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Summary
Summary
In her effort to manage her chronic back pain, investigative reporter Cathryn Jakobson Ramin spent years and a small fortune on a panoply of treatments. But her discomfort only intensified, leaving her feeling frustrated and perplexed. As she searched for better solutions, she exposed a much bigger problem. Costing roughly $100 billion a year, spine medicine--often ineffective and sometimes harmful --exemplified the worst aspects of the U.S. health care system.
The result of six years of intensive investigation, Crooked offers a startling look at the poorly identified risks of spine medicine, and provides practical advice and solutions. Ramin interviewed scores of spine surgeons, pain management doctors, physical medicine and rehabilitation physicians, exercise physiologists, physical therapists, chiropractors, specialized bodywork practitioners. She met with many patients whose pain and desperation led them to make life-altering decisions, and with others who triumphed over their limitations.
The result is a brilliant and comprehensive book that is not only important but essential to millions of back pain sufferers, and all types of health care professionals. Ramin shatters assumptions about surgery, chiropractic methods, physical therapy, spinal injections and painkillers, and addresses evidence-based rehabilitation options--showing, in detail, how to avoid therapeutic dead ends, while saving money, time, and considerable anguish. With Crooked, she reveals what it takes to outwit the back pain industry and get on the road to recovery.
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Veteran journalist Ramin (Carved in Sand) spent six years researching her latest topic, conducting 600 interviews for this comprehensive investigation. She also personally explored a number of back-pain solutions-as human lab rat, the author took notes while being examined in her underwear (a first, she observes, "in over three decades as an investigative reporter") and observed disc surgery while cloaked in scrubs. Although she experienced chronic back pain herself, her personal story isn't shared until chapter 10; the book's first half is instead a riveting exposé of the back-pain industry, critiquing such common treatments as lumbar spinal fusion, epidural spinal injections, and opioid prescription. Though Ramin asserts that she knew very little about the back-pain industry when she began her research, she soon realized that she was delving into a checkered subject with "twists, turns and corrupt characters" worthy of a Le Carré novel. Ramin offers two approaches to her text: readers may begin with a chronological study of various medical techniques and their efficacy (or lack thereof), or they may jump into part two ("Solutions") first, where they will encounter a much more optimistic exploration of back rehabilitation, exercise, Iyengar yoga, tai chi, and other nonoperative approaches. This book will be of particular interest to back-pain sufferers and health care professionals. Agent: Michael Carlisle, InkWell Management. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Investigative reporter Ramin interviewed 600 people over the course of six years for this thoroughly reported first-person take on the back-pain industry. Her overall message? Buyer beware! Remember that every stakeholder wants and needs your business. Back pain costs the country $100 billion a year. How did this happen? For starters, adults in the U.S. typically spend nearly nine hours a day in a seated position, and this sedentary lifestyle is a recipe for trouble. People who end up with back pain often fail to embrace inexpensive, noninvasive treatments, such as doing physical therapy exercises at home. Instead, they turn to costly spinal-fusion surgeries and cutting-edge procedures advertised online and on TV. Some people overuse pain medications, ending up hooked on opioids. This cautionary book ends on a high note with the once-hobbled-by-back-pain author standing up straight and hiking a 13,000-foot trail in the Peruvian Andes. In one of the longest list of names ever to appear in an acknowledgments section, Ramin thanks her dog. The pooch's insistence on walks every two hours, Ramin writes, helped save her back.--Springen, Karen Copyright 2017 Booklist
Table of Contents
| Introduction: A Terrible Affliction: When I Went Looking for a Solution, I Found a Much Bigger Problem | p. 1 |
| Part I Problems | |
| 1 Back Pain Nation: How We Got Into This Mess | p. 7 |
| 2 A Tale of Two Tables: Why Back Patients "Fail" Chiropractic Treatment and Physical Therapy | p. 19 |
| 3 Hazardous Images: Why You Do Not Need-Or Want-To Have an MRI | p. 45 |
| 4 Needle Jockeys: How Epidural Steroid Injections Can Go Wrong | p. 55 |
| 5 The Gold Standard: Why Lumbar Spinal Fusion is Never Your Only Remaining Option | p. 73 |
| 6 Google Your Spine Surgery: The Truth About "Cutting-Edge" Procedures, as Advertised Online and on TV | p. 103 |
| 7 Replacement Parts: Why a Bionic Lumbar Spine is not in the Cards | p. 132 |
| 8 The Opioid Wars: How Chronic Opioid Therapy Keeps You in Pain | p. 153 |
| Part II Solutions | |
| Introduction to Part II | p. 177 |
| 9 Head Case: What Your Brain has to Do with Your Back | p. 179 |
| 10 The Back Whisperers: How to Find a Rehabilitation Partner | p. 219 |
| 11 The Right Kind of Hurt: How a Much-Maligned Machine May Still Change Everything | p. 260 |
| 12 The Posture Mavens: How to Make Gravity Your Friend | p. 284 |
| Conclusion: Six Years Later | p. 325 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 331 |
| Notes | p. 335 |
| Bibliography | p. 379 |
| Index | p. 385 |