Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection by John E. Sarno
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Book Reviews of Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection
Book Review: The Mind-Body Connection
Summary: 5 Stars
I first heard of Dr. John Sarno in Dr. Andrew Weil's book "Spontaneous Healing : How to Discover and Embrace Your Body's Natural Ability to Maintain and Heal Itself. I believed I had "slipped a disk" while back-packing in Australia. While I was scuba-diving the Great Barrier Reef (and doing my best to pretend I was not in crippling pain) the pain deepened into sciatica. I could barely walk. Wherever I was, at the airport, on the boardwalk, I had to lay on the ground and curl up into a ball in order to walk another few minutes. In New Zealand, as I was hitchhiking from Christchurch to Auckland on big-rig trucks, a physical therapist gave me some exercises he said I'd have to do for the rest of my life. After a year or so of helping, the exercises stopped working. I was so afraid I'd have to have back surgery and/or be crippled for the rest of my life. When I read about Dr. Sarno's deconstructing the emotional and stress-related mind-body connection in the majority of back pain syndromes, I started to mentally investigate my own back spasms. What was I thinking about when the back pain started? I started to see my own pattern of worry - that I had been attributing to my sitting position in the car, or my shoes for instance to my stresses and deepest fears. As I read more of Dr. Sarno's carefully detailed investigation into Tension Myositis Syndrome (TMS), my back pain gradually subsided as I learned the mechanisms of TMS, and deconstructed my own experience of back pain. A year later, I rarely experience back pain, and when I do it's very minor and just a sign that I need to relax and take care of myself. I can even wear high-heeled shoes and go back-packing again (not at the same time), and all manner of bending over and sitting positions are no problem. I've even taken up hula-hooping! One should certainly investigate TMS before considering back surgery. TMS may not be a diagnosis accepted by the entire medical community, nonetheless, Dr Sarno's approach *WORKS* and it could work for you. It's as easy as reading a book, critically deconstructing your own experience, and changing the way you deal with stress. I'll add that reading a book is inexpensive and harmless. Spinal surgery is not. This is even my 2nd copy of this book, because I purchased a copy for someone I cared about who had back pain. I recommend this book to *everyone!!!* Best wishes... :) MTBook Review: Get rid of back pain - FOREVER
Summary: 5 Stars
UPDATE: May 2010. Its over 3.5 years since my review..I have stopped thinking about my back completely (like how it should it be). Not a single day of back pain. I hope this helps everyone like it helped me.
Hello All. I am 29 currently and I have had backpain on and off for over 9 years now. After a particularly nasty back spasm at the gym 2 years back ( where I could hardly walk), I was getting desparate. I looked at physiotherapy,and briefly at some other forms of exercise. I could not find lasting results anywhere and then I came across this book. It was god send. I read it in couple of hours flat. Re-read it next day. Thought a lot about what the author suggests are reasons behind the pain. It is generated from within and the cure also should come from within us. Anyone who thinks that cure CAN ONLY come from outside is going to be looking for a cure, the rest of their lives. I analyzed the book ( I am an engineer) and trusted the book.
The remedy is stright forward and easy. Just read the book. Its not any black magic or pills or wierd exercises.
For me the pain stopped the same week I read it. It has been over 2 years now. I exercise every single day running for over an hour. I just returned from a 2 week back packing carrying very heavy load on my back for 15 straight days. I have done road trips driving for 10+ hours a days. All of these with absolutely no back pain. On particularly exhausting days, pain would last one night like it should and disappear next morning. I have not woken up feeling pain in the back for 2 years now.
I know for sure that I will NOT get the kind of back pains I got for past 9 years. I know it because I have found the cause and cure. After understanding the book, I know why my friends are developing back pains i.e. the timing of their back pain. I can almost predict it for some people, given their nature plus events surrounding them.I try to help the open minded one's. The one's that complain the loudest usually are not looking for a cure, they would rather have the attention, I guess. But I was embarassed by the pain and wanted a 1 time solution for the rest of my life - And that has what Dr. Sarno has given me. And for that, I cannot thank him enough.
Most treatments start at around $500 or $1000 and those are the cheap one's. And here is a $10 solution for life. To me its a no brainer. Best of luck to all of you and wish you great health.
Book Review: I can't praise this book by Dr. Sarno enough
Summary: 5 Stars
At 70 years of age I became progressively worse in terms of pain.
What started as back pain was diagnosed from an MRI as spinal stenosis (friction of the spinal cord from growth of the vertebrae narrowing the canal that the spinal cord passes through). Then I had severe pain of sciatica in both legs. Then I lost most of my strength in both legs which was diagnosed as being caused by motor nerve impingement from the spinal stenosis. I walked with a cane and then only for a few feet at a time. I was anticipating that I might spend the rest of my life in a wheel chair.
My only hope was back surgery. I scheduled surgery at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston for a lamenectomy (removal of a portion of the vertebrae) of S-4 and S-5 to relive the pain. Hopefully I would be free of pain and able to walk normally again.
Then I read Dr. Sarnos's book, Healing Back Pain, the Mind-Body Connection.
I was then examined by a TMS physician in Sandwich, MA who reviewed the MRI. He assured me that the pain was from TMS (emotionally induced) and that there was no structural cause of the pain.
In a short time I recovered 80%. I started to walk without a cane. I cancelled the surgery. It took a few months to gradually recover to 100%.
Since then I have been completely pain free. I am physically able to do whatever I want to do again. I can run, climb stairs at two at a time and, to my joy, I can ski again.
In my opinion, Dr. Sarno does a great job in describing his theory of TMS pain (oxygen deprivation to muscles and nerves caused by constriction of the blood vessels as the result of tension and stress) and treatments of the pain.
He acknowledges that the pain is very real and intense. It is not "all in one's head." In particular, he covers the misdiagnosis by the medical profession of the cause of back pain (structural instead of stress or anxiety).
He also provides an excellent section in his book for the reader on how to treat TMS pain. I recommend this book highly. It certainly made an incredible difference in the quality of my life.
Looking over this review, it looks like someone's fantasy. It is all true.
If you would like to know about Dr. Sarno back pain support groups or if you would like a list of TMS physicians, please send me an email.
Book Review: I'm a Believer
Summary: 5 Stars
I "injured" my back two nights ago playing basketball. To that point, I had honestly thought I was through with back pain. After all, I'd done what they said I should do--strengthened my abdominal and lower back muscles, sat with good posture, stretched, etc. But there it was, back again and worse than ever.
As I was leaning against the water fountain, grimacing in pain, a friend recommended I pick this book up. He told me it was kind of hard to explain, but that it had changed his life. Having gone through back pain before, I figured rest and painkillers would do the job, so I thanked him, and filed Dr. Sarno's name away in the back of my head for possible future reference.
After spending most of the next day dosing myself with near-toxic levels of ibuprofen, lying flat on my back, and trying not to move, I realized it wasn't working, and I made myself go get the book. I figured that I may as well try something different, and at the very least, it would give me something to read while lying down.
So I read the book, saw myself and my situation on every page, and realized that I've spent years basically training myself to suffer from back pain. After making it a quarter through the book, I realized it was all a trick in my mind, and lo and behold, magically, the pain started to disappear.
I'm still feeling a bit of lower back soreness, but whenever it starts stiffening up, I tell myself it's all in my head, and it loosens back up. It'll probably take me some time to unlearn what I've learned with regard to back pain, but it's been a very promising start.
I was skeptical going in--Dr. Sarno's ideas are kind of hard to explain, and if it were just explained to you in laymens terms without you reading the book, it would sound like a bunch of new-age hippie garbage. But believe me, the power of the mind over the body is very real.
So if you're open to trying a new approach to healing your back, then by all means, get this book. If you don't believe that the mind could possibly cause you physical pain, then you should probably stick to the ab-strengthening and stretching routines until you can accept the possibility that it could all be in your head.
Book Review: Five Year Update
Summary: 5 Stars
Dr. Sarno, who I first heard about on the Howard Stern Show, has developed a fascinating and incredibly helpful tool for the elimination of pain: your own brain. I purchased the video tapes and hoped for the best. But by this time I had been experiencing extreme pain for years. Pain so bad I would have welcomed amputation of the offending limb. At times I was unable to move my head and stupid things like turning to look behind while backing up the car was turned into a circus of pain and weird body contortions.
Nothing I did used normal, fluid body motions. Everything caused pain. I couldn't even lean over the sink to brush my teeth. Lifting my neck to shave below the chin was unthinkable. Sitting too long made my low back ripple with waves of pain. Standing to long made my back hurt. Sometimes my jaw would hurt so bad I wished I could just rip it from my face. My legs would pulsate with deep, deep pain that roamed from my butt all the way down to my toes. It was insane. I was miserable.
I had done all the things I could think of, chiropractic, massage, acupuncture, braces, straps, ointments, unguents, creams, lotions, magnets, hot rocks, salts, and more. An endless search for the relief of pain seemed to consume much of my time.
It was with a skeptical mind that began Dr. Sarno's prescription. And I meticulously followed all the Doctor's advice. And slowly over a period of weeks and months, my pain was slowly removed. It took time and it took introspection, repetition, perseverance but it was not difficult. And just watching the video the very first time had an amazing effect.
It has been five years and I am still pain free. I think about it sometimes and I am amazed. I have gone from spending hours doing "therapeutic" neck exercises to rowing a mile every day. And as I continue to add more physical activities, I am gloriously thankful to Dr. Sarno. I have resumed normal daily activities. I bend, twist, jump, lean, sit, stand, walk, run, and climb and the only thing I get is sore muscles.
If you are at your wits end and just wished the pain would go away, just to melt away for once, then try this Doctor's prescription.