Knowledge therapy is the truest definition of alternative medicine for herniated discs. It is the treatment of choice for countless patients who have been wise enough to question the validity of a suspect disc pain diagnosis and has provided an effectual cure to millions of neck and back pain sufferers around the world.
Alternative medicine is defined as any treatment modality which falls outside of mainstream care practices. This article will focus on knowledge therapy, which is the treatment approach that was first designed by the world renowned Dr. John E. Sarno in his many literary works.
Truly Alternative Medicine for Herniated Discs
Knowledge therapy is a term first popularized by Dr. John Sarno of the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine, New York University Medical Center. Dr. Sarno is world famous for his work involving tension myositis syndrome and the general applications of mindbody medicine.
Dr. Sarno realized long ago that back pain rarely responded well to either the conservative or drastic medical treatments offered by the traditional medical system. He also saw poor results from many complementary therapy modalities. Dr. Sarno discovered that back pain, like a wide range of other problematic health concerns, often has emotional causative, contributory or perpetuating factors. This began his epic quest for developing a treatment program which would address the psychoemotional issues at the heart of the pain, thereby resolving the symptoms, hopefully permanently.
Alternative Medicine for Disc Pain
Psychosomatic herniated disc pain is the term used to describe the symptoms in these theorized cases of mindbody suffering. Psychosomatic does not mean that the pain is not real, imaginary or exaggerated. Psychosomatic pain is indeed very real and experienced 100% in the physical body. However, the cause of the pain is not some structural injury or degenerative process, but instead, the pressure of repressed emotional anguish.
Humans are far more than just physical bodies. We are also logical and emotional creatures. Our minds interact constantly with our anatomies to create every state of health and disease. When there is a chronic emotional concern troubling the subconscious mind, you can be sure it is just a matter of time before that repressed issue translates into the anatomical body in one painful form or another.
Alternative Medicine for Herniated Discs / Psychosomatic Symptoms
Psychosomatic pain affects every individual in a unique way. I have never met a single person who did not experience some form of mindbody symptoms at some point in life. Back pain, regardless of the diagnosis, can actually be caused by the psychosomatic process. Even when structurally-motivated, there is always a psychological component to the pain, in the form of contributing, exacerbating, perpetuating or overlay factors.
However, many other health concerns are also normally associated with psychoemotional causations. These problematic health concerns range from simple headaches and stomach concerns to ulcers, TMJ, carpal tunnel syndrome, fibromyalgia, IBS, OCD, prostatitis, allergies, sexual dysfunction and a host of painful conditions affecting the wrists, knees, hips, shoulders, feet and virtually any other anatomical region.
Psychosomatic syndromes usually initiate physical pain through the process called ischemia. This is another term for simple oxygen deprivation. This process can affect any bodily tissue and leaves no trace of its sinister presence, except minuscule evidence in the nuclei of affected cells.
Oxygen deprivation is usually a regional process, which will affect every cell in the area. Nerve pain and related symptoms can be enacted at very low levels of oxygen deprivation, while severe muscular pain, cramping and spasms are most common from higher levels of ischemia. Every cell needs oxygen to survive and any reduction in the localized circulation can and will produce dire symptoms.
The stealthy nature of the causative process also helps to explain why so many misdiagnosed patients never find a cure for their herniated disc pain. To put it simply, their pain is not due to the disc at all. It is caused by ischemia. The herniated disc is a mere scapegoat, blamed for the pain, but completely innocent and coincidental to the symptoms experienced.
Remember, the vast majority of herniated discs and degenerated discs cause no pain or symptoms whatsoever. They are merely there and not a health concern at all. The main exceptions to this rule are the disc pathologies which do definitively compress a nerve or the spinal cord.
Alternative Medicine Effectiveness
Knowledge therapy is truly alternative medicine for herniated discs, since it succeeds where other treatment options fail; bypassing the completely irrelevant anatomical location of the pain and dealing exclusively with the emotional causation. Patients are taught to consider the psychological aspects of their lives and instructed on how to discover the emotional issues responsible for causing physical pain. Patients are also taught how to prevent the ischemic process from gaining physical control of their bodies and lives.
The treatments are free or extremely low cost, since the majority of patients use knowledge therapy books to overcome their pain. A few patients might require the assistance of a professional therapist to help them get to the heart of their repressed emotional issues.
Knowledge therapy assists a patient in negating the nocebo effect of the diagnostic process. It allows patients to look past the structural conditions which have been blamed for their pain and teaches them to focus instead on the emotional concerns which influence the functionality of their physical bodies.
Knowledge therapy demonstrates positive results for beating chronic pain of all varieties. It has shown some of its very best statistics when used to resolve previously treatment–resistant cases of back or neck pain due to a herniated disc. Dr. Sarno cites that most of his patients enjoy permanent relief. In my own case, and in many cases of patients with whom I have corresponded, this is simply not the absolute truth. Many suffer recurrences of symptoms to one degree or another, but most still feel the program to be valuable and beneficial in the long run for all chronic pain sufferers, since recurrences are usually less severe and short in duration.
Alternative Medicine for Herniated Discs Resources
There are many sources of knowledge therapy available, but I still recommend some of the original books as my all time favorites. Dr. John Sarno and Dr Andrew Weil are excellent and inspirational authors who have written extensively on the topic.
Here are my top 3 choices of herniated disc books for patients:
Our Cure Back Pain Forever Program is a great way to prevent, manage and even cure pain. Knowledge therapy forms the basis for much of the program. Many patients have reported that these books helped them to better understand and apply Dr. Sarno’s theories and techniques. Best of all it is easily available online for immediate consumption. This makes it perfect for patients who want relief right now, instead of waiting for a package to arrive by snail mail.
Healing Back Pain by Dr. John Sarno is the classic guide to back pain relief and my personal favorite of his works. It is simple to read, easily absorbed and extremely effective. I have read this book hundreds of times and still rely on it as a valuable resource for my own life and my work on the website.
The Mindbody Prescription by Dr. John Sarno provides a broader look at mindbody medicine and clarifies many of his important theories discussed more generally in his earlier works.
You can buy so many more books and the investment would not be a waste. However, for a few dollars, you can be sure to have the tools necessary to defeat almost any psychosomatic pain syndrome using the above resources. You can even save more cash by going to the library and taking them out for free.
Alternative Medicine for Herniated Discs Conclusion
Knowledge therapy is not some new age nonsense. It is valid alternative medicine for herniated discs developed by some of the best minds in the healthcare industry. Pioneers like Dr. John Sarno and Dr. Andrew Weil have long extolled the importance of the emotional mind in all matters of health and disease. Knowledge therapy takes that theory and places it into context in a completely sound therapy option for chronic herniated disc pain.
As the author of this site, I can not tell you how important knowledge therapy has been to my life. Not only did it cure my chronic back pain after 18 long years of horrific suffering, but it also completely resolved my long standing problems with knee pain, wrist pain and stomach sensitivity.
I had been diagnosed with physical causes for all these conditions, but none of my agonizing pains ever responded to a wide range of treatment options. I tried everything to beat my symptoms, but they kept control of my life and grew worse every year. When I discovered knowledge therapy, I thought it was a long shot, but I gave it a try out of desperation. I never could have imagined that my very real physical pain could have been the result of anything except a structural process.
I universally support for knowledge therapy, since it provides many mindbody benefits besides simple pain relief. It has increased my knowledge of back and neck pain tremendously and this has eliminated all the fear which was previously associated with my suffering. For this alone, it is worthwhile. You might want to consider trying this alternative medicine for herniated discs. After all, there are absolutely no risks or considerable costs.
