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 enlarge | Author: John E. Sarno
Publisher: Warner Books
Category: Book
List Price: $13.99
Buy Used: $2.14
You Save: $11.85 (85%)
New (53) Used (95) Collectible (2) from $2.14
Rating:  359 reviews
Sales Rank: 1559
Media: Paperback
Pages: 208
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.6
ISBN: 0446392308
Dewey Decimal Number: 617.564
EAN: 9780446392303
ASIN: 0446392308
Publication Date: February 1, 1991
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Showing reviews 16-20 of 359
 24 Years of Back Pain Gone Overnight March 13, 2008
Stilt Wiltafacation (USA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
A friend of mine suggested I read this book about a year ago. I went to Amazon and read the comments and found both positive and negative comments. The fairly consistent chorus of negative comments led me to decide not to buy it. It was that and the fact that I just didn't believe that the mind could "heal" the very "real" and debilitating pain that I had experienced for 24 years.
Several months after my friend's recommendation, I found that my back had started to hurt more in direct correlation to an emotionally stressful situation that lasted several weeks. Since I was doing nothing physically that would have elevated the back pain, I realized that there was a psychological connection. So I bought the book, paid for the overnight shipping so I could read it on the plane to my surfing destination.
Surfing has always been hard on my back. My previous surfing trip to New Zealand was compromised by my back pain, I surfed about half as much as I could have without the pain.
On the plane I skimmed thru much of the first chapters and read the ones about the cure. The next day my back pain was gone. I surfed 5 days straight in powerful surf with some really heavy wipe-outs that would have killed my back without the knowledge in this book. On one wipe-out I was slammed hard to the bottom, hip-first. That would have normally put me out for a few days, but I surfed the rest of the day completely pain free (except for a bruised hip). I was able to surf with abandon, without fear, with joy again.
I can't express in words how elated and amazed I am and how grateful I am to Dr Sarno for this book.
Obviously, by reading the comments it doesn't work for everyone. I have a theory about that. In his book Dr Sarno says that the suppression of emotions are what cause the back pain. But the clincher for me was this fact that he laid out:
(I'm paraphrasing) The largest bone in the body, the femur, if broken will heal itself and you will be able to run a marathon on it again. If a muscle tears, it will heal itself also. The human body heals itself physically, period. There is nothing special about the muscles around the lower back (or anywhere else). It makes no logical or medical sense for a muscle strain or injury in the back to cause pain for years.
It was this statement that made tremendous sense to me. Literally overnight, I decided to not believe the b.s. I was telling myself subconsciously -- that I had a "bad back". The pain has been gone ever since. It's been 3 months of consistently pain-free life. Walking a distance of 10 blocks used to cause the pain to get worse, as did sleeping on a soft bed, or sleeping on my stomach or slouching in my chair. None of that bothers me any more. I hike 3-5 miles regularly, play volleyball (that would have destroyed my back), sleep on my stomach, slouch in my chair if I feel like it, no longer bring an air mattress to hotels. What a tremendous liberation -- it's really amazing!!
So back to my theory of why I think it doesn't seem to work for everyone:
Under-developed rational thinking skills.
In the U.S. and probably in all of western society (at least), we are not taught how to think rationally. It took a few months or more for me to learn (or re-learn) how to truly think rationally. I now know that my back pain was a myth that I had believed in. I have since proven that it was a myth, but it takes a very deeply rooted belief to create the kind of pain I experienced, and for so long. My theory is based on having enough of the proper mental skills to destroy that myth. My hypothesis is that those who read the book with poor results are lacking rational thinking and myth-busting skills.
My rational thinking skills were helped tremendously by the philosopher Stefan Molyneux (of freedomainradio dot com). I really think that it takes a mind that is well versed in rational thinking to truly grasp the power of Dr Sarno's book and to truly destroy the myth of back pain that is deeply rooted in the mind.
To truly and deeply understand that the body heals itself and that it makes no sense that the muscles around the lower back -- that they, and only they, just don't heal -- takes genuine rational thinking skills. Actually, I think it's the myth-busting rational thinking skills that listening to Mr Molyneux's podcasts and reading his books can help with immensely. So if Sarno's book hasn't helped, try taking the "red pill" of rational thinking and myth-busting that Mr Molyneux delivers. It will be the most potent (and liberating) red pill you will ever take.
So read Sarno's book, put it into practice, and if it doesn't work within a couple weeks, work on your rational thinking skills and read it again.
The most important medical book ever written March 7, 2008
D. Moss (Glacier, Montana)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Dr. Sarno's discovery of psychosomatic causation may be the most important medical discovery of the century. If you suffer any type of chronic pain, spend the $12, read the book, and tell everyone you know.
Thank you Dr. Sarno! February 15, 2008
W. B. Smith (Fountain Hills, AZ)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
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,
A must read February 10, 2008
Danny Antivalidis
I had been having lower back pains for like six months when I got this book, and I had a sever golfers elbow that I had treated with every conventional to unconventional therapy for more than two years (acupuncture shock wave treatment orthopedics etc) after just starting to read about TMS, I started to get better, and before I ever finished the book I was almost 100% free from any pain. Now I need to get rid off my hay fever too.
Indeed this book is a lifesaver if your are ready to accept the thesis.
This really works January 25, 2008
Self help junkie (East Windsor, ct)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I came down with a bad bout of sciatica last fall of 2007. I was in excrutiating pain. Pain started in my buttocks and radiated down to my knee cap. I could not sit, lay down, or sleep. I tried everything. I went to the chiropractor and had the electrodes, massage therapy, adjustments, acupuncture nothing helped. I went to the PC DR and was prescribed steriods and an MRI. The MRI showed a slipped disk on my left side note my pain was on the right. I researched the net to try to find an explaination of why this was happening and what I could do. My pain on a scale of 1-10 was a 10. A colleage shared the idea of this book with me. I went home watched the DVD and then read the book. My pain subsided in a matter of weeks. The self talk explained in the book was what really worked for me. Dr Sarno I thank you for relieving me of my excrutiating pain and allowing me to return to a normal life. I now have the knowledge of what lies beneath this pain that is 100% real.
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