Customer Rating: 
Summary: Any structural ache? A must-read as a second opinion!
Comment: The older I get, the more I need to believe in second (health status) opinions? This book encourages believing in the power of one's own body. This is not hokus-pokus. This is based on the healing power of the body by using mind (emotion) and body. The book is witten by a well-established MD, who is questioning "standard" practices.
Customer Rating:
Summary: This book changed my life.
Comment: Yes, I am serious. No hyperbole. I had just moved to North Carolina from Florida in 1986, but was back in Florida on business. Because I still had a month or more on my membership at a local fitness/rehab center, I went there to work out each day of my visit. On one particular day, I was aching pretty badly from the long-running, chronic back pain I had had for more than seven years.
At the time, it was attributed to a car accident in which I totaled my car. Seemed logical. But, that day in the Florida fitness center, I picked up a magazine (I think it was New York magazine, but it might have been The New Yorker) and read an article about back pain. As I read it and peddled on a stationary bike, I was experiencing constant back pain. One reference in the article was to Dr. Sarno and his views on this subject. I didn't realize at the time how I was internalizing his theory.
That evening, I was at a friend's home waiting for them to arrive home from work. I thought about what I had read and it struck me like the proverbial thunderbolt. Here I was, about to sit down on a couch and I realized that I could test Sarno's idea. Instead of my typical posturing and holding my back to avoid pain as I tried to sit, I literally flopped and fell into the seat, throwing caution to the wind. I figured, what have I got to lose? A bit more pain? Well, there was no pain. None. It absolutely shocked me. I laughed out loud. Of course, I then got up, but noticed that I slipped into my habitual holding tight as if my back had a steel rod running up and through it. That hurt! That made me realize that was "me" and not a skeletal or other physical problem that I had. I then had something remarkable happen. The muscles in my back and upper buttocks literally relaxed in a wave of release. This was all about Sarno's theory, folks. And it worked for me. I bought Dr. Sarno's book before I left Florida.
I went back to my new home in NC and at my next chiropractic session (I had been to M.D.'s, physical therapists, chiropractors, and massage therapists since the onset of the pain), I waved the book in the air and proclaimed what I had learned. She wanted no part of it. And so, that was my last chiropractic session with her or any chiropractor for this so-called chronic lower back pain. Ever since then, I've been able to manage any twinges of recurring pain because they are few and far apart and eliminated through stress management and relaxation. I don't know where Dr. Sarno is, but he changed my life and I thank him for it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: It really works!
Comment: Like many other reviewers, I'm here to tell you that Dr. John Sarno's theory that the majority of chronic back pain is caused by stress will set you free.
I found myself during a particularly high stress period experiencing numbness and pain in my right arm. Within a month I was immobilized by it, living on Vicodin.
It took about 6 weeks of reading and re-reading the book to get to the point where I no longer needed pain killers. I had been told I had a bulging disc and would require surgery. Dr. Sarno saved me from surgery.
Yes.... really.
If you are suffering from chronic back pain I urge you to read this book. The realization that we are doing it to ourselves - once it sinks in - is enough to end your pain and change your life.
I still feel a little pain on occassion - always during times of stress or fear - and I need only remind myself of what I learned from Dr. Sarno and it goes away. It is not an instant cure, and you DO need to read and re-read until your mind accepts the concept and your body falls in line...
but it WORKS!!
Customer Rating: 
Summary: This is a good start!
Comment: When I first read Dr. Sarno's Mind Over Back Pain I developed a good understanding of the mind/body connection. It was his Healing Back Pain that give me a deeper understanding of how repressed anger, anxiety, and frustration can cause pain. At the time I was disabled with back, leg, neck, and hand pain, and quite disappointed and frustrated with the treatments I had recieved.
Dr. Sarno's explanation answered all my questions about my condition and fit perfectly well with all the crucial research information I had discovered. Although Dr. Sarno's guidelines seemed useful, I felt the need for more concrete steps and a faster recovery time. As a father of two, I wanted to get well as quickly as possible.
So I designed an effective nine-step plan for rapid recovery based on techniques used by Olympic athletes. The rapid recovery plan helped me improve immediately and recover shortly after. Those with herniated discs as well as carpal tunnel syndrome have recovered rapidly using these techniques.
After my recovery I wanted to share my story and the recovery plan with all those suffering needlessly from back and neck pain. In addition to conducting seminars and workshops for the University of California, CIGNA, and other organizations, I wrote Rapid Recovery from Back and Pain: A Nine-Step Recovery Plan which provides crucial research on back and neck pain and many cases of rapid recovery as well as a section for designing a personal rapid recovery plan. Rapid Recovery from Back and Neck Pain is availabe at Amazon.com.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Buy newer edition!
Comment: Dr. Sarno's concept is sound, but this is his first report, rather old. There are two newer books, the best of which, of course, is the 2006 "The Divided Mind : The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders", which I highly recommend.
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