Healthy Alternatives opened its doors in May 2005 and is owned and operated by Betsy Gold of Belchertown, MA.

Betsy has always been interested in doing things in a more natural way since her teenage years. She always had an organic garden...

In October of 2002 her oldest son, Jason age 9, began complaining of aches and pains in his back and neck. By February 2003 Jason was in the doctors’ office every week with what they thought was a virus. Each time they were told the same thing, “Come back next week if he’s not feeling better”. They began doing blood work and everything was “normal”. They tested and retested, but still no answer. By spring break Jason was having a hard time functioning, insomnia and tired all the time. He missed 5 weeks of school due to lack of energy and chronic pain. In April Betsy convinced them to test for Lyme disease. Sure enough, Jason was positive for Lyme and was put on antibiotics. Because he was scheduled for a two night field trip with school she took him to see an infectious disease doctor. There she was told that Jason had had the Lyme for more than 6 months and not to bother with the antibiotics. They felt that the chronic fatigue would go away.

In July he was back to himself and Betsy was relieved to think that life would get back to normal. But that didn‘t last long. Two weeks later Jason broke his arm and his health spiraled out of control, the chronic fatigue along with fibromyalgia was back. Between July and December Betsy and Jason visited numerous doctors and specialists. The response was always the same, “He’s perfectly healthy on paper, maybe he’s depressed.” Another favorite was, “It’s all in your head”.

In December Jason had a Live Blood Analysis with a naturopath, what they saw amazed them. Jason’s blood was full of all sorts of “stuff”. The one thing they didn’t see was any white blood cells. What had happened to his immune system?

Betsy and Jason stopped at the store on the way home. They purchased a few supplements and food for a new diet as the naturopath had suggested. Seven days later (on Christmas Eve), Jason announced that he wasn’t sick anymore!

Betsy continued reading and researching for her own enjoyment and to help out family and friends. By August of 2004 she decided that she had to open a store. “There are just so many simple things that people can do to help themselves feel better. I felt that I should help them see their options.”

And so in May 2005 Healthy Alternatives opened its doors.