Ageless Spine, Lasting Health: The Open Secret to Pain-Free Living and Comfortable Aging [Paperback]

Kathleen Porter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2006

Ageless Spine, Lasting Health presents information about natural skeletal alignment that may be the most overlooked factor affecting long-term health, genuine fitness and aging. Included are simple guidelines for how to return our bones to an aligned relationship that provides for far greater ease of movement, fewer aches and pains and a process of aging that is more easefull.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Ageless Spine, Lasting Health is simply brilliant and right on the mark. Kathleen Porter's insights about spinal alignment are destined to change the way we think about and inhabit our bodies. --Christiane Northrup, M.D. Author of Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom

Never before in the world of fitness has there been a more groundbreaking and readable book than Ageless Spine, Lasting Health. With this revolutionary book, Kathleen Porter is about to rock your world. --Jean Couch, Author of The Runner's Yoga Book

In Ageless Spine, Lasting Health, Kathleen Porter powerfully portrays the extensive damage we do to our bodies when we lose connection to natural principles of body alignment. Rather than looking to surgery, medication and infinite exercise technologies to find freedom from discomfort, we need only learn to stand, sit, walk and move the way we did as young children when we learned organically to let our bones support us. --Ingrid Bacci, Ph.D. Author of Effortless Pain Relief

About the Author

Kathleen Porter is a movement educator who offers classes and workshops in bone alignment. Many of the photographs for this book were taken during her travels around the world.

Product Details

• Paperback: 212 pages
• Publisher: Synergy Books (December 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933538406
• ISBN-13: 978-1933538402
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #745,704 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Permanent solutions for pain and improved comfort, health and performance, November 30, 2006

By 

Raymond Peck "rpeck" (Los Altos, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Ageless Spine, Lasting Health: The Open Secret to Pain-Free Living and Comfortable Aging (Paperback)

I have had back pain for 35 years, and have tried many things that have helped temporarily, including Tai Chi, Rolfing and other massage, Alexander Technique, chiropractic and yoga. All would help for a while but the improvements were temporary, because until I began studying under Jean Couch at the Balance Center in Palo Alto I didn't understand what the core problems were, and how to address them. Now, I am on a course of continuous improvement in my body, and able to sit, walk, lie down in any position and even run now without any pain or discomfort. I've been getting better daily for several years now, and it keeps getting better and better!

The primary lesson is that in the 1920s, flapper fashion brought about a change in posture that was unprecedented in history, and which has continued (and worsened) to this day. As we grow up, we learn these postural changes implicitly and explicitly from the people around us and the images we see in the media and film.

By studying photographs and artworks from before 1920, looking at contemporary indiginous people from around the world, and by studying young children before they begin to take on this cultural posture, we find that natural, comfortable stress-free posture means natural alignment of the body. When the body is aligned with itself and with gravity, we do not need to constantly hold ourselves against gravity. This allows us to move (and be static) with the maximum amount of relaxation possible. Who doesn't want that?

Kathleen Porter's wonderful book brings Jean's teaching to a much wider audience, and provides a terrific introduction to this critical knowledge. The photographs will provide you with a new model of what it is to inhabit your body comfortably, with a comfort, strength and solidity that you may have never imagined.

The information is not esoteric in any way. It is extremely practical, and while it may take years of self-reminders to completely unlearn a lifetime of habitual patterns, you will get immediate results that you can feel every day, and you will be on a path of continuous improvement.

Like the leaning tower of Pisa, when we are misaligned gravity will continue to pull us over. We have a choice to make: either continue our path and be bent to the ground, or go the other direction and align ourselves properly with the earth. The choice is yours: for the rest of your days you're going to either get more bent or more straight.

Nowadays when I meet people who haven't seen me in a few years they are amazed that I am taller, more vigorous, younger-looking and healthier than ever. I tell them that yes, I'm getting younger and younger all the time ;-) and I tell them why. It is my wish that everyone join us on this wonderful journey. Kathleen's book is the perfect beginning. Now it is up to you.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Informative!, February 15, 2007

By 

Shirley Priscilla Johnson "Author/Reviewer -... (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Ageless Spine, Lasting Health: The Open Secret to Pain-Free Living and Comfortable Aging (Paperback)

I have to tell you this book was a real eye-opener in so many ways. The entire concept of this book is to show us how we have fallen into wrong alignment of our body. I know that sounds uninteresting and confusing but believe me this book is neither. Our author, Kathleen Porter, explains the proper alignment our body should be in and how we lost it through the years. She goes into detail of the harm this has done to us and how it has contributed to allowing much pain within us and also the many problems of the bow look as we age, and that is just a few of the many problems improper alignment can bring. She uses words that are easy to understand in her explanations, shows pictures that will blow your mind away and gives us many ways to help our body get back in the correct alignment.

It amazed me in one part of the book where the author shows that a small woman had more strength than a muscle body builder and she explains how and why. I really liked this book and I have been sharing it with my family, several of whom are suffering from back problems. Don't get me wrong, it isn't just about correcting back problems but it's about overall improvement in our health. Give this book a try; I think you will find some incredible information that will definitely enhance your life.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Back Pain and Spinal Alignment, May 23, 2007

By 

Spine Treatment Physician - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ageless Spine, Lasting Health: The Open Secret to Pain-Free Living and Comfortable Aging (Paperback)

Kathleen Porter's book is must reading for anyone suffering from spinal disorders including disk degeneration, disk herniation, or back pain. The book presents a well reasoned, practical approach to an area of fundamental importance that probably does not receive enough attention in research and in treatment of spinal disorders. She provides an approach to reducing stress on the inter-vertebral disks and muscles through alignment of the bones by adopting a natural posture. While there is little scientific data to provide an evidence base for the importance of the approaches that she advocates, the anecdotal evidence and theoretical analysis that Ms. Porter provides with the use of photographs and schematic drawings makes for fascinating reading, and seems sensible and plausible. As a physician working on development of new non-operative treatments for spinal disorders such as disk herniation and low back pain, I would recommend the book to anyone interested in assessing different non-operative approaches to the achievement of improved spine health.