Story on Back Pain on NPR

[Ellen]

Thought I'd post this link in case anyone is interested. This story on Back Pain gets some things right, but not quite there yet. Still it seems like a move in the right direction--away from surgery, spinal injections, and medication as a solution.


http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/201...ck-exercise-may-help-you-learn-not-to-feel-it

 

[JanAtheCPA]

I'm with you, Ellen! I logged on today to either post this story or to find that someone already did, which was you

Overall, I was pretty thrilled by the piece - and very pleased that Dr. Jerome Groopman was featured. He's a wonderful writer, and I highly recommend his book "The Anatomy of Hope" for an in-depth personal study on the power of our minds to affect our bodies. Admittedly, I found his detailed and clinical descriptions of some of the people profiled in the first part of the book a bit hard to take - although that could have been because I was reading it 18 months ago when I was suffering from two devastating personal losses, and was perhaps overly sensitized to health traumas. Nevertheless, he is an MD, and he doesn't shield the reader from the physical horrors wreaked by cancer and by chemotherapy.

In the middle part of the book he takes a break to write about his own story of back pain and recovery, much of which was profiled in the NPR piece. The third part of the book is an overview of research and findings about the mind-body connection, including research into harnessing the power of the placebo effect. He mentions Dr. Sarno in his appendix - or perhaps in a footnote, I forget, but it's only briefly.

His title says it all - he eventually came to have a strong belief in the power of hope and faith. And as far as the radio piece goes - I've always said there are many paths to recovery - and this is a big step in the right direction!
~Jan