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: Must-read for back pain sufferers
Summary: 5 Stars
This classic book may not work for everyone, but it has worked almost like a miracle for me and several other people I know. When I first started to develop back pain, I went from being an active exerciser and hiker to a near invalid in a matter of months. I even bought myself a cane, and spent a good part of the day lying down with my knees up, or crawling around the house to get exercise, because my back hurt when I stood up. During that time I tried two chiropracters, physiotherapy, and acupuncture, to no avail. My back kept getting worse. I got an MRI, and found that I had a bulging disk that was consistent with the pain in my lower back, and the tingling and numbness down my leg. Then I found this book in a book store and started to leaf through it. The words that leapt out of it seemed to reflect my experience exactly. I bought the book, read it in one day,and my back already started to feel a little better just from reading it. The most important points for me were: 1. There may be a physical cause for the pain, but my mental attitude was making it a thousand times worse, 2. Lots of people who have bulging disks don't even know it because they don't have pain, 3. I should resume all my former activity without worrying about protecting my back.
There is one page in the book that you're supposed to meditate on every day, to reeducate your brain. And that's basically the "program". My back pain didn't go away overnight, but it got better gradually and simply stopped being a problem. I did all my normal activities as if there was nothing wrong with my back. Now,almost a year later, the only time I get discomfort in my back is when I have to sit for a very long time -- and it goes away as soon as I get up and move around. No more tingling or numbness up and down my leg, and no more excruciating pain in the morning when I get up, as I had before.
I know a lot of other people have said this about the book, and it sounds like a cliche, but I really do feel as if this book "gave me my life back." However, it is necessary to check with a doctor, to rule out the very few rare conditions that do need medical treatment.
Book Review: The best fifteen bucks you'll ever spend--maybe
Summary: 5 Stars
I had serious back pain for about seven years. I kept it in control by going to a chiropractor (who tried to convert me to Scientology), exercises, acupuncture, painkillers, and the rest. The pain was in the lower back, and was made worse by sciatica. There were many times when my symptoms were so severe that it was too painful to even drive a car.
I read the book. I found it refreshing to have a clinician lay out some simple logic: how your back is in constant use and is therefore strong, how it heals as well and as quickly as any other part of your body after it is injured, and how his observations from X-rays suggested to him that there had to be a non-physical reason for all the thousands of complaints of pain that he was dealing with.
I thought about what I had read, and thought about it some more. The pain started going away. In short order I dropped the chiropractor (forty bucks per visit), the painkillers, and everything else I was doing, and just got on with my life.
There will be people out there who will not be helped by this book. But if you have back pain and have not been diagnosed with a serious condition, hell, even if you have--give it a read.
All I can say is that this book sure helped me. I don't have pain anymore (almost never at least.) I don't think about my back anymore, and I don't think there's anything wrong with me anymore.
You may have the same experience I had: no more back pain. How does that sound for fifteen bucks?
P.S. Since then I have read up on chiropractic treatment, and realize that the whole profession is pretty suspect. Did you know that the founder of chiropractic was a certain D.D. Palmer, who until then had been waving his hands over people to transfer healing power to their organs? His first claim of success was to heal a deaf person by adjusting his spine. Only thing is, of course, that the aural nerves aren't anywhere near the spine....
If I was a chiropractor I would try to keep my patients as far away from this book as possible. I think their waiting rooms would be a lot less crowded if more people read this book.
Book Review: Be kind to yourself - read: Healing Back Pain by John E. Sarno, MD
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an excellent book and I am a different person for having read it. For a little back ground - I broke my back, L4 crushed and L1 when entering a recessed living room almost a year ago. I don't recommend anyone else doing this - the pain is awful. Broke my L knee and R shoulder eight months before the back. Finally had a cornea transplant so I can see again (IT'S WONDERFUL) and stop walking where I should NOT be!
My mind and doctors had worked overtime convincing me that I would never be without pain, would have to always be very careful, take pain pill, etc. Well, after reading this book two times and believing what I was reading, I daily started working the program by not taking any more pills, working on forgetting the diagnosis & all the things I had been telling myself, working on total understanding of TMS & how the RAGE we ALL have is affecting me and how very slight(but harmless)oxygen deprivation causes the pain, ordered the DVD and MINDBODY PRESCRIPTION, (both outstanding) both by Dr. Sarno, and I was on my way.
In two days my knees, my thumbs, the awful sciatic pain from the buttocks to my ankle had stopped hurting - completely!!! My back was MUCH better but I obviously needed to dig deeper in my understanding and self reflecting, which I did and am still doing, two months later, and will continue.
I continue to follow the program daily by reading, and/or watching the DVD, and/or writing/journaling and digging deeper within my memory. My conscious mind IS in charge!!! And - my back seldom hurts and when it does it's not much, and all my other aches and pains are either gone or maybe once a week I get a reminder that I have a knee or thumb from a sharp stabbing pain - ONCE - and it's gone. A reminder for me to keep working the program.
Read this wonderful book & the others by Dr. Sarno and work the program - it can be done in 15 to 30 minutes morning and night. Dr. Sarno has help thousands of people - a worthy group for all of us to join.
If I can stop the pain - and I have - at 84, you can do it, too. LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL!
Book Review: Thank you Dr. Sarno!
Summary: 5 Stars
I read this book back in September of 2006 and intended to come back and post a review but it had slipped my mind. However, the book helped me tremendously! I was so gratefully that I wrote Dr. Sarno a letter in December of 2006. Rather than re-writing my situation and opinion of this book, I will paste in the letter I sent him.
Dear Dr. Sarno,
I have been running for over 20 years and always maintained a very healthy lifestyle. In 2005, I gradually increased my training compared to recent years in an effort to get back into competitive shape. On January 1 of 2006 I began having pain in my lower back. Shortly after that, I had to curtail and eventually quit my running. An MRI in late February indicated bulging discs in the lower lumbar region. Throughout the year I continued to experience pain in my lower back despite having eliminated my running. The pain was amplified whenever I bent over. Things like brushing my teeth and flip-turning while swimming were the most aggravating. During this time, I saw a general practitioner, 2 chiropractors, 2 physical therapists and a stretching specialist - taking up lots of my time and money. All of them treated me with the conventional methods to no avail. In early September, I got the second referral to your book, "Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection", and finally decided to read it.
Shortly after beginning the book, I began to feel less pain in my back. By the end of the book a couple weeks later, I felt like the pain had dissipated enough and that I had enough confidence to resume running. I have been running pain-free now for 2 months and do not experience any pain when bending over like I used to. I believe that your theory on lower back pain (TMS) is very accurate and that all I needed to do was realize the true cause of my pain in order to eliminate it.
Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge on back pain and for writing this book! I credit you and the book for getting me back into a pain-free state to where I can enjoy all the things in life that I did before the pain.
Sincerely,
Book Review: When All Else Fails - Get the Magic Book.
Summary: 5 Stars
After 7 years completely pain free, I am in a fundamentally different place than someone who is struggling to find a cure today - and only now is reading reviews of Dr. Sarno's book on Amazon. However, I will try to paint the picture of why you should get this book yesterday!
After falling violently on the ice some 12 years ago (when I was 25), I spent 5 years in progressively worsening levels of pain. My first attack of back pain (for me, it was just below my right shoulder blade)was a good two years before my next, but then it was a year, then 6 months, then it was chronic. I tried everything from whole bottles of advil - to chyropractic - to osteopathic - to massage therapy - 2 MRIs - 100% natural diet with no drugs of any kind - I was even diagnosed with Fibromyalgia at one point (and I'm a guy!). Finally, I was headed for surgery - Although no surgeon could guarantee they would fix my problem. A friend gave me an old dog-eared version of this book - it had been handed around several people. To say I was skeptical that a $12 paperback could alleviate my agony would be the understatement of the decade.
I read the book 3 times in 2 days. 3 weeks later, I was pain free, and have been ever since.
The theory and practice of Dr. John Sarno are not only sound, they saved my life. I went from occasional thoughts of suicide (unimaginable to me now or before the pain) to where I was yesterday: playing in an extremely competitive adult soccer league with mostly 20somethings (I'm now 37) and scoring goals.
I have given this book to well over 2 dozen people. None has read the book and not had a positive result.
If you haven't heard enough yet, please save yourself and your family any more pain and get the book now!!!
One comment regarding content: This version of Sarno's work is the best for a first timer to his theories, and thus, the most powerful. If you want to learn more about the medical evidence and minutia, get the Mind-Body Prescription. But, at a minimum, get this book.