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Symmetry Acupuncture, 520 Mt. Rose St., an acupuncture office and Chinese herb dispensary, has its grand opening on March 29-30, with an open house and introductory lectures by doctor of Oriental medicine Joey Rueckl. For more information, or to set up an appointment, visit www.symmetryacupuncture.com or call 329-5100.

Tell me about your business. It’s called Symmetry Acupuncture?

Symmetry Acupuncture, yes. I am a doctor of Oriental medicine.

What does that mean?

That’s how the state licenses me. I have the ability to order out labs, blood work, things of that nature. Also, I work with Chinese herbs, and I do acupuncture and massage.

Do people come to you with specific ailments, like back pain? What do you treat?

With acupuncture, pain is the most commonly associated issue that we treat, and with that, I’ve been a massage therapist for the last 13 years. And when I was in Seattle, I was working at Harbor View Hospital at the level one trauma center, and I was helping to run a neck and back specialty clinic. People would come into the hospital, and they’d need surgery. After surgery, the hospital would send them to us, and we would get them out of pain and restore feeling to their hands, their feet, and really speed up the healing time. Anytime you have any aches and pains, absolutely we can take care of that. … Acupuncture is the longest continually practiced form of medicine in the world. Essentially, I still practice today the way our oldest text book, the Huangdi Neijing—it was written about 3,000 years ago—I still practice the way that was written. And because it is a complete book of medicine, a big part of my practice is anxiety, depression, insomnia. But I also treat all gynecological concerns, infertility—male and female. … I see diabetes patients all the time. Relieving peripheral neuropathy is a big one of my specialties.

What’s that?

Peripheral neuropathy is when you can’t feel your hands or feet or anything. Along with diabetes comes a lot of burning and numbness in the feet usually. That is something we relieve with acupuncture.

You mentioned Seattle. Is that where you’re from?

I’m born and raised right here in Reno. I went to school in Seattle. I had a practice there for a year after school, and then I worked for a year on a cruise ship, around the Pacific Ocean. It was really cool. And with that, I was seeing about 20 people a day. And the average age on our ship was 72. And that’s with babies bringing the age range down. So I’ve seen a lot of arthritis, a lot of sciatic pain, hip pain, knee replacements, all sorts of surgeries, just about anything you can think of. And most people of that age range are on five to eight medications. In my private practice, I’ve seen many people be able to lower their blood pressure, lower their cholesterol, and get off Western drugs. And with anxiety and depression, the same—being able to get off prescription drugs using Chinese herbs. I’ve got about 320 raw herbs, and I’m the only show in town that has raw herbs as part of my dispensary.

What kind of herbs?

Sticks, roots, minerals. I know them all in Chinese. But things that you would recognize—cinnamon. The twig, along with ginger and several other herbs, they help to relieve the cold. We can treat the common cold. If you’ve got it for more than one day, that’s ridiculous. I’ve treated flu, all sorts of viral issues. With herbs, if it’s bacterial or if it’s viral, what we’re doing is working with the system, with your immune system, to strengthen that and kick out what you’ve got going on, your imbalance.