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Curing back pain, experientially
A few months ago I complained to a friend about my recurring lower back pain. He said he had had similar problems, and that he found a permanent and easy cure - just by reading a single book.
I was surprised. Most people I asked for advice would tsk tsk and tell me to stretch regularly, do Pilates to "strengthen the core," things like that.
No, said my friend. Stretches are fine and good, but they're treating the symptoms, not the disease. Lower back pain often stems from repressed emotions. He admitted it sounded a little nutty, but stood by his experience - three days after reading the book, and putting it into practice (with no stretches, drugs, or surgery involved), he was cured.
Now I, too, stand by this book. I've read it and believe that much "bad experience," physically, is the brain causing a physical diversion to keep you/me/us from engaging with uncomfortable emotions.
I know it may sound "out there" at first, but if you've got chronic lower back pain, it's worth a shot. Here's the book: The Mindbody Prescription
Amazing, Mark, thanks for sharing your experience with this. I've looked at the book on Amazon a long time ago, but didn't get it, so it's great to hear that it's working. I'm going to check it out now.
It fits with what I believe to be true and have experienced myself about other things to be true, but it's always good to see experiential evidence that it's working for others I know and trust.
I have Spondylolisthesis which means I periodically suffer from debilitating lower back pain and sciatica. I've noticed a strong connection between the pain and my emotional state, so dealing effectively with stress can help keep the pain under control. The big thing though is to understand things holistically, i.e. it's physical AND mental; you need a good physical examination as well as dealing with the emotional issues. For back problems an MRI scan is essential to understand what could be the root cause so you're not just treating the symptoms.
This reminds me of a study I recently read about.
The study took 3 groups with back pain, gave one standard therapy, gave another acupuncture and gave the last group fake acupuncture. Both acupuncture groups reported feeling relativly better than the therapy group.
Take from that what you will.
I've had some very good results from this approach in the past, although I combined it with Pilates work, so it wasn't in isolation. However, the combination was amazing.
Bob
Thanks for this posting. It is very relevant to me and my twingey back.
Howard Stern has been touting that book (and the Dr.)for years on his show. He swears it changed his life. I always wondered if it worked for anyone other than him.