Photo by Michael Williams

Dr. Keith Chambers

Dr. Chambers founded Scottsdale’s Chambers Clinic nearly 10 years ago and thrives with a 95-percent referral rate. A full-service naturopathic practice center, it serves as a one-stop shop for all medical needs and is the only practice of its kind in the nation to offer services that include cardiology, oncology, hormones, aesthetics and more. Within the next five years, Dr. Chambers has his sights set on opening the nation’s first naturopathic hospital.

How did you become interested in natural medicine?

I wanted to be a doctor since I was a kid and was pre-med. I went into the conventional world, and it wasn’t really helping people the way I thought they should be helped. So I went off and did other things—went to business school, taught chemistry, built and sold businesses. I moved to Seattle in the mid-90’s. It was there that I learned about naturopathic medicine. I was enthralled with learning how to help people without side effects.

What is the most rewarding part of your career?

I think the people—seeing them change their lives, be happier, achieve the goals they have always wanted to achieve.

What challenges do you face in your field?

We have to be better than a practice that takes insurance. We continually try to improve and learn new treatments. We have to take more time, we have to be more emotionally intelligent with the patients and have better outcomes.

Do you face skepticism? 

The tides are turning. We have full prescriptive rights—that said, 85 percent of the time we are able to have better outcomes using natural remedies than if your throw a pharmaceutical at it. If we don’t have results, I will refer patients somewhere else. Luckily, we haven’t had to do that.

Are there certain advancements in your field that you are excited about?

We haven’t even come close to seeing the capabilities of stem cells. I think that the things we can do with addictions are really extraordinary and life-changing. We try to keep in front of the curve.

What influence do you hope to have on the Valley?

I want to influence people to think about their health and take the next step to get help. We only can control ourselves, and I think that if there is a tipping point between apathy and action—if I can have an effect on that—that is a wonderful thing. We are working on building a nonprofit naturopathic hospital—the only one in the U.S. There are a lot of things that we can do with people who can stay overnight. The hospital will be a community outreach center, and we will teach people how to eat, how to cook, how to garden, what exercises to do, lifestyle changes, in addition to treatment therapies and overall primary care.

In what other ways do you give back to the community?

I have a nonprofit called Returning Warriors Foundation that gives back to our veterans.