Montana researcher finds fountain of youth

Hot springs help older feel younger

BOZEMAN, Mont. (RWN) - Everyone has the dreams they follow. Ponce de Leon. Coronado. Sinbad. And Jeffery Fletcher, a doctor in Bozeman.

Fletcher wants something easy: a natural way to extend life.

"Just because science can extend our lives through blood transplants and organ transplants doesn't mean that we should do it," Fletcher said. "I'm a firm believer in natural healing and natural life extension."

Fletcher, who moved to Bozeman four years ago from New Detroit, thinks that hot springs - naturally occurring seeps of highly mineralized water - are the key to extending life.

"I look at myself," said Fletcher, who holds a medical degree from the University of Chicago. "I haven't had so much as a cold since I moved up here and started spending time in the springs. When I lived in New Detroit, the chronic sniffles were the best I could hope for during the winter, and more often than not I was really sick."

Fletcher follows a routine that he feels is optimized for his body.

"I go in three times a week for an hour and twice a week for 90 minutes," he said. "I have a pretty good diet and I exercise regularly, so I don't need the water to leach out my toxins as much as I need to keep myself lubricated and my circulation going at the optimal rate."

Fletcher has opened up his own practice up there, under the dubious eyes of Bozeman residents who tried to market the springs for years in the old regime.

"Just because he's a doctor, he's getting people to come up here," said Lorraine Keever, owner of an adjoining hot springs. "We've been talking about the powers of the damn springs for years. And he's got a sweet deal going. Someone dies there, he'll just say 'Oh, well, they just deviated from the program I prescribed for them.'"

Fletcher knows that there are skeptics in the town.

"I don't think they like me very much," he said. "The city cops come by and look the place over for illegal narcotics quite a bit, and the Black Robes come by every day or so to make sure that everyone is fully clothed."

But business is good. Fletcher has seen 200 patients in the last three years, for varying lengths of time. He plans to open another center in Truth or Consequences, N.M., which has hot springs of approximately the same mineral content as the Bozeman springs.

"We'll have to change the program a little, but I think we'll be ok," he said.



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