Healing Back Pain Naturally: The Mind-Body Program Proven to Work Paperback – June 1, 2001

Suffering from crippling back pain recently, for the first time in my life, I was desperate for a solution, and knew it would have to be a long-term remedy because as a naturally active person, I never wanted to be so disabled ever again.While waiting for this chosen book (the "Naturally" part of the title caught my eye) to arrive in the mail, I was treated by a chiropractor and out of desperation, ingested a few muscle relaxing pills. Nothing I tried, worked...until reading this back-saving book of hope."Healing Back Pain Naturally: The Mind-Body Program Proven To Work" is written by a medical doctor who keeps his promise to any who seriously seek a workable, long-term plan of back pain relief and maintenance thereafter.Dr. Art Brownstein, having "been there, done that", even undergoing back surgery in his quest at ending many years of back pain and problems, knows back pain intimately. In his experience, we are granted both his medical knowledge and the formulas compiled, first for himself, later tried, tested and true for his many patients and readers.My favorite chapter of the book was "The Back To Life Stretching Program" because the exercises really work, and I continue to refer to them at least twice a week in order to keep all that surrounds the spine strong and flexible. Each exercise is understandably explained and includes a photograph of the exercise in progress as well as its benefits, from a medical standpoint. For instance, the "Cobra Pose" stretch "...helps to open up the disc spaces while stretching and strengthening not only the back muscles, but also the abdominal muscles, which help to support the spine from the front.""Healing Back Pain Naturally" explains the connection between accumulated stress, ill-feelings and bad habits to the manifestation of back pain. Dr. Brownstein equally gives many workable solutions to these banes of our lifestyles in a way that makes much sense.The holistic patient/reader will be treated in a kindly way and invited to join his own body's healing with tips in eating right, given natural supplements and herbs specifically for healing, deep relaxation techniques, taught to listen to their own body, including pain's lesson/message, and many more tools, bits of knowledge and practices for a healthier lifestyle.Being a well-written book offering hope and help, I plan to keep this one around. It was worth every bit of its price and then some.

I felt compelled to write a review after a few reviews suggesting a back specialist is the way to go, always. Back specialists are no different from any other specialist. They focus on surgeries or pain meds. I tingling going in my fingers and toes that my primary care doctor called "carpal tunnel". That made zero sense since I had tingling on my outer right toes as well as tingling in the outer right fingers. I would wake up with numbness in the middle of the night and tingling fingers and toes. When I woke up with the numbness, I simply adjusted my back and shoulders. The numbness would go away. Eureka moment, there was something pinching in my back. After additional research, it became clear the pinching was happening on in an upper back disc based on which fingers and toes were tingling. Thank goodness I enjoy digging for information. After doing more digging as to what could cause tingling, I happened upon this book. So much of the information makes a lot of sense. I began doing exercises to strengthen and stretch my back, shoulders and core. Within a couple weeks, the numbness began to go away. With so many people with desk jobs and 7 chiropractors on every corner in small town America, there certainly has to be some truth to weak and out of balance muscles. While there may be people who require surgery, it's certainly worth it to see if you can first heal yourself without surgeries and pain pills. Body awareness does help. Listen to what your body is telling you. You know your body better than any doctor or surgeon. I've also had an orthopedic surgeon intent on opening up my wrist for to correct De Quervain's tenosynovitis. I told the surgeon, I'm gonna focus on the stretches and use a brace for a bit longer. And, in a goofy aside, I also told the surgeon, "I'm talking to the wrist, it'll tell me how far to push the stretches." That surgeon was certainly surprised when I went back a month or so later with a healed wrist and thumb. This book certainly helped me understand how muscles work in many back problems and other areas as well. That's my two or three sense.