NMB Therapeutics offers pain treatment via massage therapy

By Jenny Harnish, RealWV

Lee Forbes knows pain. 

During his 40 years as an active roofer, Forbes broke 24 bones and sustained 10 falls, one of which crushed 4 vertebrae in his neck, leaving him paralyzed from the neck down. That was in 2012, and after 14 months of physical therapy, Forbes visited a body work therapist in North Carolina. “In two hours I had more improvement than 14 months of physical therapy. So I came off the table and said, ‘I gotta do this.’” 

Along with his wife he enrolled in North Carolina School of Advanced Body Work in Charlotte and they both became certified in massage and body work.  “Massage is what you think of as spa type of stuff. Body work is pain specific and is therapeutic in its focus,” he said. “Our training was in body work more than massage so when we opened up our practice in Beaver in 2020 that was our purpose – to be pain focused.” 

The couple enjoyed a successful practice in Beaver for five years before moving to White Sulphur Springs and opening NMB Therapeutics in October. 

“We have the highest pain resolution rate of any practice period. Ninety plus percent of people who come with any type of pain from migraine to plantar fasciitis to hips, elbows and shoulders walk out in two hours most of the time pain free and with full range of motion. Nobody else can make that claim,” he said. 

Forbes compares the work he does on bodies, to his history solving complex issues with historical buildings. “When I got into body work, I thought, maybe it was the same with the human body. So I started backing up and looking at the way the mechanism of the body works. What could be causing an issue here?”

He said the vast majority of issues that people have are neuromuscular, but unfortunately doctors are held to a 15 minute window with patients so they don’t have time to properly diagnose the issue and instead prescribe drugs for the problems. 

“They’ll come to me and say I’ve been told I have fibromyalgia. In reality they have one or two places that are causing a whole chain of events to go through the body. And once we reverse engineer the situation they’re great. We resolved the source  and the pain in the rest of the body went away. Our success rate is such that if I don’t get you any resolution at all I won’t charge you. You’re not going to find that anywhere.” 

Forbes works with an Electrons Plus machine – a practitioner directed electromagnetic pulse. 

“This unit works through the practitioner so I can direct exactly where I want this electromagnetic pulse to go. When a muscle is having an issue where it’s gotten traumatized this is restoring that charge in the muscle and it allows the muscle to be able to release so I can get to where I need to be a lot faster.” 

One of his patients, Robin Vaughan, comes to him for chronic neck and shoulder issues. “I have herniated disks. I was told I needed back surgery. I was told I need to replace my knee,” she said. “So I didn’t do any of that, I suffered with the pain. I did physical therapy and nothing helped. I started coming here and it works for quite a while until I do stupid stuff again,” she laughs. “I call him my ‘body guy’.” 

Forbes says the majority of body pain is coming from the pelvis. 

“I get a hundred percent resolution with migraine headaches by working the base of the pelvis. When the pelvis is pulled or twisted that causes an unequal amount of tension to go up the erectors in the back. Everyone that I’ve worked on has resolved their issues with migraines and they were all pelvic related.”

Forbes claims success with migraines, plantar fasciitis, TMJ issues, knee issues, sports-related accidents and even botched surgeries. 

“We’ve been very successful in restoring neuro pathways in people that have had nerve damage. I tell people we’re like chiropractors for muscles.” 

“I got lots of happy ladies out there who don’t pee themselves when they cough, sneeze, laugh, or lift. We’ve had people come from 14 different states who found out through a neighbor, a friend or family member. And all of them have been happy with their results,” he said.