But I’ve kept at it anyway and just in the last couple of days, I’ve felt a little better, so maybe it will work in the long run?

If anyone out there really cares, I apologize for not having posted lately. It’s just increasingly hard to motivate myself, even when the pain isn’t getting me down. I have to take care of my ailing mother (who is also ailing financially) and this site isn’t bringing in a penny anyway… so, sorry, but I have to concentrate most of my energies elsewhere, y’know?

I hope a few have found something here they’ve found worthwhile, but if not, it didn’t cost you anything but a few moments of your time. There are plenty of sites out there who will give you nothing for some hard-earned something, so at least you got nothing for nothing here.

Well, that’s one way to look at it anyhow. Your mileage may vary.

Anyway, I still find that stretching and yoga and inversion are among the very best sources of relief, at least for me, so in that spirit, here’s a little video of a yoga instructor showing exercises for lower 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.