Modern Medical "Science"

“It is really quite amazing by what margins competent but conservative scientists and engineers can miss the mark, when they start with the preconceived idea that what they are investigating is impossible. When this happens, the most well-informed men become blinded by their prejudices and are unable to see what lies directly ahead of them.”

– Arthur C. Clarke, 1963

Regarding the epidemic of back pain that began in the U.S. about 40 years ago:

Modern medicine is so arrogant and grossly biased in general and with regard to back pain in particular that the highly effective treatment of John E. Sarno, M.D., is ignored! Dr. Sarno, an NYU School of Medicine Professor of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine and NYUMC attending physician, cures 90% of his patients within a month defining a cure as: 1. little or no pain; 2. no functional limitation; 3. no fear of any physical activity, and 4. all physical treatments have been discontinued. Why is this cure ignored?

It appears to be a case of “The Earth is flat and everyone knows it’s flat. I’m not getting on the Nina, the Pinta, or the Santa Maria, Chris. Have a nice trip. We’ll take care of your wife and kids.”

If one looks at the evidence BEFORE drawing a conclusion it is clear that the epidemic of back pain has little or nothing to do with structural problems of the spine. Obviously that isn’t happening in mainstream medicine, hence my inflammatory accusation that modern medicine is arrogant and grossly biased.

If one is going to be biased BEFORE drawing a conclusion in the matter of what’s causing the epidemic of chronic regional musculoskeletal pain (of which low back pain is the most common form) then one should be biased by the EFFICACY OF THE TREATMENT! Sarno’s treatment is highly effective for a cure of back pain. Mainstream medicine’s treatment for back pain is abysmally poor at best.

Now, let’s begin looking at the evidence from the bias of treatment efficacy:

1. Back pain was uncommon prior to the onset of the epidemic about 40 years ago. Since the epidemic began it has been growing 14 times faster than the population! Has something terrible happened to the American back?

2. Imaging studies of the spine and pain are poorly correlated! This dramatically damages the cause/effect hypothesis of mainstream medicine’s spinal abnormality theory of back pain (the most cherished of which is the “herniated disc” fantasy.) If the abnormalities on MRI’s of the spine caused pain, then why little or no correlation? And why did a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1994 show that only 36% of the 98 asymptomatic (pain-free) individuals have no disc abnormalities?

The Emperor has no clothes. Sorry. Nekkid is nekkid.

Clearly reality (what is) doesn’t matter. What matters is perception. Should a “scientist” be familiar with perception and how it might influence observation and subsequent reasoning?

Every age, every generation has its built-in assumptions; that the world is flat, that the world is round, etc. There are hundreds of hidden assumptions, things that we take for granted that may or may not be true. Of course, in the vast majority of cases historically, these things aren’t true. So presumably, if history is any guide, much of what we take for granted about the world simply isn’t true. But we’re locked into these precepts without even knowing it, often times. That’s a paradigm.

- John Hagelin, Ph.D.

If you have back pain QUIT LISTENING TO THE GUYS WHOSE TRACK RECORD WITH REGARD TO TREATMENT OUTCOME STINKS! Do you think it might be wise to consider listening to the guy who cures 90% of his back pain patients?

(While there may be some appeal to running with the big dogs…after a while the back pain may get old.)

John E. Sarno, M.D., author of The Divided Mind, has cured thousands of people of back pain, regardless of whether they’ve had a history of back surgeries or not. The spouse of one of my patients had four back surgeries and continued to have agonizing back pain before being cured by one of Sarno’s students, orthopedic surgeon, Dr. James Rochelle, who wrote chapter 8 of Sarno’s latest book.

Come on, wake up. I’d leave you alone but the stakes are too high.