Lessons Learned from Mr. Angry Cynic
I wanted to take a moment here in today’s email to share with you an email I received last week from a reader, along with my reply to it… I think you should find this very valuable. Ok, here’s his email:
“Congratulations!! Yet another ingenious way coined to make money from sick people. I am an engineer now aged 78, and have looked after my bad back for over 60 years since rupturing an L4 disc doing gymnastics in my youth.
“My treatment experience is likely better informed than yours. It has taught me above all that not only do bad back episodes vary in symptoms and remedial effectiveness from person to person, but these aspects are likely to differ in sequential episodes for the same individual.
“While not familiar with your proposition of “Muscle Imbalance” causality, to claim it a universal symptom precursor, and its resolution as a panacea, is just as patently absurd as to state, as you do elsewhere, that bad backs do not result from one time injury, and that commonly practised excercises such as toe touching, leg lifting and back arching do not help. On the contrary, they help me and thousands more.
“Presentation of individual patient testimonials following reams of waffle is quack salemanship typical of alternative therapy purveyors, whereas the discrimatimg consumer requires to see statistically based outcomes from double blind evaluation trials. Where are yours?
“It would be nice one day to see you and your likes enjoy the kind of disgrace currently assigned to the financial fraternity leaders, but your lot is unfortunately harder to catch out. Hope you enjoyed reading this.”
–Mr. Angry Cynic
AND HERE IS MY REPLY:
Thanks for writing in… First, it’s obvious that the negative cynic in you can’t accept the fact that we make money by helping people reduce or eliminate their pain so they can enjoy life again. In fact, if we were only “in it for the money” as you claim, we wouldn’t offer so much for free…
Like the hundreds of articles, dozens of videos and audios, discussion forum, phone consultations and product free trials, all of which we offer at no charge. So, I hope it’s obvious that we are NOT in this for the money.
Second, I, and the rest of the team here at the Healthy Back Institute agree with you about each person’s case being different, and also that what triggers a “flare up” can also be different from person to person as well as from flare up to flare up.
About muscle imbalances… we DO NOT claim they are the only cause. We not only claim, but have proven that, they are one of the biggest causes. And yes, ALL people have them… It’s impossible to not have them and for them not to be a major factor.
And nowhere do we say that toe touching and other related exercises are bad… What we say is that they are general exercises and they may help or they may make things worse… You MUST identify your imbalances first and then do the right combination of exercises and stretches for you… not some generic list from your doctor or some book.
Why no “double blind studies”? Because medical schools won’t fund it! For years we have been trying to get doctors and medical researchers involved to perform “clinical studies” but have met stiff resistance… It seems they don’t like the idea of people getting rid of back pain on their own with only a handful of simple exercises and stretches… I wonder why?
Quack salesmanship? Please! We present hundreds of successful client case studies because we know people want proof… they tell us “Prove to me this really works and that it can work for me.” So while we may not have any double blind clinical studies (yet), we do have tens of thousands of people who have used our treatment approach to reduce or eliminate their pain. And if that’s not enough to convince you, you will likely stay in pain a long time.
It seems that negative energy and a closed mind keep more people in pain than anything else. So I hope that all of you reading this will keep an open mind and remember that almost everyone who gets quick and lasting relief do so by using a combination of treatments and approaches.
Here’s what we have found is the recipe for success:
Again, there are many other effective treatments and products, but the ones above have proven to be the most effective combination for most people.
Hope you found this helpful 🙂
–Jesse
Jesse – I cannot say I deserve your book more than the others, but here is my story, although I’m sure it’s too long to tell, but I will try to summarize it in this blog. I have had seven (7) back surgeries, (laminectomy, two fusions, two surgeries for removal of CSF sacs, removal of hardware/rods, and re-fusing the spine again, and in constant pain for 19 years, plus many treatments, from spinal epidural injections, steroid injections, acupunture, physical therapy, acquatic therapy, to name a few, and more pain medications that I cannot even list anymore. I have read your blogs from various people with various conditions, and they all seem to like what you have to offer, so I am at my witts end and willing to read and/or try anything. If your book will give me some information on how to deal with this Nerve Pain, that believe me is debilitating, I am all over it! I also have Fibromyalgia, Diabetes, and recently my pain doctor said I have Arachnoiditis, which is inflammation of the nervous system, so I need some help Jesse! I am afraid I will be in a wheelchair before long, and I do not want that to happen as I am still mobile, although limited on some of my activities. I also have CSF fluid sacs lying on the L4/L5 vertebraes, and 5-6 cysts lying on or around my S1 nerve root, so the left extremeties are in constant pain! I am definitely in need of some intervention, as the physicians I’ve seen here have no answers to help me. In fact, the majority of the back specialists that I’ve seen here in Washington state won’t even meet with me, or even if they do, I am told abruptly, “there’s nothing they can do, since the doctors in CA messed me up”, so I’m told I can leave now, while I’m crying and begging them to help me! If you think Jesse I am a willing candidate to help, I am all eyes and ears!
I was in a car accident when I was 11 and seems I have a curvature of the lower spine, told to me by a chiropractor when my back went out majorly in the first year of lugging around my large baby boy. Over the years I have waited out each episode with heat and stretches and nothing seems to stop it from happening if I just step wrong or reach wrong. Aggrivating and disabling. The VA scanned me to see if my fosamax had worked and the attendant asked me to lay straight on the table, I told her this was as straight as I could and she said I must have scoliosis, confirmed to me this last year. I am very low income and cannot afford to buy books especially if I am not sure it would work in my case so I appreciate being considered.