Healing Back Pain
by John E. Sarno · first published 1991
72% recommend26% neutral2% critical
Why HN recommends it
Argues chronic back pain is often psychosomatic, rooted in stress and repressed emotion. Readers with long-running back, neck, knee or wrist/RSI pain credit it with relief after conventional treatments failed.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Dr. John E. Sarno is a medical pioneer whose program has helped thousands of thousands of people overcome their back conditions--without or drugs or dangerous surgery. Now, using his grounbreaking research into TMS (Tension Mytostis Syndrome), Dr. Sarno goes one step further: after identifyig stress and other psychological factors in back pain, he demonstrates how many of his patiens have gone on to heal themselves without exercise or other physical therapy. Find out:Why self-motivated and successful people are prone to TMS How anxiety and repressed anger trigger muscle spasms How people "tr
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"The novel intervention ... is based on an idea pioneered by the late John Sarno, MD" John Sarno's book "Healing Back Pain" saved me from truly agonizing torture and made me functional again in just a few hours, though I went to it with extreme skepticism. It's great to see formal research being done on this approach.
on “Novel mind-body program outperforms other treatments for chronic back pain” ↗Anyone suffering from back pain who really wants to recover should read Dr. John Sarno's work. Here's a link to his book: https://www.amazon.com/Healing-Back-Pain-Mind-Body-Connectio... I was skeptical at first, but just reading his book and thinking through what he presented healed my lower back pain.
on “The $100B per year back pain industry is mostly a hoax” ↗This article doesn't have one mention of TMS or the work that John Sarno did? That is borderline irresponsible. Read "Healing Back Pain: The Mind Body Connection" by Jon Sarno.[1] I lived with chronic knee pain for over 8 years, and would routinely have "carpal tunnel like symptoms" with my wrists. Literally within a week of reading…
on “To treat back pain, look to the brain not the spine” ↗The divided mind / healing back pain - Books by John E. Sarno. To give you a background I have struggled with back pain all my life. After dozens of MRIs, X rays, physiotherapy, ayurveda, yoga, posture exercises, and spending almost 100,000…
on “Ask HN: What was the one book that you read and it actually changed your life?” ↗The Mind Body Approach: Cures back pain, rsi... https://www.amazon.com/Healing-Back-Pain-Mind-Body-Connectio... http://www.rsi.deas.harvard.edu/mb_what_is.html
on “To treat back pain, look to the brain not the spine” ↗I don't know about this method, but for me Dr. Sarno's method worked. I was in so much pain that I could barely put my socks on without help. Then I read "Healing back pain" and it convinced me that my pain was psychosomatic. Once convinced, the pain disappeared in a day and never came back. Dr. Sarno's theory is that the mind can use pain as a way to shift attention away…
on “For back pain, the subtle moves of the Feldenkrais Method can help some people” ↗…words per minute and probably type the equivalent of a novel per week (I do a lot of SEO stuff in my side gigs) and never have a problem. If you really want to learn what's causing your problems - get Healing Back Pain by John Sarno or The Mindbody Prescription (same author). Check this 20/20 segment out from several years ago - I can't find the original Google Video version that I watched, this seems to be a substitute:…
on “Where do you find the time for side projects?” ↗I haven’t had it quite as bad as you, but I’ve struggled for sure. Someone on HN recommended a book called Healing Back Pain[0] - I found it really helpful. Might be worth picking up a copy. [0]https://www.amazon.com/Healing-Back-Pain-Mind-Body-Connectio...
on “Ask HN: Are you ok?” ↗…can be fully cured from your chronic pain within months. It is hard work, and you will have to deeply examine your life, but if you are ready I encourage you to check out Dr. Sarno and fall down the Healing Back Pain rabbit hole. Nicole Sachs has some excellent youtube videos that I recommend. As well there is Steve Ozanich's incredible book. I suffered for a decade with debilitating back pain, arm pain, neck pain,…
on “The news industry was complicit in the opioid crisis” ↗I'm thankful to Dr.Sarno for his book called Healing back pain which gave me my life back from the crippling back pain. I was in so much pain 2 years ago that all I could think about was pain but reading his book about TMS and applying his teachings has virtually…
on “Ask HN: What are you thankful for?” ↗…me at the moment and just keep using my hands and then it goes away. I dealt with this shit for years and it severely restricted my life so it's kind of a miracle to be rid of it. I recommend reading "healing back pain" by Sarno which talks about this phenomena. The book is mainly about back pain but it applies to all kinds of psychosomatic pain. There's also a free forum with free guides and support from others who…
on “Ask HN: How have you cured your RSI?” ↗…debilitating back issues for years after a grappling injury in my 20s - spasms that would come in an instant or appear overnight and take me off my feet for weeks. Brutal. Multiple people recommended Sarno’s “Healing Back Pain’, and I resisted it as woo for years until yet another recommendation got the best of me. I needed to read only the first chapter to recognize that while some of Sarno’s conjecture about the actual mechanism…
on “Cursorless is alien magic from the future – Xe Iaso” ↗I haven't used it myself but I've heard great things and it closely matches your request: "Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection" by Dr. John E. Sarno (http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0446557684)
on “Ask HN: How to relieve psychosomatic back tension?” ↗…comfortable suggesting that this approach is overlooked by mainstream medicine to the great detriment of many people suffering chronic illness If people are interested in this, checkout https://www.amazon.com/Healing-Back-Pain-Mind-Body-Connectio...
on “Self-criticism can take a toll on our minds and bodies” ↗One of my favorite recent HN threads was, "Books that changed your life." And it actually changed my life too! I bought John Sarno's "Healing Back Pain" and left two decades of back pain behind. Here, I'm looking for recommendations for hackers - what would you recommend a hacker read - and books that a hacker would give, something quintessentially…
on “Ask HN: Holiday book gifts for/from a hacker” ↗