Or not, but ever see this segment on 20/20 on Dr Sarno? See how John Stossel found relief along with many others. The causes of the pain may not originate from what you think…
Worth a view:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1TU6vNTeeo
More thoughts:
I think there is some merit to this. When I was a young Sailor, I learned to lessen pain and push myself harder physically by thinking my way through it. Now, 40+ years later and after a couple of serious motorcycle crashes, I still manage to lessen the pain by thinking my way through it.
A person with an open mind and pain management issues should consider this method.
To be sure, if one is not open to it as a concept, as Dr Sarno makes clear in his books, and such, it’s not going to help and is a waste of their time. The perfect example is Stossel’s own brother in the vid above.
Various alternative and traditional treatments are covered with a solid overview of them all, including the work of Dr. Sarno, who has concluded essentially all back problems have their root in deep emotional phenomena.
Essentially all non-traumatic and non-structural back problems? Plausible. Essentially all, full stop? Nonsense. Mind of course plays a role in plain management; that’s common sense. Is there something grander here I am dismissing?
As Dr Sarno passed on at 94 a few years ago, we can’t ask him, but yes, his opinion after treating thousands of people over decades was the vast majority of back pain, as well as various other chronic pain syndromes, caused by emotional phenomena which he explains in detail in his books.
As a medical doc, he was also very clear medical issues should always be ruled out, but he pretty much universally rejected typical physical explanations for causes of back pain, and various related pain syndromes.
He may be overestimating it or not, but if say 50% of them are as he describes, that’s millions of people who could be helped bigly. Two, if that many people over the decades simply placebo’d their way out of life long pain, with diagnosed structural issues (bulging discs, etc) than viva la placebo effect is all I can say to that!
Placebo can be real treatment; if it works, it works!
How did he distinguish between “medical issues” and the “typical physical explanations” that he rejected?
Cancer for example would obviously not be put in his category of what he termed Tension Myositis Syndrome (TMS). He had a specific diagnostic criteria for the diagnosis, and was very open to that specific aspect of what physically caused the pain being in need of more evidence. His theory, which had some lab results to support it was restriction of blood flow was the actual cause of the pain.
It has to be distinguished that in TMS the pain is real, it’s not imagined, but it’s caused by specific emotional phenomena vs structural issues normally attributed to source of the pain.
But there’s more data than people might realize how poorly to typical physical explanations predict pain. For example, a study published that had specialists look at physical related (disc pathology etc) and could not match them up to those with back pain experienced. Studies like that are more common than you think.
That is certainly an interesting finding. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
On methodology and diagnosis and how it all came to be. This study mentioned which was in the most prestigious of medical journals (go to m21 in vid for some studies, and this one) in the world, looked at the backs of people without pain, and found some astounding results: Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Lumbar Spine in People without Back Pain and concluded:
“On MRI examination of the lumbar spine, many people without back pain have disk bulges or protrusions but not extrusions. Given the high prevalence of these findings and of back pain, the discovery by MRI of bulges or protrusions in people with low back pain may frequently be coincidental.”
It’s amazing how many pathologies are found on imaging. They found a previously-undiagnosed compression fracture on MR; a bony ‘growth’ on my skull on CT.
Pain is so tricky to assess and diagnose. Pain scales are very subjective and types of pain are not the same. And an emotional component is real.
I think even the most conservative types will admit to that at this point. The debate is how much does the psychogenic component play in various chronic pain syndromes.
Agreed, Not sure how one can quantify that. It is personality dependent to a large degree.
A friend of mine finally found the source of his back pain. After multiple MRIs without, they did one with contrast. Found a big ass fistula putting pressure on the spinal nerve. Now they gotta see if they can fix it.
My pain, including back spasms was prostate cancer. Once the prostate was removed, I haven’t had a back spasm since.
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