Rating: 
Summary: I'm more than surprised!
Review: I have had back pain for the past 9 months which was worsening over the past couple of months. I have a bulging L4-5 disc which was causing pressure on the sciatic nerve (pain through the entire right leg) and have tried everything that I thought possible for treatment and was getting ready to try the surgery route. I was taking pain medication to the maximum doseage almost religiously to combat the pain. In a last ditch attempt to locate some kind of "cure" I chanced upon this book along with a few others for back help. Once I started reading this book, everything started to make sense; the mental affecting the physical. This sounds crazy, but within two days my whole outlook has changed, I am off the pain medication, and am doing the exercises. I'm not yet "pain free" but feel like I'm on the right track.If you are experiencing any kind of pain in the back at all, I would recommend checking out this book. There are many helpful parts that may be of some relief. Some of the visualization parts that are mentioned in the book I'm still not quite sold on, but the relaxation, meditation, and exercise sections are of much help. He writes in an easy to read format, I went through almost the whole book the first night I started reading.
Rating:
Summary: Excellant information covering various therapies
Review: I have read this book a couple of times and find it a great read with solid information. The exercises are top notch and are similar to other exercises I have seen in yoga books. Other information regarding herbs, vitamins, and mind/body information is icing on the cake. I am going to start his program tonight and feel confident it will work. I agree with the doctor that you should see your doctor but don't get bothered with MRIs, Cat Scans, and other allopathic mumbo-jumbo that show that you are ready for a wheelchair. Doctor Brownstien is a perfect example of this. Good luck to my fellow sufferers.
Rating:
Summary: Back to the future.
Review: I injured my back a year ago playing with my sons in the park. I could not sit for a long time and had pain shooting through my leg. I struggled to drive to work and home because of the pain. I found this book at the library and after finishing the first chapter I went on Amazon.com and purchased it. I read the book completely. What a difference it has made in my life. I sit better and live better because of this book. The book even helped me be prevent possible back injuries by understanding the design and purpose of the back. ANYONE with back problems should really consider reading/studying this book.
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Summary: Meant to add this to my review
Review: I meant to add this, but forgot earlier. This is very beneficial for me, and might be helpful to others..... I do all my main stretching exercises when I wake up, this leaves me feeling very flexible and ready to start the day. I sit alot for my work, so every few hours I stretch my hamstrings and do some neck stretches to counteract the sitting. If I am stiff or sore in the evening I have found the following to be absolutely brilliant: First I do exercise #1 called knees-up rest for about half an hour while laying on my bed. (I put a laundry basket upside down with pillows to put my legs on). The softness of the bed is great to my back, but if I do this laying on the floor I get very stiff. Then, after that, I do the cobra pose while watching tv or reading a book. I could only do the cobra pose for a minute when I first began, but now on day 17 I can hold the pose for half an hour at a time. (On day one I couldn't even raise my head in this pose, but kept slowly working on that.) When I stand up after doing these two things I feel all stiffness and tightness is relieved. It's great!
Rating:
Summary: Instant Relief
Review: I purchased this book on Monday evening, and began the exercises the next day. To my utter amazement, I felt relief immediatedly following the exercises. I have had back problems for years and have exercised - including yoga, but these exercises are aimed at the right places! It has helped me more than any other form of relief, including pills and physical therapy. Thank you so much Dr. Brownstein.
Rating: 
Summary: lee,lee
Review: I try to read as much as possible on back pain and related information as often as possible and this book had alot of info but nothing new or progressive as in today 2005. If you suffer from back pain and want to exercise your pain away I can strongly recomend the Backsmart fitness plan by Dr. Weiss, I was lucky enough to go to one of his seminars in New York and learn more in one hour than my entire time workingout with personal trainers and therapist. I am happy to see he has written this book, if you are unable to go to one of his seminars pick up this book!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent overall info for those with back problems
Review: I was sidelined from work after I injured my back. My physical therapist tells me that during their lifetime something like 80% of Americans will complain of a back problem. That's a pretty heavy statistic. My own statistic: I didn't think about my back until it was injured; once I was injured it took over all my activities which became very limited and painful.
This very helpful book gives a comprehensive approach to healing your back pain. The chapters in this books are (1) the straw that broke the camel's back, (2) Your mind, your body, and back pain, (3) moving past your pain, (4) the back to life stretching program, (5) strengthening your back, (6) Stress management for your back, (7) eating for a healthy back, (8) back to work: slow and steady wins the race, (9) back to play: an essential ingredient for healing, and at the end there are two special sections: emergency back care & recommended reading. The book gives a very well rounded approach to back problems. It contains a wealth of information and also contains stretching exercises. However, a few words of caution: seek medical attention before you try any of the exercises in this book -- when I took the book to physical therapy there were a couple exercises I was forbidden to do due to the location of my back injury. You don't want to do more harm than good, you want to get better right? See your doctor, get appropriate medical treatment, then read this book. It may just be the help you need.
Rating:
Summary: Every day the pain lessens and I feel more like me! (Day 17)
Review: I was skeptical when I first heard about the book, but had nothing to lose by trying it out. I'm so glad that I tried it out. It has been 17 days now that I have been using the suggested stretching exercises, every day since day 1 I've improved noticeably. Less pain, more flexibility. More strength, less hesitation to try things (bending, moving, etc.). I feel more like me again and it has only been 17 days. I'd say I'm 90% back to health. I have had several back and neck injuries during my life, and this summer they all flared up again....I spent the last several months with pain in my lower back, legs and arms. Not fun. I'm only 34, but was feeling more like 104. Although I was doing the exercises prescribed by my physical therapist and doctor last year, they weren't really completely effective. I was doubtful whether this book's exercises would be much different, but started them anyway, in addition to my existing exercises. Let me tell you...start off slow and do only the first set of exercises as recommended in the book. I was surprised that they do work, and if you take your time, you will be able to start adding stretches from section two shortly. I am doing all of section one, and most of section two every day now, and feel wonderful. Can't wait to start adding in section 3 exercises, but I need to keep going slowly as the book advises. The othe element that I am finding essential is to alter your state of mind, and way of thinking. Dr. Brownstein does give meditation suggestions/instructions in the book, and I am following those too. They are amazing. I also began reading books by Norman Cousins who documents the postive effects meditation and postive thinking can have on a body. It is factual, not just mumbo-jumbo. It's like this: you know that stress can cause ulcers and all sorts of nasties...turn it around and you'll realize that happiness can lead to all sorts of good health. No joke. It takes some work to get yourself turned around, but if you keep working at your attitude and your feelings toward life in general, you'll soon find it easy to be more cheerful, and that you will be able to have confidence in your body's ability to regenerate itself. When you're not deeply stressed out, your body can do some serious healing. This book helps us average people realize how much we can do for ourselves. Take it easy and slow and I think you'll be shocked how beneficial this all is. What do you have to lose? Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
Rating:
Summary: Art Brownstein's program works for me!
Review: I would give this book 6 stars if I could. The yoga-based exercises Dr. Brownstein describes and illustrates so clearly saved me from the expense, pain, and risk of a lumbar laminectomy to remove a synovial cyst at the right L4/L5 facet joint. I didn't even know I had a back problem until I had an MRI this spring. All my symptoms were in my legs and hips, beginning with intermittent pain and numbness a few years ago, then progressing to fairly severe sciatica last fall. I was not incapacitated, but just moving around for daily activities was at best unpleasant. It was not fun to have severe cramps in my gluteus, along with sharp, shooting pains down the backs of my legs, and numbness in my toes and soles of my feet. I was advised that surgery was the only long-term solution. I attended Dean Ornish's Preventive Medicine Retreat in mid-April, 1999, where I met Dr. Lee Lipsenthal, and asked him if he had any knowledge about lumbar cysts. He strongly recommended Dr. Brownstein's book. Participants in the Retreat were given some instruction in Yoga, but Dr. Lipsenthal said Dr. Brownstein gave many more stretches aimed specifically at relieving back pain by developing better muscular conditioning. I consulted a surgeon on April 20, and scheduled a lumbar laminectomy for May 17. I bought a copy of Healing Back Pain Naturally on April 22, and began practicing the Yoga positions. On May 3, I was still having significant pain. I could not carry a box of newspapers weighing 25 to 30 pounds out to my curb for recycling without stopping to take the weight off my spine. I started doing the stretches twice a day for about 45 minutes each time. The following Sunday, May 9, I carried six 50-pound sacks of salt from my car to my water softener and poured them into the softener - WITH NO PAIN OR DISCOMFORT. I continued the twice-a-day regimen, and decided on May 11 to cancel the laminectomy. As a scientist, I find it difficult to believe that something so simple can have such a profound, immediate effect. But I am almost completely free of symptoms, and those I have left are mild and confined to my right leg. Nothing, including the program recommended in this book, will work for everyone. But if you have back problems, buy a copy, pay careful attention to the disclaimer at the beginning, consult your physician, and, if your physician approves, try Dr. Brownstein's recommendations, including those on diet and stress reduction (the latter are essentially the same as Dean Ornish's program). No other book I have read has so powerfully affected my life.
Rating:
Summary: Helpful and inspiring
Review: I've suffered with painful muscle spasms for over 2 years. This is by far the most helpful book I've read. By following the excercises and stretches in this book, and by embracing the mind-body relationship to learn to deal head-on with chronic back pain, I have decreased my back pain in just 6 short weeks. Dr. Brownstein writes in a conversational and sympathetic way, having suffered chronic back problems himself. Don't give up on your pain until you read this book!
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