Healing Back Pain : The Mind-Body Connection

Rating:
Summary: Worked for me!
Review: This may sound like one of those hokey testimonials, but after twenty years of excruciating back spasms, reading this book gave me the tools to deal with my back... haven't had a debilitating attack in almost a year since reading it, and that's the longest span of freedom I can remember. Thank you, Dr. Sarno!

Rating:
Summary: I'm as skeptical as they come but it worked.
Review: If more than 5 stars was possible I'd give more. This book may not work for all. I heard about Dr. Sarno from Howard Stern and was very skeptical. I've had chronic back pain since age 14. I'm now 26 and have been back pain free for more than 2 years. The personality type described in the book was unbelievably similar to my own. This book has made an profound impact on my life. Dr. Sarno is really onto something here. More than just back pain can be helped by reading this book. Again, this book may not work for all but I'm sitting here writing this pain free for over 2 years. Thank you Dr. Sarno.

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Summary: This book gave me my life back!
Review: I have had back pain for 15-20 years and was having debilitating sciatica in my left leg, when I happened to see a 20/20 special on Dr. Sarno in March 99. I had been bed riddened for five weeks, on pain killers and anti-inflamatories, unable to perform any normal activities. I listened to what Dr. Sarno had to say and he was talking about me! I read his book which furthered my belief in TMS and my life has been better since. I saw my nero-surgeon, while reading Dr. Sarno's book, he said my CT Scan showed a bulged disk, an herniated disk, and a floating fragment. He scheduled me for a visit to the pain clinic and if that didn't work, SURGERY. I was also going to physical therapy. Within days of reading Dr. Sarno's book: I stopped therapy, did not go to the pain clinic, did not have surgery and was starting to resume all my activities (slowly, but steadily). Months later I feel like a new man and ready to tackle anything. All of my friends and family are amazed at my recovery; but no one is more amazed than I. THIS WORKS!

Rating:
Summary: Its unbelievable!
Review: I have just started to read Dr. Sarno's book and I have already began to understand why my back hurts ALL the time. From just reading the first 2 chapters My back pain has decreased. I am just begining to understand it all so I firmly believe all my pains should be gone for good once I am done. I am a 30 year old man and I have had back pain since I was 14. Surprisingly the same time I began really pushing my hurts deep into my mind. It really is poisonous to do that and thats where my pain is from. It is easy to bury pain in your mind and try to forget about it. "Im a rock" I used to say. I thought once you bury pain its gone, but all it does is promote anger and negativity. These things lead to physical pain. Strange but true. You do have the power to control your body, its yours after all right! Just think of it this way, your brain is like a car and your mind is the driver. The driver controls the car, not the other way around. It really works, its the best money I ever spent on my back. I wish I had this book 15 years ago. Thanks to Dr. Sarno and Howard Stern for letting me know of the books exsistence.

Rating:
Summary: Has brought my attention back to ME, the Whole ME.
Review: The chapters in my mind fit completely, so easily with my physical body that I could relate instantly. The book deserves all the great reviews, but once my back had a spinal fusion of L4, L5, with two metal rods held by four screws along with scraping of the bone of the left hip layering the shavings over the area, I thought HOW? I have been more able to do things that I would cry out in pain before reading the book.

Rating:
Summary: The proof is in the pudding - it works!
Review: I have had back pain since I was 11 yrs old and just celebrated my 58th - but this one was pain free, thanks to the Sarno book. Even while I was reading it, my pain went away. So did my acid stomach (no more living on Tums) and my seborrhea! I have resumed physical activity that used to cause extreme pain for days. And now when pain returns, I know what to do about it, and it works instantly! Do yourself a favor, and work on the causes of back pain, not the sypmtoms.

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Summary: THIS BOOK is the BIBLE for back pain sufferers - PRICELESS
Review: After $2000 on an MRI, the orthepedic doctor said that my chronic pain was "due to the structures in my back and that the good news was that the pain would go away in 10 to 15 years as they fuse together as you get older". Useless do nothing advice. THIS BOOK- is amazing, no longer a slave to backpain since 1991. No pain No pain!!!

Rating:
Summary: Worth reading ...... a definite step in the right direction
Review: After years of suffering of back and neck pain and being forced into early retirement do to what I now beleive to be TMS I welcome this approach and look forward to a pain free / drug free life Many thanks to the GREAT Dr Sarno and to Howard Stern who made me aware of this GREAT book.

Rating:
Summary: I was always skeptical, but still it worked.
Review: My mother saw a review of Sarno in an Andrew Weil book. I was extremely skeptical as most information on back pain led me to believe that few if any so called experts have good answers (I think my reply to my mother was "they don't know anything about the back!") She overrode my negativity and sent me the book. I found it contained the most logical information on the back and back pain that I had ever read. Within two weeks the pain was gone (I was in the middle of a spasm event when I got the book). This was about 2 or three years ago. Since then I have not had a major spasm event or been stopped from any work or play activity from back pain. I used to get layed up 2 or 3 times a year for about two weeks duration before I read the book. I have my own little treatment that I use that is based on the information in Sarno's book. But the chiropractor, physical therapist, and orthopedic surgeon are all out of my life. Also gone is that constant fear that limited my activities; the fear that my back would "go out".

Rating:
Summary: HONTO NI SUBARASHII (Japanese for "REALLY GREAT!")
Review: I am a retired 71 year old theologian/psychologist /minister/missionary. I wish I had read this book 61 years ago. The book really made me rage! Not because of what Dr. Sarno wrote, rather it showed me how I had always suppressed my childhood hurts. Reading the book made me rush to begin jouralizing and getting in touch with all of this anger I had been not only suppressing but displacing onto innocent persons--mainly my family. I rate it as the very best book I have ever read--except The Bible! I am finally beginning to feel all of the hurt, shame and rejection that my back, neck, sciatica, duodenum, and gut have felt for all of these decades. Counseling has helped some, as has heat and exercise, but all have given only temporary relief. THIS IS THE REAL THING!!!! I wish every psychotherapist and every physician in the world would read it! Thanks, Doc! I thank God for you!