Healing Back Pain

Good one

Good book. I bought it for my husband and he seems to enjoy it.

腰痛の原因は単純なものではなく、ストレスや怒りが関係しているというのはよくわかるのですが、本当に整形外科的に腰痛になる人もやはり多いのではと感じました（自分も含めて）。もちろん痛みが精神状況に深く関係しているのは実感できますが、多くのケースで腰痛が精神的な理由が原因というのは納得できませんでした。ただ、医者など他人に依存して治すというのではなく、自分から主体的に治そう／治すと考える方向性は正しいと思います。自分も腰痛で悩みましたが、痛みを受け容れて、前向きに自分も治ると信じて努力することで、実際に痛みが緩和している現実があります。

Loved the info

Years of back pain vanished and restored my ability to bend forward, be active and do the things i love doing - including swimming and running.

I have thought long and hard about writing this review as I know how it feels to spend hours trawling through the internet searching for a cure for crippling pain, and knowing how much information is out there, I have hesitated to add to it. But my sincere wish is that this post will give someone else the courage and confidence to take a chance with this book. My story: I, like many people, have suffered with back problems all my life - I'm now 43 - and had accepted that frequent bouts of pain, my back 'going' and regular trips to a much trusted and respected osteopath were just part of life. And that was fine. Until I had a really bad and prolonged bout of pain that started in Autumn 2013. I'd had 'disc issues' in the past but my pain had ALWAYS been on the left side. One morning I woke up with real soreness in my right lower back. Slightly perplexed but not unduly alarmed I went to see my osteo as usual and expected everything to be fixed in a week or two. However, It didn't get better - in fact it got progressively worse. I started to worry that it would turn into the sort of pain that I had experienced a couple of years earlier. I was told then by my osteopath that I had injured a disc. The pain at the time was excruciating, but after treatments and several weeks of rest it did get better. Well this time my pain got worse and seemed to be evolving. It had started in the back but three months later was moving to my leg and becoming far more intense. Standing and walking became very difficult, making my long commute to work on the tube a nightmare. Losing faith in my osteopath I saw other physiotherapists and tried acupuncture - all to no effect, other than to be told repeatedly that my back 'was a mess' and I could expect pain on and off all my life. Finally in desperation I went to my GP who ordered an MRI. This showed various bulges and degeneration but most worryingly, an extruded disc (where the inner material has leaked out) and this was pressing on a nerve. My GP explained all this with patience and told me that if conventional treatment didn't work, I would have to consider injections or, down the road, surgery. The pain got even worse. Then, one day I stumbled across an article about the comedian Howard Stern and his battle against pain. He seemed to have found a miracle cure in the shape of a treatment by Dr John Sarno. By this time, I was endlessly searching the internet and becoming an expert on all things disc related. Thinking more information could only be good I bought the book. I read it within 48 hours - it was the Easter holiday and I was spending most of my time horizontal anyway. After the initial excitement that I might be one of the blessed ones who start to feel the pain evaporate as they read, I had to confess that although I liked the idea, and wanted it to be true, my pain was still there. Also I had an MRI, a GP and a host of other back pain specialists telling me it was a physical problem. To cut a long story short, I suffered on for another few months, until one day I just suddenly decided that I would suspend my disbelief and - as wholeheartedly as I could manage - do some of the exercises recommended by Sarno. I even wrote the date down in my diary 'first day of TMS'. I didn't by this stage hold out much hope, but I was willing finally to give it a go. So I started writing in a journal and doing the daily reminders. I also saw a therapist to talk about emotional stuff but completely abandoned all back treatments and exercises. Within a week I was 75% better. A few weeks later I was pretty much back to normal - although I was still taking paracetamol regularly - but now at least it made a difference to the pain. A few months later and the pain was basically non-existent and any residual pain would vanish if I simply ignored it. So it did work for me. It wasn't immediate and it took a lot of soul searching to really commit to the idea. But once I did, it worked. Now I read a lot of reviews that say this approach may work for 'unexplained' pain (i.e. you don't have a real, physical problem.) But I had the worst form of slipped disc and I got better pretty damn fast once I got my head around the concept that a slipped disc might not be causing the kind of pain I was in. I have a great deal of respect for those who have tried this book and not found it to be useful, but I do believe that the premise of the book is correct and that, once you have been cleared of any disease or immune disorder etc.. the cause of ongoing and chronic pain is emotional, not physical. So my advice, in a nutshell, would be: Go to a professional and get an opinion, an MRI if necessary, if there is any lingering concern that the pain is caused by disease. Then, once you have the all clear for anything truly serious, buy this book and read it. Not once but many times. Let it sink in. Then practise the exercises and daily reminders religiously. Don't give up after a few days if things aren't improving. Work at it. I cannot guarantee I will never have back pain again, but I'm pretty sure I now know what lies behind it. Like many thousands of other people I am incredibly grateful to John Sarno for this . I wish you luck.

Me lisant handicapé par un lumbago persistant, de bonnes âmes m'ont écrit pour me conseiller diverses pratiques de guérison. Soulagé momentanément par les bons soins de la masseuse chinoise, de l'ostéopathe, du réflexologue et de la nouvelle pharmacopée, en l'occurrence de l'Ixprim, savant cocktail de tramadol et de paracétamol, mais néanmoins bloqué en position allongée depuis trois semaines, j'ai eu tout le loisir de lire Healing Back Pain en anglais dans le texte, le best-seller du Docteur John E. Sarno. Le médecin américain y livre son intuition sur l'origine du mal au dos et comment s'en débarrasser définitivement, même affecté comme je le suis par une hernie discale et trois disques écrasés ! L'hypothèse formulée par le médecin américain tient du bon sens, mais son style est celui d'un auteur à succès s'adressant à une large population plutôt inculte en matière psychanalytique. Dès lors que l'on considère que la majorité de nos afflictions proviennent de la somatisation, ou du moins que notre mental a une influence indéniable sur les maladies que nous attrapons, pourquoi ne pourrait-on guérir par ce qui provoqua le mal ? D'où sa suggestion de soigner les TMS (Tension Myositis Syndrome, en français Troubles musculosquelettiques) sans médicaments, ni chirurgie, ni exercice physique, mais par le seul pouvoir du cerveau... Si l'I.R.M. montre une lésion vertébrale, Sarno prétend que ce n'est pas elle qui provoque la douleur. Il est question de manque d'oxygénation des tissus, mais je ne vais pas réécrire ici son bouquin. Le stress et la colère rentrée seraient à l'origine du mal, comme on peut se fabriquer un cancer, un ulcère à l'estomac, de l'asthme, quelque maladie dermatologique, etc., la liste est longue. Pour avoir envisagé moi-même depuis fort longtemps cette théorie et l'avoir testée avec succès, la lecture confirme mon hypothèse. On peut évidemment atténuer la douleur et la faire disparaître en l'apprivoisant, de même on peut très bien guérir de moult maladies par un travail psychologique ou psychanalytique, tout dépend de l'ampleur des dégâts. L'inconscient est hélas plus puissant que la concentration volontariste et la relaxation philosophique, aussi n'est-ce pas toujours facile, particulièrement en période de crise aiguë. Sur tous les terrains il est fondamental de juguler la peur. Là où Sarno est léger, c'est évidemment dans la guérison miraculeuse qui tient, malgré ses dires, plus d'une sorte de conviction à laquelle je ne peux adhérer, n'ayant pas en son temps acquis la petite croix Vitafor qui guérit tout, peines du corps et peines du cœur, il suffit d'envoyer le bon de commande, ici un petit livre de poche à quelques euros, je ne me suis pas ruiné. Le pouvoir de suggestion des praticiens ayant recours à la méthode du médecin américain est certainement la clef de leurs succès, mais j'ai beau avoir suivi, ou plus justement précédé à la lettre, les conseils avisés prescrits, soit traiter l'affaire par le mépris, je me suis tout de même coincé le dos après trois ans et demi de rémission alors que je pensais être sorti de là ! Cela fait trente ans que ma cinquième lombaire joue le rôle de mon talon d'Achille. Si le ciboulot est souvent à l'origine du mal, s'il est possible de s'en débarrasser par un travail psychique, il n'en reste pas moins que le best-seller qui aurait soigné des milliers de personnes de par le monde tient par son style d'une entreprise commerciale juteuse qui laisse planer le doute sur les intentions philanthropiques de son auteur. Ouvrage de vulgarisation sur le pouvoir de l'inconscient, il n'empêchera pas chacun de morfler et de trouver également l'issue qui lui convient...