Book Review and Excerpt: The End of Back Pain

I’ve had the privilege to read a pre-released copy of a new book coming out, The End of Back Pain: Access Your Hidden Core to Heal Your Body. I should disclaim three things here. Number one, I received the book and did not buy it. Number two, I do not suffer from back pain. Number three, my husband does suffer from occasional back pain, as does much of his family and a few members of mine, as well as some of our friends. Some of them have tried using medications from www.justcbdstore.com to relieve it, and have seen countless doctors, but I always wondered if there was anything more I could do to help with their pain management journey or more I could learn about chronic pains themselves. While we briefly mention the use of cbd to help manage pains, this could be beneficial to anyone who feels like they have tried other methods but haven’t had any luck. Read more about how this can help in relation to managing pains, as well as other conditions and ailments.

When I saw the chance to read and review this book release, I knew I needed to jump on it.

I would like to share with you an excerpt. Before I share, however, I would like to give you a quick anecdote regarding this book. Last week I suffered debilitating back pain. I’m certain I shared this with you, as it was rather upsetting to me. I had no one to massage the pain out, and no one to help me work through it as it was located in a rather precarious location on my shoulder blade. (Read: I couldn’t reach it and it hurt like crazy!) In any event, I remembered a segment of what I had read in the new End of Back Pain book about the muscles in our back being a large portion of our core. As soon as I remembered that, I did a few yoga stretches, and it seemed to work out quite a bit of the kink in my shoulder. Since then, I have focused some additional energy into core work on my strength training days. As a runner, the core is of utmost importance. If my back pain happens again or become a re-ocurring problem for me, I’ll need to see a chiropractor. My close friend lives in Australia and says that she visits a chiropractor Melbourne that helps her greatly with a bad back pain that has plagued her for many years. I’m glad I have that option and I can always try it out.

The information presented in the book is presented in such a way that it is easy-to-read and understand. Read on for an excerpt. I’m sure you will want to pick up a copy to read the rest. 🙂

(Oh, and did I mention that in this book it is cleared up that running is better than walking? Boo yah!)

Excerpt used with permission from the author, Dr. Patrick Roth. Enjoy!

How I Discovered the Hidden Core

By Patrick Roth,

Excerpted from The End of Back Pain: Access Your Hidden Core to Heal Your Body

When I was just starting to practice neurosurgery, I experienced a month-long episode of severe back pain. A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) test of my lumbar spine revealed a herniated L5–S1 disc, as well as a chronic condition called spondylolisthesis-the result of a stress fracture that had occurred while I was playing football years before (and that undoubtedly had been the cause of my adolescent back pain). I showed my MRI to my neurosurgical peers, who uniformly recommended surgery. I was just starting my career, however, and couldn’t bear the idea of spending several weeks in recovery.

Although I had always preached the importance of exercise to my patients, I was too frightened to undertake any exertion myself. My pain had improved enough for me to function, but the fear that exercise would bring it back prevented me from following my own advice. Slowly, though, my hypocrisy ate away at me, until I finally got up and, despite the pain, started to exercise. I started slowly, with a few reps, then steadily increased the intensity of my workouts. I felt an immediate difference. My back began to feel a comforting sense of tone and strength. As my back pain slowly receded, I became convinced that I was on the right track.

I didn’t quite know it yet, but I had just backed my way into discovering the importance of strengthening the back muscles and the correlation between these muscles and back pain, both as a cause and as a solution. I also realized that this kind of exercise could be initiated earlier than is traditionally accepted in the course of a patient’s treatment. My search of the literature revealed similar explorations into exercise strategies, but the strategies described had only sporadic success and thus had never become mainstream. That research convinced me that pain-plagued back muscles could be exercised safely, however, and so I began to treat my more ambitious patients with intense back-strengthening. The patients who committed to the program were rewarded with terrific results.

Core Considerations

The muscles of the back-particularly the multifidus muscles-are an integral part of our “core,” but they have too often been overlooked. I like to think of these muscles as the body’s “hidden core.” Our culture has experienced a rich history of strengthening the core to alleviate back pain, a history that peaked in the 1990s when the transversalis muscle (the deep muscle located in the front of your abdomen) was singled out as the essence of the core. This faulty and incomplete definition of “core” suggested that an isolated group of muscles could be developed and used to stabilize the spine and, in turn, reduce back pain. The discipline of Pilates, for example, promotes the strengthening of the transversalis muscle as a means to stabilize the trunk of the body during movement, which limits stress on the spine.

While this movement has met with some success, it hasn’t turned out to be the panacea that was hoped for in its initial stages. Isolating the front of the core is only half the story, and studies have shown that it can cause an asymmetry that may even weaken the back, an outcome that I will explain later in the book. By contrast, the approach outlined in this book focuses on continuing the strengthening program around the entire back-the front, the sides, and the back-like a brace, or the body’s natural weight-lifting belt.

Most of us design our exercise programs after a perusal of our appearance in the mirror. We want better abdominal muscles, better pectorals, and better biceps. Strengthening the abdominal muscles may be the brass ring if you want to be the newest cast member of a reality TV show. The key to back health, however, is to focus on muscles that can’t be seen in the mirror. Through this new paradoxical and effective approach to strengthening your core, the exercises of the Hidden Core Workout will help you treat your back pain once and for all. Oh, and you might even look great in the process!

Over the past twenty-five years, I have seen patients who feel hopeless and helpless because of debilitating, depressing, and disruptive chronic or acute back pain. Perhaps your back pain, too, has led you down a proverbial rabbit hole of inconsistent or contradicting diagnoses, alternative therapies, pain medications, unnecessary surgeries, and even desperation. I understand the physical and emotional effects this particular type of pain can have on a person, especially when the source of the pain is unknown. Treatments can differ from person to person, for example some people do say that using specific types of medical marijuana can help to ease the pain. My friend used to tell me that weed products such as gorilla glue for example, helped to relieve some of her back pain. Other people believe that back pain is not the problem. How we deal with back pain is. While a sobering 80 percent of us will suffer from back pain at some point-and nearly 50 percent of us have experienced back pain in the past year!-treatment for back pain has been found to be ineffective when scrutinized by modern, evidence-based medicine. However, if you find something that works for you, then continue using it.

The “Antifragile” Back

This book is about changing your back. Before your back can be changed, however, your mind must be changed. The very activities that you imagine will make your back hurt can make your back stronger-and fundamentally different. The transformation of both your back and your mind can be accomplished by leveraging the almost magical synergy that exists between the brain and the body. That transformation also takes advantage of our (and many other creatures’) innate capacity to change in response to stress or any other factor that disrupts our equilibrium. As an example of that capacity, when groups of rats are placed in two different environments, the brains of those in the more varied and challenging environment flourish more.

Conventional wisdom views stress (and resulting inflammation) as the foundation of disease and aging. Rather than viewing stress as eroding or weakening, however, we can and should welcome it as a source of growth and health. Stress has a “sweet spot,” however. Too much, and we will be weakened; too little, and we will fail to grow and attain health. Stress also needs to be coupled with adequate “recovery” periods to allow the body to adapt and flourish as a result of that stress.

The Brain-Body Connection

Mens sana in corpore sano is Latin for “A healthy mind in a healthy body.” For the purposes of this book we should perhaps modify this to Mens sana in spina sana, or “A healthy mind in a healthy spine.” The brain and the spine are intertwined-not only developmentally, but functionally. One of the themes of this book is that we can leverage this relationship by applying a biological “bait-and-switch.” If we rewire the brain with regard to the spine, for instance, the spine will follow suit and change. Likewise, by equipping the spine with strength, posture, and technique through exercise, we can effectively rewire the brain.

The above is an excerpt from the book The End of Back Pain: Access Your Hidden Core to Heal Your Body by Patrick Roth M.D. The above excerpt is a digitally scanned reproduction of text from print. Although this excerpt has been proofread, occasional errors may appear due to the scanning process. Please refer to the finished book for accuracy.

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About the author: Dr. Patrick Roth, author of The End of Back Pain: Access Your Hidden Core to Heal Your Body, is a board-certified neurosurgeon in New Jersey and the chairman of neurosurgery at Hackensack University Medical Center. He is the director of the neurosurgical residency program and is dedicated to the teaching and training of future neurosurgeons. He is a founding member of the North Jersey Brain & Spine Center.

For more information please visit http://www.patrickrothmd.com and follow the author on Facebook and Twitter.