Each week the Free Press profiles a local business that has used the services of The Business Incubator Center, a nonprofit organization that provides entrepreneurial assistance to new and expanding businesses in Mesa County.

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — When Jody Ahrens was diagnosed in 1996 with Graves’ disease she didn’t like her doctor’s suggestion to have her thyroid removed or radiated. Instead, she sought every alternative treatment she could think of.

Graves’ disease is an autoimmune disease that causes an overactive thyroid.

Ahrens’ symptoms included bulging eyes, hair loss and an irregular heart beat.

“I lost about half of my hair,” Ahrens, 72, said. “I had a very advanced case of it. I shook, had no energy and I was so cranky.”

Sometimes the standard medical treatment reduces symptoms, other times it doesn’t, Ahrens said.

“I was determined to follow a natural path,” she said.

She tried taking vitamins, herbs and homeopathic medicines. She even sought the advice of an American Indian medicine man.

Nothing worked.

Then she learned via the Internet about the healing properties of fulvic acid. She learned that people have used fulvic acid in Asia for centuries. Fulvic minerals come from ancient deposits of humic material.

Ahrens began taking it.

“In three days I suspected it was making a difference. In three weeks I knew it was making a difference,” Ahrens said. “I could sleep for a change. I had way more energy.”

After a year-and-a-half, her condition was completely reversed.

People tell her she looks 20 years younger than she appeared in 1990.

In 2000, Ahrens and her daughter Arlee joined Ray DeGooyer in a partnership to manufacture liquid supplements that include fulvic as a major ingredient.

DeGooyer’s wife also had long-standing health problems. Although not completely cured, she has found relief by taking fulvic, DeGooyer said. Attempts to find a medical solution for his wife were unsuccessful, he said.

“I couldn’t get it except through multi-level marketing or the Internet,” DeGooyer said. “We thought it should be more available.”

DeGooyer and Ahrens acquire the fulvic material from a deposit in New Mexico.

Vital-Earth Minerals is located at The Business Incubator Center, 2591 B 3/4 Road. The Incubator is an entrepreneurial program that assists new and expanding businesses with management services, business consulting and affordable rental space.

“We outgrew our warehouse space there, and we were approaching our five-year (graduation) mark and started looking for space in the community,” DeGooyer said. “About that time the energy industry starting absorbing anything in the market. Plus rents skyrocketed.”

Vital-Earth restructured its business, was able to negotiate another leasing contract, and moved out of the manufacturing building and into office space across the parking lot.

Now Vital-Earth ships the majority of its liquid supplement products from a fulfillment center in Phoenix. Vital-Earth liquid supplements are manufactured at “Herbally Yours,” a Good Manufacturing Practice-certified laboratory, also in Phoenix.

Bottles are also shipped to their Grand Junction office, where the owners do additional testing for quality control.

Vital-Earth Minerals’ products are sold in stores nationwide. They are distributed by United Foods, Nature’s Best and Select Nutrition. The supplements are also marketed via the Internet and directly to stores and individuals.

In Grand Junction, Vital-Earth Minerals are sold at Horn O’ Plenty Health Foods, 429 Colorado Ave.

“Horn O’ Plenty was our very first retail store anywhere,” Ahrens said. “We did not market to other stores (locally), because they (Horn O’ Plenty) gave us a chance. We learned about marketing there.”

Horn O’ Plenty manager Carol Lipinski said it’s a wonderful product that they sell to young athletes as well as to older citizens who have difficulty swallowing.

“It’s very complete (nutrition-wise), and very assimilable” Lipinski said.

“I have a number of wives who sneak it into their husbands’ liquid refreshment, of whatever nature,” Lipinski said.

Vital-Earth Minerals supports three partners and three employees. It also employees 12 brokers across the country.

“Sales have been phenomenal — even with this downturn,” Ahrens said. “The product works so well, we get enormous high referrals.”

In their first year, the business earned $34,000 in gross sales.

“We’re now at $650,000 in sales,” DeGooyer said.

“We hope to hit a million this year,” Ahrens added.

DeGooyer owned the Pretzelmaker and a juice stand before starting Vital-Earth. Ahrens and her daughter owned Evergreen Video Productions.

Still, there’s been much to learn from their landlord.

At the Incubator campus, both DeGooyer and Ahrens have attended a number of business and leadership classes and seminars. And they always go to the monthly Incubator luncheons, where there’s always a speaker.

Vital-Earth Minerals can be reached at 241-6628 or toll free at 1-866-291-4400.

Reach Sharon Sullivan at ssullivan@gjfreepress.com.