Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection,   ISBN:9780446557689

Customer Rating: 

Dr. Sarno is a courageous man who has risked his career and the anger of the money-driven side of the medical establishment to state the truth about many chronic pain symptoms: they are the result of a mind-body connection that holds onto the emotion and that creates the pain. Anyone dealing with pain or any physical ailment - even if they're sure it was caused by some event- should give this book a thorough read. My elderly mother had been dealing with debilitating back pain that kept her mostly homebound for many years, medicated, depressed and losing her strength. She is now working in her garden for hours at the time and enjoying life again, after applying the principles of mind-body healing. If you're reading this review I hope you'll give yourself the gift of reading this miraculous little book.

Customer Rating: 

I heard about this book from a friend after 18 months of constant back, shoulder, neck and arm pains. After holding on to the book for 2 months, I had to return it so I was forced to start reading it. Half way through the book ALL...YESS ALL of my my pains were gone...GONE! The mind plays tricks on you my friend and until you can control the vibes your brain is giving you, pain will continue to dominate your life. The key to being successful after reading this book (or book on tape) is simply to keep an open mind and believe. It's literally all between your ears. This book has helped me and several of my friends. It's a must have if you're living in pain. As the book states, be sure to be checked out medically prior to committing to this book.

Customer Rating: 

I approached this book already a believer and seeker of the mind/body connection. Having failed to find answers in other books--even great books that opened my eyes in so many other ways still did not help make this connection (lacking the scientific or medical explanation).
Just reading the reviews was like someone telling the story of my symptoms, my condition, my MRI and feeling hopeless and frustrated. I felt a relief and was on the verge of real crying the more I read. Because inside I was not fine believing I could control this, not knowing how, whatever rage, anger or tension was not being dealt with, having a job injury and not wanting to go back to a job I hate--there-I said it--Hate. Hah.
I started to feel better the second day I read reviews. I just finished the book and am 99.9% pain free. I am happy and amazed. And with this new-found understanding so much anger has melted away that even sex has improved. And the beauty is that I don't have to exercise and I don't have to see a therapist for the rage and anger--I just have to be aware of it--which I already did anyway for PMS.
For those interested: I work in construction and had a lower back injury. My second injury was a week to the date of the first one. I am in my 40's and the right size for my height.
Since I started seeing doctors for my back (18 years old)I've been told: scoliosis, long spine, too much sitting, not enough exercise, bulging disk, herniated, sacroiliac joint disorder, degenerative....
The first time I ever pulled my back I was 15. By that age I had already dealt with a lot of dysfunction and instability at home. All this tension I am sure started when I was still in the womb since my parents fought all the time.
But, I have had a good adult life. My personality type was described well in the book.

Customer Rating: 

I had a cervical spinal fusion in 1997 (major neck surgery) and I have a spinal disease. My lower back is "shot" per my pain management doctor and brain/spine surgeon. This book has helped me in understanding things that my doctors never even mentioned to me in all these years. I will never be cured, but I will not have another surgery. I am only 51 and I hope to be able to take my life back.

Customer Rating: 

I had over a year of severe mid-back spasming--couldn't sleep more than a few hours at night before it would act up, couldn't exercise, play golf, run, etc. without issues from this back spasming and back pain. I tried complete rest, chiropractic, massage, acupuncture, and physical therapy before knowing about this book. Everything maybe helped a little bit, like it would get 5% better, but I still couldn't sleep more than 3-4 hours before severe spasms almost every single night! It was a nightmare, as you can imagine.

Ran across this book from a Google search, bought it, read it in a few days, and from the time I read the book, the pain and spasming dropped about 95%. No exaggeration, no kidding, it was as simple as reading this book. I started jogging immediately thereafter and within a few weeks, worked back up to my 12-miles a week or so that I usually jog, with no back pain (or to be entirely accurate, about 5% of the back pain I was having before--I still have very, very minor achiness in my midback, but I wouldn't call it "pain", more like a sensation). Started golfing, lifting weights, everything...no issue. Whereas I used to have back spasms literally every night after 4 or so hours of sleep, I almost instantly improved to where I could sleep the whole night through. About once every 3 months now I wake up with a mild back spasm that goes away after a few minutes. Compared to the other expensive things I was trying and that were only helping slightly, I wish I had tried reading this book first. It may not help everyone as well as it helped me, who knows, but I would HIGHLY recommend spending the $15 bucks and a weekend to read it.

P.S. I read the book almost 10 months before writing this review, so this "healing" of my back pain has stood the test of time. The back pain issue I described had been in full effect the 15 months prior. So I had 15 months of back pain, nothing helped, read this book in 2 days, and from that point on for the next 10 months up until today, I've been fine. I'm even running a half-marathon this weekend. The odds of this book helping being a mere coincidence are extremely low given the timing of the pain and spasming going away. Good luck to you!