In last week's class 'Unwind - Releasing Tension from Your Spine and Your Mind', we discussed how pain can manifest in the spine without any physical injury being present and how in his book 'Healing Back Pain' Dr. John Sarno found that highly motivated, driven, and successful people are more prone to spinal pain then most people. He also found that a very large portion of the population who is asymptomatic to back pain (meaning they have no back pain or history of back pain) often have more visible damage than to their spine's then people realize. I shared this image in class showing the results of doing MRI's on asymptomatic people and showing that the chances of degenerative conditions in their spine are pretty much the same as people who have intense back pain.
This study shows us that, even if we get a diagnostic showing these degenerative changes, it does not necessarily mean that our pain is caused by 'that bulging disc.' We can think of the old adage that 'correlation does not equal causation.' If just as many healthy pain free people suffer the same conditions, then what is causing the back pain?
Dr. John Sarno attempts to answer this question in his book:
After class, Mike chimed in to tell us that he has been following Dr. Sarno's work since the 90's as he has been featured on the Howard Stern show numerous times. Honestly, I was blown away that I never knew this! Mike, thank you for officially being the ONLY person who has ever known about Dr. Sarno's work when I speak of him in my yoga classes! I was unaware of his interviews on the Howard Stern show. It looks like most of them have been taken down online, but I did find a great eulogy that Howard Stern did after Dr. Sarno's death that was great to listen to! Thanks for sharing this with us Mike! Here's a link:
Howard Stern's Eulogy for Dr. Sarno - YouTube
Enjoy!