Retro Fitness was founded by Eric Casaburi in 2006. After creating 156 gyms in 13yrs, he left as the CEO in 2019 and has now launched a new anti-aging franchise called the Serotonin Centers. He aims to make these centers a one-stop anti-aging shop that specializes in testing and treating hormone levels. This new franchise concept claims to improve people’s wellbeing and immune systems.
Called Serotonin Centers, the franchise is named for a hormone that stabilizes moods, brings feelings of happiness and helps regulate sleep and digestion. It has one corporate location and last year signed a five-unit franchise agreement with a group of medical practitioners in New Jersey who have units in the development stage.
His passions for fitness and healthy eating evolved over the years into “understanding how your blood work is tied into all of that, which turned into something deeper,” Casaburi said. “It’s great to work out and exercise, but when you have more information and data other than your scale weight or body weight—how are your hormones? Do you have high cortisone levels? It’s about general health and overall health, maintaining age.”
In addition to hormone testing and hormone replacement therapies, Serotonin Centers provide weight management treatments, facial fillers such as Botox and micro-needling with platelet-rich plasma. And when customers test high for C-reactive proteins, which are known to increase with inflammation in the body, they’re sent to the center’s hyperbaric oxygen chamber and treated with red light therapy, which Casaburi noted is “FDA-approved for pain management and inflammation.” Red light therapy, however, is only approved for certain conditions and is not covered by most insurance plans.
“We’re been a crusader for health and wellness, and we feel we can control a part of our destiny through good practices when we can give good tools for people,” Casaburi said. He noted the American healthcare system “is a little bit broken right now,” and his concept wants to help correct it by educating consumers about their blood work and hormone levels and “giving those controls back to you.”
The franchise requires high-skilled staff, including medical assistants, nurse practitioners, medical directors, health coaches, estheticians and “concierge” staff members who answer the phone and book appointments.
“One of the most interesting conditions of hormone imbalances, people get fatigued, depressed,” Casaburi said. One treatment offered is a pellet the size of a grain of rice inserted under the skin to slowly dispense hormones over a long period of time, and which he said can help customers “better perform for yourself, your spouse, your kids, your neighbors … everyone around you benefits when you look and feel better about yourself, and you have more energy.”
Source: Franchise Times
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