Review: ‘Healing Back Pain’ promises permanent elimination of back pain without drugs, surgery, or exercise. Here at Back-Pain-Therapy.com, we’re not too sure about the title, or even the premise. It is really about Tension Myositus Syndrome (TMS) and discusses only that one specific cause of back pain.
Also, much of the discussion, essentially, is that much of your experience of back pain resides in your psychology, and the book pretty much ignores many other factors which have been scientifically proven to be very significant, i.e., diet, nutrition, etc. This argument (that it is all in your head) was the prevailing one before modern medical science began to better understand the spine, nervous system, and the brain, and no doubt many who suffered probably suffered more after having been told their condition was merely psychological. Many who have back pain have demonstrable physiological injuries. Further, the best neurologists we are aware of will tell you that even now the brain and the nervous system are not understood well enough to make such sweeping claims about how much of a person’s pain may or may not be due to psychological factors. So to sum up, we’re not too sure how much of a service Dr. Sarno is doing for back pain sufferers by reviving this old idea.
But with all that said, the book does explain why conventional treatments for this type of pain don’t work, which is useful, yet the author then proceeds to claim this is the major cause of pain in the back, neck, and shoulders.
Hmm. Maybe. No doubt it will help some. Our founder hasn’t found the book all that useful, but he thought we should post it for those who might. It is informative, and it may very well help you better understand and discuss your pain issues with your physician, but it’s not definitive in terms of self-help. In fact, this is not really about self-help, nor even about healing back pain, not all that much anyway, but it may contribute to your understanding of the (sometimes major) role the mind can play, and like many others apparently have, you may find it far more helpful than we did.
I think this book will be most helpful for people who have been suffering with back pain for a long period of time (months to years). Most back pain lasts only a short time, and if it persists, you probably either have a really serious medical problem (that is usually obvious) or there are psychological factors involved.
0 out of 5 stars. Dangerous misinformation.
I like to check in every now and then with my progress and I have to say that since reading this book and implementing its suggestions in 1999, I have been free of back pain for five years. I NEVER take it for granted. I biked 35 miles just today without so much as a twinge. I had suffered with back pain for ten years after being attacked by a combative patient at work (I was a psych nurse) so it was pretty much a miracle to stumble on Dr. Sarno’s book and his theories. I’m an incredibly practical person who tends to pooh-pooh a lot of holistic medicine, but these theories are based on common sense. If I ever feel even a twinge of discomfort, usually re-reading the Prologue is enough to make me better. Thank you, Dr. Sarno, for changing my life!