Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection
Selected Book Details
- Paperback
- Edition: First
- Author: John E. Sarno
- Publisher: Warner Books
- Release Date: February 1991
- ISBN-10: 0446392308
- ISBN-13: 9780446392303
- List Price: $13.99
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Summaries and Customer Reviews provided by Amazon
SummaryHealing Back Pain promises permanent elimination of back pain without drugs, surgery, or exercise. It should have been titled Understanding TMS Pain, because it discusses one particular cause of back pain--Tension Myositis Syndrome (TMS)--and isn't really a program for self-treatment, with only five pages of action plan (and many more pages telling why conventional methods don't work). According to John E. Sarno, M.D., TMS is the major cause of pain in the back, neck, shoulders, buttocks, and limbs--and it is caused not by structural abnormalities but by the mind's effort to repress emotions. He's not saying that your pain is all in your head; rather, he's saying that the battle going on in your mind results in a real physical disorder that may affect muscles, nerves, tendons, or ligaments. An injury may have triggered the disorder, but is not the cause of the amount or intensity of the resulting pain. According to Sarno, the mind tricks you into not facing repressed emotion by making you focus on pain in the body. When this realization sinks in ("and it must sink in, for mere intellectual appreciation of the process is not enough"), the trick doesn't work any more, and there's no need for the pain. (Healing Back Pain should not be used for self-diagnosis. Always consult a physician for chronic or acute back pain.) --Joan Price |
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
A must read for back pain sufferers
Rating:
After reading this book over ten years ago, my lower back problems seemed to disappear. The mind-body connection really worked for me. I purchased this book for a friend and her problems are getting less frequent. She has told me she is forever grateful.
It Works!
Rating:
Healing Back Pain is a book that is revolutionary in that in links the brain and body in the healing process. No more curing symptoms temporarily but getting to a cause that is so often overlooked. I found the book enlightening and it helped heal my pain.
Sceptic becomes convinced
Rating:
Half way through I seriously doubted the book would help, by the end I wondered if it might. The next day the pain was gone. In the last two weeks occasional twinges which I have 'thought through' and they have gone away. Money well spent and what a relief!
read this if you want the CURE to chronic back pain
Rating: 
I wish I could give this book ZERO stars. I want to be as fair as I can be here. I don't like it when people carelessly lambaste someone's work, but the premise of this book is just plain bull. Sarno wants to diagnose just about ever agreed upon condition as the mysterious TMS. Tension Myositis Syndrome is whereby your guilt and/or anger leads your brain to "punish" you via lack of oxygen to certain muscles causing chronic pain. During an exhaustive bout with my own chronic low back pain, I read the book and I searched my own past and tried to convince myself that anger towards my family was causing my pain. The truth is, I really look forward to seeing my family...sure I have some issues with parents and siblings (who doesn't), but my literal addiction to playing sports could never be overpowered by some mysterious guilt or anger or both. I wasted a whole summer on this B.S.
Anyway, I tried several other methods to get back my back. Chiros, prolotherapy, Physical Therapy, Osteopaths, Cortisone shots, Acupuncture and Acupressure. None of them really worked. After "re injuring" my back for about the 25th time in 2 years, I started to lose hope, but that little injury was exactly what I needed. You see, I was basically living with the disability. My world kept getting smaller and smaller as I could do fewer and fewer things. I had accepted it. Before, I was an avid athlete...it was literally a part of everyday for me. My chiro had sort of convinced me that I would not ever be the same. Even though he got me to where I could play golf, I was limited...I had to take a cart, I couldn't hit the ball as far and I was in pain 3 days after playing. He was always saying, "Hey, everybody's got something wrong." This is another way of saying "You are limited".
Somehow, I knew that was wrong...if I got myself into this, why couldn't I get myself out? I refused to accept any limitations. Quite luckily, I stumbled across the cure while searching for a book on golf flexibility. The book is called "Pain Free" by Pete Egoscue. He was wounded in Vietnam and told that he'd have hip pain forever...he refused to accept that and found a method that will cure any pain ailment that is musculoskeletal related. The whole concept is that chronic pain comes from posture issues that arise from a lack of proper movement. I was skeptical at first as I have been promised cures about 20 times. The proof for me began about 4 days after beginning the program. I had been unable to walk long distances due to a hip pain for about 3 months. After the first 4 days, I noticed a difference in my gait and in how I stood so I walked 1 mile...no pain. The next day I tried 2 miles...no pain. Then, I noticed that suddenly, I could bend forward without guarding. I hadn't been able to do that in 3 years...I knew I'd found the cure!
A word of warning about the Egoscue method...it's not for excuse makers or pill takers or people that want the easy way out. The exercises are about as simple as can be, however, it takes a commitment and a lifestyle change. You can't do the exercises and then return to your sedentary lifestyle. You gotta move which for me means limiting my TV watching and waking up early to do the exercises. Now, don't get the wrong idea...I work on a computer all day long, however, I make sure I get up and walk and stretch ect. I don't just sit there for hours on end staring at the monitor.
You don't have to be limited anymore...it's up to you!
It works!
Rating:
I was really skeptic when I first read the book once the approach was radical and did not include any physical therapy. It seemed crazy to me that it could work. It took me sometime to embrace the concept but it worked. After 10 years of daily back pain, I rarely have pain these days. It did for me what several doctors, therapies and medicine could not. Simply incredible.
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