Natural Medicine for our Honored Veterans
Veterans Day may have come and gone, but veterans and their care have been a major focus for me. I served in the U.S. Army from 1966 through 1969. I was drafted, volunteered for O.C.S. (officer candidate school), graduated from Artillery OCS, went to Pershing missile school and was stationed in Germany from 1967-69.
I was honored to speak at NUNM’s Veterans Day luncheon this past November. NUNM’s President, David Schleich, also gave a presentation regarding how NUNM is actively involved in helping establish the Veterans Restorative Center at Hot Lake Springs near La Grande, Oregon.
This is a collaborative effort with the Warrior Bonfire Project, Hot Lake Springs Spa, Dyne Aquaculture and NUNM. The potential for helping veterans in their recovery from PTSD and other related injuries through naturopathic medicine has been widely studied and there has been a legislative effort to allow naturopathic doctors to be primary care physicians in the treatment of our veterans. Having the opportunity to treat these veterans here in Oregon, where ND’s have primary care physician status, will provide a credible stage at Hot Lake Springs to show the clinical effectiveness of naturopathic medicine.
More money needs to be raised by the Warrior Bonfire Project and Dyne Aquaculture to allow this project to really take root and grow. NUNM has developed their proposal for staffing doctors and students to provide ongoing care and treatment programs for the veterans seeking therapy at Hot Lake Springs. We’re excited to see, and share with you, how this incredible opportunity unfolds!
Distribution Decisions, Revisited: A Word to our Professionals
In our last newsletter, I discussed a few of the reasons why Mountain Peak Nutritionals has chosen not to go through distributors. The article was well received and stimulated questions and responses from our readers. One of the most significant responses we received made me realize that many folks do not realize that distributors require a 25-30% discount from the professional wholesale price. In order for distributors to sell supplements lines at the wholesale prices, they have to receive a major discount for providing their service. Any company using a distributor must ultimately raise their prices to help cover the discounts given to distributors.
We understand that practitioners want to have the ability to purchase across brands in a single purchase order and minimize shipping expense. However, any shipping costs saved this way are quickly negated by higher overall prices. My belief is that if we offer an array of condition specific formulas that create better patient outcomes, then most practitioners can and will easily put together an order that qualifies for free shipping while also benefitting from overall lower wholesale prices.
Also, our products can’t be found discounted by online retailers undercutting MSRP. This is primarily due to the fact that Mountain Peak Nutritionals does not go through distributors. Our policy is to keep prices as reasonable as possible to you and we can better achieve this goal by paying closer attention to where and how we make our business priorities.
