, keeping you from getting around during the day and getting to sleep at night. Pain signals that travel from your spinal nerves to your brain don’t let you rest — or stay active when you want to.Talk to board-certified...
Understanding How EDS Affects Children
Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) is a connective tissue disorder that has genetic causes, meaning it can be inherited. Children with EDS have some distinct health care needs, so they benefit from working with a provider who has experience with this condition.Dr. Nichelle Renk, Dr. Mary Beth Calor, and...
What's Triggering Your Migraines?
The Migraine Research Foundation notes that around 12% of all adults in the United States deal with migraines. Migraines are more common in women than in men but can affect patients of all genders. Your migraines are chronic if you suffer from 15 or more migraine days per month.Migraines are...
4 Expert Nutrition Hacks You Can Start Using Today
Your diet makes a huge difference in your health and wellness, both positive and negative. Eating the right foods at the right times, after preparing them with healthy cooking techniques, gives your body the energy and nutrients it needs to stay strong and active, and to heal itself from within.On...
The Link Between Neck Pain and Working from Home
In the last few years, working from home has become an increasingly popular professional option. It’s convenient to skip out on a commute, and working from home also keeps costs down. Maybe now you’re discovering a common downside to working from home — an increased risk of neck pain. If...
4 Reasons to Include Supplements in Your Diet
You do your best to eat right and give your body the nutritional support it needs. But it can be challenging to get sufficient levels of essential vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients from diet and lifestyle alone. Your body might need more than your diet can provide. Many men and women struggle...
Cooled RFA for Shoulder and Knee Compared With Steroid Injections
Chronic shoulder or knee pain due to conditions like osteoarthritis reduces your mobility and limits your quality of life. Innovative interventional pain management treatments seek to address and resolve your joint pain. With new treatments and therapies like radiofrequency ablation, we’re...
How to Relieve Jaw Pain Without Surgery
Your temporomandibular joints are located where your skull connects with your lower jawbone, also called the mandible. You rely on these joints to open and close your mouth, to talk and chew, and to move your jawbone from side to side .Temporomandibular joint dysfunction (TMJ) is a common cause of...
Why Do My Hips Hurt When I Wake Up in the Morning?
You wake up in the morning and, instead of feeling refreshed, rested, and ready, you’re overwhelmed by an aching pain in your hips. What’s causing this morning's hip pain, and could it indicate an underlying medical condition? What’s the best way to relieve your symptoms?Turn to the...
Ketamine for Severe Depression: What to Expect
The symptoms of severe depression, ranging from persistent sadness to sleeplessness and including constant feelings of exhaustion or loss of interest in hobbies and personal goals, can feel like a boulder on top of your chest. Seeking treatment only seems to present more challenges. How can you get...
Suffering From Chronic Migraine Pain? Here's How Botox Can Help
Migraine headaches are more common than you might realize, affecting about 12% of Americans. When you have a migraine, disabling symptoms like pain, light and sound sensitivity, nausea, and aura often become overwhelming. If you have at least 15 migraine days a month, your condition qualifies...
Chronic Pain: Can Radiofrequency Ablation Help?
Chronic pain seems to echo around your body, felt everywhere and nowhere, without a clear physical cause like an injury to explain your pain symptoms. As a way to give lasting relief from chronic pain, blocking nerve pain signals with radiofrequency (RF) ablation shows promise.At Alpenglow Pain...
All of Your Treatment Options for Occipital Neuralgia
Your two greater and two lesser occipital nerves are found on each side of your head at the base of your skull. These four nerves transmit sensation to the top of your head. Irritation of these nerves, known as occipital neuralgia, can leave you with chronic headache pain in this same...
Little-Known Causes of Back Pain
Does low or mid back pain keep you up at night or keep you from getting or staying active the way you’d like? You’re not alone: Back pain affects nearly all adults at some point.Back pain develops for some common reasons, such as a muscle strain, arthritis, a herniated disc, or your back pain...
What Can Low-Dose Naltrexone Treat?
Conditions like chronic pain, sleep disorders, and autoimmune conditions challenge the frontiers of interventional medicine. We continue to learn more about interventions that can improve your health and wellness. Since the 1980s, medical research has developed a great amount of information on the...
How Effective is Spinal Cord Stimulation?
Persistent chronic pain involves abnormal pain signals transmitting through your spinal cord to register as sensations in your brain. For some types of chronic pain, effective treatment involves stopping these pain sensations at the spinal cord, a procedure called spinal cord stimulation...
5 Effective Migraine Treatments
Migraine headaches are a complex chronic condition that can become disabling. At Alpenglow Pain & Wellness in Anchorage, Alaska, interventional pain management physician Dr. Nichelle C. Renk provides effective treatment for chronic migraines.Your migraines are considered chronic if you go...
Understanding Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS): Signs and Treatments
More and more people are learning about Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), an inherited connective tissue disorder that often presents with overly flexible joints, stretchy skin, and chronic musculoskeletal pain.Interventional pain management specialist Dr. Nichelle C. Renk of Alpenglow Pain &...
How Stellate Ganglion Block Can Help Long Haul Covid Symptoms, PTSD, and CRPS
The role of your brain and nervous system in your health and wellness is complex and not always easy to understand. It can be hard to believe that a single type of procedure, a stellate ganglion block (SGB), could help with physical and mental health concerns.However, you should know that SGB...
Why Might I Need Supplements?
Your body needs a well-balanced, full set of vitamins and nutrients to function with optimal health and wellness. However, getting that full amount of vitamins and nutrients can be more of a challenge than you might realize.At Alpenglow Pain & Wellness, Dr. Nichelle C. Renk and Dr. Mary Beth...
Is Working From Home A Pain In Your Neck?
Many people are discovering the benefits of working from home. You can cut your commute, saving time and money. Working from home can also give you needed scheduling flexibility, or make it easier to support family members or pets. Working from home provides many people with needed physical or...
4 Benefits of COOLIEF Radiofrequency Ablation
You feel pain in your brain as much as in your body, due to the way nerve signals from around your body register as sensation. For some chronic pain patients, nerve signals around pain continue to fire even when there’s no need or cause, resulting in mysterious pain symptoms that aren’t easily...
How Acupuncture Can Alleviate Your Aches and Pains
Pain treatment can be a complex process. Figuring out the right approach or combination of approaches to manage your time takes patience, knowledge, and care. The interventional pain management specialists at Alpenglow Pain & Wellness in Anchorage, Alaska, led by Dr. Nichelle Renk and Dr....
Why does my stomach hurt often?
Hello, That is difficult to answer as there may be many sources of your GI pain. For example, it can be your gallbladder, appendix, pancreas, stomach, liver, bowels, blood supply, etc. I would recommend you see your primary care doctor and request a thorough physical exam, labs, and possibly other testing such as an endoscopy, colonoscopy, X-ray, or CT scan. Sincerely, Nichelle C. Renk, M.D. READ MORE
Is anal pain after a hemorrhoids surgery normal?
Hello, Yes it would be wise to see a pain specialist ASAP. That doctor can get you on medications to settle down your nervous system to prevent conversion of the acute to chronic pain. Sincerely, Nichelle Cook Renk, M.D. READ MORE
For a sprain what is more advisable a hot pack or a cold pack?
Hello, for acute sprains and strains, cold packs are better to decrease inflammation. For chronic muscular tension, heat is better. Sincerely, Nichelle Cook Renk, M.D. READ MORE
What causes headaches?
Hello, We would want to get brain and cervical spine imaging to make sure there is nothing malignant. It is likely an impinged nerve. I would be happy to evaluate you thoroughly in person and create a treatment plan for you. Sincerely, Nichelle Cook Renk, M.D. READ MORE
What is causing my chronic back pain?
I would have to perform a thorough evaluation of your symptoms, imaging and physical exam. Are you in anchorage or a nearby city? If so, please call 770-1152 and ask for Parker to make an appointment. Taking ibuprofen especially over a long period can be harmful. Sincerely, Nichelle Cook Renk, M.D. READ MORE
Areas of expertise and specialization
Nichelle Renk's Practice location
Alpenglow Pain & Wellness
2000 Abbott Road, Unit A2 -Anchorage, Alaska 99507Get Direction
Nichelle Renk's reviews
Write ReviewPatient Experience with Dr. Renk
- Joshua
Doctor Renk has been my doctor for over 8 years starting while we both were in the military. From then to now, she has ALWAYS listened to me and my concerns with professionalism, compassion, and most importantly medically. She knows she can't fix everything, but her capability to diagnose my issues and provide a medical plan has made my life better, fuller, and honestly longer. She always has multiple plans to attack any of my medical issues, which relieves me because there is never a one solution fix all. She highly encourages all natural medicine as opposed to the military and VA's approach of narcotics or more pills. In fact, in all my time with Dr. Renk she has vehemently opposed and refused to prescribe narcotics in my cases in stark contrast to military and VA medicine of which I am profoundly grateful for. I fought to stay with Dr. Renk when she left the service to the private sector for a continuity of care but mostly because I don't trust anyone else to provide for my family and I the care I require. Simply, I owe Dr. Renk everything. She is the best pain management doctor in the business.
- Nick
I had chronic lower back pain like someone stabing a screwdriver over and over again from work related activites... With Dr.Renk help and her staff I can go back to my Dailey Alaskan activities... she new exactly what she was doing when performing procedures on my lower back I feel 110 % relif!!! Thank you Dr.Renk and your staff.. which I strongly recommend !!!!!!
- Jeanne
Dr. Renk is such a lifesaver for me. Without her I would be in so much pain that I wouldn't be able to move. She has helped me so much. Thank you, Dr. Renk for all you have done for me. Jeanne P.
- Trent
Took time to listen to my symptoms. I believe her prior military service helped her understand my needs. Staff worked to meet my difficult schedule. Great Doc and excellent team. Thank you Dr. Renk and Team!
- Melissa
Dr. Renk is an outstanding doc! She is very kind and always wanting the best for her patients. She takes the time to make sure that her patients are taken care of. I have personally enjoyed with working with Dr. Renk who is honest, and kind. She is always wanting to learn to better herself and her patients. Thanks for all you do Dr. Renk!
- Stephanie
Dr Renk is an extremely caring and thorough physician. I have been blessed to work with her and highly recommend her to my family and friends.
- Renee
After years of symptoms and muscle/ joint pain ignored by other doctors..... Dr. Renk has me on the mend in just a few visits and a few visits.
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Nearby Providers
- Dr. Mary Beth Scott-calor D.O.5955 ZEAMER AVE JBER AK 99506
- Dr. Carl Stanberry MD188 W NORTHERN LIGHTS BLVD, SUITE 800 ANCHORAGE AK 99503
- Mary Beth Calor2000 Abbott Rd Anchorage AK 99507
- Dr. Heath Mcanally MD12103 HORSESHOE DR EAGLE RIVER AK 99577
- Dr. Grant T Roderer MD1917 Abbott Rd Anchorage AK 99507
- Dr. Robert Valentz Other3801 University Lake Dr Anchorage AK 99508
Nearest Hospitals
PROVIDENCE ALASKA MEDICAL CENTERl
3200 PROVIDENCE DRIVE ANCHORAGE AK 99508