I've read four books on low back pain, and this was third most helpful of the four. The three more interesting ones have their own specific slant, which may or may not be particularly helpful to any individual low back pain sufferer. For what it's worth, here are the four books, in my order of their helpfulness:

1. Treat Your Own Back, by Robin McKenzie. This mostly focuses on one exercize, the Mckenzie "press-up". A few other exercises are mentioned but mostly you hear about the press-up. However, the press-up IS the most-favored exercise by the majority of physical therapists today. The book is too simplistic, but that makes it easy to use by the amateur, which is the point!

2. Back Pain, by Loren Fishman, M.D., and Carol Ardman. This fairly readable book gives a lot of understandable information about back pain causes and symptoms. Particularly helpful to me was the section relating transferred pain symptoms of sciatica to the probable location of lumbar disk hernias. Dr. Fishman is a physiatrist and an advocate of very detailed physical examinations by physicians, but he gives you some self-examination tools as well.

3. Backache Survival, by Robert S. Ivker, D.O. This book is readable and even funny in places. However, the author gives you so many ideas, and so little specific documentation for the research leading to his conclusions, that I was pretty much overwhelmed. I did follow some of his nutritional recommendation. Ivker is a religious practitioner in favor of Tantric Yoga, therapeutic touch, and healing prayers to God. He's also in favor of practically EVERYTHING else except surgery. Ivker is the opposite extreme of simplistic McKenzie--he gives TOO MANY alternatives!

4. Understanding Low Back Pain, by Mario A Gutierrez, M.D. This book gets the booby prize for unreadability and for the complexity of its solutions, mostly surgery.



The bottom line is you're going to have a hard time curing yourself by reading books, but McKenzie comes closest.

I've read four books on low back pain, and this was third most helpful of the four. The three more interesting ones have their own specific slant, which may or may not be particularly helpful to any individual low back pain sufferer. For what it's worth, here are the four books, in my order of their helpfulness:
1. Treat Your Own Back, by Robin McKenzie. This mostly focuses on one exercize, the Mckenzie "press-up". A few other exercises are mentioned but mostly you hear about the press-up. However, the press-up IS the most-favored exercise by the majority of physical therapists today. The book is too simplistic, but that makes it easy to use by the amateur, which is the point!
2. Back Pain, by Loren Fishman, M.D., and Carol Ardman. This fairly readable book gives a lot of understandable information about back pain causes and symptoms. Particularly helpful to me was the section relating transferred pain symptoms of sciatica to the probable location of lumbar disk hernias. Dr. Fishman is a physiatrist and an advocate of very detailed physical examinations by physicians, but he gives you some self-examination tools as well.
3. Backache Survival, by Robert S. Ivker, D.O. This book is readable and even funny in places. However, the author gives you so many ideas, and so little specific documentation for the research leading to his conclusions, that I was pretty much overwhelmed. I did follow some of his nutritional recommendation. Ivker is a religious practitioner in favor of Tantric Yoga, therapeutic touch, and healing prayers to God. He's also in favor of practically EVERYTHING else except surgery. Ivker is the opposite extreme of simplistic McKenzie--he gives TOO MANY alternatives!
4. Understanding Low Back Pain, by Mario A Gutierrez, M.D. This book gets the booby prize for unreadability and for the complexity of its solutions, mostly surgery.

The bottom line is you're going to have a hard time curing yourself by reading books, but McKenzie comes closest.

Put it this way, I haven't finished the book after owning it for 3 years now, but don't feel it necessary. I bought the book because I couldn't sleep due to back pain on a vacation. I read the first few chapters, said this is me and realized how much the mind influences your bodies well being. End of story, haven't touch the book since but highly recommend it to anyone!!!
Thank you Stern for Telling us about Dr. Sarno!!!

Put it this way, I haven't finished the book after owning it for 3 years now, but don't feel it necessary. I bought the book because I couldn't sleep due to back pain on a vacation. I read the first few chapters, said this is me and realized how much the mind influences your bodies well being. End of story, haven't touch the book since but highly recommend it to anyone!!!
Thank you Stern for Telling us about Dr. Sarno!!!

I go in for surgery for my herniated disk in two days and nothing I read in this book informed me, encouraged me, or discouraged me from my decision. It's a very basic book if you know absolutely nothing about back pain, but as for any practical advice, there's very little. I especially looked for advice on exercises that are safe to do after surgery, but found none. What little info there is also seems very dated. I would have liked to see more than a tiny bit of info on types of surgery, etc. If the authors had spent their time on more research instead of ranting against managed health care, this might have been a decent and informative book. My advice: spend your money on another, more detailed and up-to-date book.

If you are going to read one book about your sciatica or low back pain, this should be it. The book is very well balanced and covers a lot of ground without getting bogged down in details. It covers the medical background of back problems without becoming a medical text. There are also hints on types of treatments available and how to make rational decisions about what treatment is best for your situation. There are many, many back books out there but this is one of the best written.

After 5 days of journaling my lower back pain signs and symptoms - I was able to use this book and diagnose my back injury as Spinal Stenosis - Due to a major disc herniated at the L4-L5 inside the vertebral canal. For me the diagnosis was not good - immediate surgery, but as I tore through this book with ease, cover to cover within a 24hr period, I can see how this book is a must buy for those who have back problems several times a year and have not diagnosed the true underlying cause of the pain.

The authors are firm believers in a Doctor/Patient team approach with the patient responsible for aiding the doctor with the proper descriptions in order to truly diagnose the underlying cause of the pain. Using a step by step approach - the author gives the reader a true down to earth understanding of how all the bones, muscles, nerves, tendons, ligaments, disc and connective tissue affecting the lower back work together.

They teach the real difference between symptoms and signs, there-by giving the reader an excellent understanding on how to describe and classify the feelings and pain. They also describe all MD specialist that deal with lower backs to aid you on who might be best fit to help in your diagnosis. They even wiz you by non traditional methods.

Only when you ID the true root cause of the pain - can you begin the road to recovery. With the easy to follow muscle information and nerve charts and an unbelievable amount of excellent symptoms and sign diagnosis aids, I am 100% sold on this book. I am back buying 5 copies just to give out to family and friends that I know suffer through annual rituals of severe back pain and have not had success in really understanding the root cause.

I had back pain for months and it started getting worse despite all my home exercise therapy. I eventually decided to seek medical help and while doing so, I read this book. It was just GREAT to go in to this with an education! The book is very well written and full of medical information that throughly explains the complexity of the lower back. It basically helped satisfy my curiosity and my desire for an education about the back. I have since discovered I have a herniated disk and this book is now helping me through my treatment options. If you seek knowledge - get this book.

I had back pain for months and it started getting worse despite all my home exercise therapy. I eventually decided to seek medical help and while doing so, I read this book. It was just GREAT to go in to this with an education! The book is very well written and full of medical information that throughly explains the complexity of the lower back. It basically helped satisfy my curiosity and my desire for an education about the back. I have since discovered I have a herniated disk and this book is now helping me through my treatment options. If you seek knowledge - get this book.

I am 23, have had a diagnosed disc herniation for 6 years, and am in the middle of deciding on surgery or not. This book has been invaluable in helping me understand my condition, and determine what I should do. It covers Eastern and Western methods, and is written in an understandable, and easily readable manner. In fact, I bought it yesterday, and am half way through. Back problems are stressful enough, this book will help you with some of that stress.

This is a great book for back pain sufferers. There is lots of information about the mechanics of backs, as well as the various reasons why they hurt. Some very good information on sciatica. There are chapters on numbness, weakness and an entire chapter on pain, and ways to manage it, including trigger point injections of lidocaine(which I ended up having and have found very helpful). The book also covers ways to reduce stress, including yoga, tai chi, exercise, and other ways to prevent back pain from recurring.Dr. Fishman also gives advice on how to talk to your doctor and what information is especially important for your doctor to have. This has been one of the very BEST books I've read on back pain. As a companion book, I'd suggest "Back Care Basics" by M. Schatz which describes a gentle yoga program for back pain sufferers. Both books have helped me so much!