Meet Calvin Richards of Better Health Now in Downtown

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Calvin Richards.

Dr. Richards, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
As long as I could remember, I always wanted to be a scientist and doctor. After studying Biology in college, I went to grad school and received my Masters in Biomedical Science. This was the moment I knew for sure, I wanted to become a physician. Growing up as a first generation American with Jamaican parents, natural medicine/herbal medicine was just a part of everyday life. No illness existed that could not be treated with an herbal tea. Given my interest in medicine and my family background, the most likely progression was to become a naturopathic medical doctor.

Has it been a smooth road?
The easiest part of this journey was learning and practicing medicine. The struggle comes from trying to get the word out that my business is here and affordable. A lot of integrative health care practitioners do not accept insurance and can be very costly for patients. The mission Better Heath Now is to make integrative medicine affordable so that you don’t have to break the bank to see your doctor. The hard part comes from trying to find the balance between paying for marketing but not passing along that cost to patients while keeping the office visits affordable. This process has been fun adventure and worthwhile.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Better Health Now story. Tell us more about the business.
The focus of Better Health Now is men’s health, LGBT health and family medicine. Better Health Now provides the best that natural and conventional medicine has to offer. We provide compassionate and affordable integrative health care options. What sets Better Health Now apart from the other naturopathic medical doctors/integrative practitioners is we provide the cutting edge advances in natural, conventional and anti-aging medicine at an affordable price.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I see medicine, as a whole, changing in the next 10 years towards more deeply integrating natural medicines into mainstream medicine. It was not that long ago that conventional medicine discounted the idea of taking fish oils to treat medical conditions, now pharmaceutical companies have made fish oil medications to treat high triglycerides. I see conventional medicine becoming more integrative and providing patients with safer, preventative natural medical options.

Pricing:

• Membership Prices are $29 -$150/ month
• $15 for select generic medication in office
• Initial visits are $155 non-members
• $55/ 15min for follow ups non-members

Contact Info:

• Address: 2024 North 7th st
  Ste 201
  Phoenix, AZ 85013
• Website: BetterHealthNow.org
• Phone: 480-382-5669
• Email: info@BetterHealthNow.org
• Instagram: BetterHealthNowOrg

Image Credit:
Raul Riena, Kardine Fehlinger

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