What it is:
A book that shares an alternative view of the origin of back pain and how to treat it.
Health Benefits:
A tool to work through back pain in addition to other pain in the body.
How I use it:
Upon the recommendation of my massage therapist, I listened to Healing Back Pain repeatedly until I regained mobility lost due to debilitating lower back pain. I continue to use the same techniques I learned in the book whenever my back begins to feel “glitchy.”
How I found it:
Over the years, whenever I felt back pain, my massage therapist would suggest I look into John Sarno’s book, Healing Back Pain. Because the back pain never lasted for very long or was debilitating enough, I had never taken the time to learn more.
Then May of 2022 happened.
I bent over in a dressing room to pick up some clothes I had just tried on to purchase, and it felt like lightening ran through my spine. Over the course of the next several hours I went from being in pain, to being immobile, and graduated to complete and total body spasms.
I see a massage therapist every three weeks. Incidentally, I also see an acupuncturist every three weeks as well as a chiropractor. I own a gym and have done weight training weekly with very few exceptions since 2003. I am active with other activities as well. I share this for context that as a fit, strong individual already using typical alternative interventions, I still fell victim to debilitating back pain.
But I couldn’t use any of the typical excuses most people use to explain away the reason for the pain. I couldn’t say, well my core isn’t strong, and I need to strengthen it. I knew exactly how strong my back was as indicated by the weight stack I use to do lower back extensions. There are very few men that can even do the amount of weight I can do.
I couldn’t say, well, I haven’t done much to take care of my back with preventive measures since I use massage, chiropractic, and acupuncture every three weeks. There was absolutely ZERO reason for ME to have back pain.
When I realized I would have to cancel clients due to my inability to move without excruciating pain, I asked my massage therapist if we could do an emergency session. I told her I wasn’t at all sure I would be able to get into the car and drive myself to the appointment. And even if I could, I said there is NO WAY you can do a regular massage! I knew that any sort of manual manipulation would trigger more spasming. I said let’s just do light touch and energy work.
She agreed and I managed to make it to the appointment. For an hour she used light touch on various points throughout my body to try to alleviate the pain. Unfortunately, when I got off the table, I was in worse shape than I was at the start of the session.
I literally could not take a step without my whole body spasming. It felt exactly like the contractions I had when I was giving birth to my two children. They would begin at the base of my neck and wrack my entire body leaving me completely incapacitated.
My massage therapist asked if it was best that she drive me home. I said, no, I have two kids at home, and I simply must be mobile. It took about 20 minutes for me to figure out how to navigate getting into the driver’s seat of my car. To maneuver it, I had to completely recline the seat. And once in, when I tried to raise the seat upright, I was wracked with spasms.
I had to admit there was no way I could drive myself home. But now I was faced with how to remove myself from the driver’s seat and get into the passenger’s seat. I eventually managed it. And when my massage therapist cranked up the car, she said I’m going to send you something to listen to. We are going to start listening on the drive home, and I want you to listen to it nonstop until you start to feel better.
At that point, I would have done ANYTHING, so I was exceedingly willing to take her up on the suggestion. I must have listened to John Sarno narrate his book Healing Back Pain a half dozen times. And by 8pm that same night, I would say I had improved 60%+.
I still had a long way to go, but I finally had a tool to work through the pain and had begun to improve. I was able to go to work the following day. I continued to improve and have remained pain free since.
Incidentally, my massage therapist discovered this book when she was working as a ballerina in NYC 15 years prior. Her back pain was so debilitating and had remained unresolved for so long, that she had scheduled back surgery.
While she was awaiting her surgery, a friend suggested she read John Sarno’s book. She did. She cancelled the surgery. In the 15 years since, whenever she feels her back begin to glitch, she listens to the book again. She has remained surgery free and relatively pain free ever since.
Why I use it:
Honestly, because it was a last-ditch effort to relieve my back pain, and it worked when nothing else would! No side effects, no toxicity, no invasive intervention necessary. And it was free, except for my time and willingness to be open to alternative modalities of treatment. Over the years John Sarno has helped countless individuals inlcuding John Stossel and Howard Stern.
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