Pain doctorJohn Sarno

A medical doctor at New York University School of Medicine, Sarno was interested in rehab after injuries, and chronic pain. It was his contention that pain was very often psychological, and could be successfully treated without drugs or surgery (or even exercise) by a psychiatrist or counselor. He even thought that ruptured spinal disks didn’t necessarily cause pain. Other doctors in the school derided Sarno behind his back …but consulted him for their own chronic pain problems. Sarno wasn’t a researcher, and wasn’t interested in proving his contentions; he wanted to help patients one on one. “My proof is that my patients get better,” he would say. So others did studies, and proved (for instance) that ruptured spinal disks didn’t necessarily cause pain. Most of his patients, Sarno said, found relief just by understanding the psychosomatic connection to pain, or in bad cases by getting psychological counseling. Sarno’s books, such as Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection, became best-sellers by word of mouth. A 2007 study by the University of Southern California found that chronic pain could be reduced by an average 52 percent with “mind-body treatment” like what Sarno advocated. Dr. Sarno retired in 2012 — at 89 — and died June 22 from cardiac failure, the day before his 94th birthday, which was also the day a documentary about him debuted, All the Rage (Saved by Sarno).