NILE BACHMANN: My name is Nile Bachmann and I'm the owner and operator of the Blue Ridge Clinic for Chinese Medicine here in Floyd, Virginia.
I specialize in drug-free pain management for the people of the New River Valley, mostly using acupuncture, [SPEAKING TO CLIENT] tap the needle in and something called Tuina.
It's an acupressure massage.
We have a lot of retired people, that's a big population here in Floyd.
So all of the complaints that go along with that are something that I see frequently.
Any type of joint pain, back pain, neck pain.
But we do have a fairly thriving community of younger to middle-aged homesteaders and they do a lot of gardening, farm work, physical labor.
So we have the pain that is associated with that.
We see that quite a bit.
JOY FRANCE: I had had a car accident many years ago that I have a really bad neck and neck injury that's just going to be with me for the rest of my life.
And so I was trying to get pain relief and just be able to move through the rest of my day, you know move through my days without pain as much as possible.
And the chiropractor did a great job.
The massage therapist that I was going to did a great job, but it just didn't seem to be holding for my body and every body is different.
And so I came here and I thought, I though I'm going to give it a shot.
NILE BACHMANN: What we're doing with the needles has both a local and a non-local effect.
The local effect is to stimulate the healing and growth factors in the tissues where we insert the needles.
And the non-local effect is more nervous system mediated.
The stimulation of the needles will release the body's natural painkillers, endogenous opioids in the spinal cord and change the perception of pain to some degree higher up in the central nervous system.
JOY FRANCE: My neck pain is something that's just always there, but it can be excruciating.
It can be something that stops you in your tracks and stops how you live your life and how you exist and how you are for your family.
What is done here in this facility is not only good for pain relief, it's really an overall, all body help.
NILE BACHMANN: We really need in this country and in the world alternatives to pain management that do not involve medications, that do not necessarily involve costlier higher interventions, ways that we can address the pain before it becomes debilitating.
This area has a history of opioid abuse and it certainly needs alternatives for pain management that don't involve medication.
JOY FRANCE: Patient care is everything.
How you're treated as a patient and how you're listened to as a patient is everything.
And it's very lacking in our system today.
And you are listened to when you come here.
Everything that you need to say is said.
Every concern that you have is valid and it's heard.