Customer Reviews

Headache in the Pelvis 5th Edition

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

If you have been diagnosed with non-specific prostititis or frequent urination that does not respond to medication, YOU MUST get and read this book. This authoritative volume written by a PHD and MD urologist describes the ground-breaking Stanford Medical Center protocol that has successfully treated many men and women who suffer from pelvic pain syndrome that is often misdiagnosed as a disease or dysfunction of the protstate, bladder, or kidneys.

After years of suffering, I am finally receiving treatment that I am confident will deal with the underlying issues that created the symptoms that 3 urologists, hundreds of pills, and countless tests did not properly address.

I recommend this textbook to any PT who wants to treat male patients with chronic tension myalgia of the pelvis. With the additional inclusion of a chapter on pelvic pain in women and specific descriptions of external and internal soft tissue release techniques, this text is a must-have for PT's new to this form of treatment on this population of patients. Easy enough reading for all healthcare providers and probably most educated non-clinicians.

I read this book and found the information in it very practical and helpful. The techniques for relaxation and reducing stress can help not only for pelvic pain but for all physical pain. I initially read it for a good friend of mine who was experiencing pretty severe pelvic pain but actually found it very helpful for my own situation which is 4th stage metastatic breast cancer to the bones. The techniques discussed in this book especially in the section on "Paradoxical Relaxation" allowed me to learn to relax rather than resist the pain and therefore the pain diminished quite rapidly. What a surprise! I am very grateful to the authors for empowering myself and others. By being given some very simple tools we can have control over our lives again from the debilitating effects of chronic pain.
The friend that I initially read the book for went on to take David Wise's clinic and while not completely gone, his pain is greatly reduced and he continues to use the techniques he learned at the clinic to manage his pain. He too is very grateful. I highly recommend this book.

After having this problem for 3 months, I went from constant pain to very rare occasional slight discomfort in 2.5 Months!!!

I read this book and went to David Wise's seminar- this is pretty much the first step to figuring out the things you need to do get the problem under control. Its a long process and takes training to basically become your own physical therapist, but you learn a lot about your body and how you react to stress, as well as how to really enjoy meditation. The things you learn in this book have become part of my life- I stretch, massage, meditate, etc and its just something I do every day and look forward to.

I know David Wise personally, and I can attest to how sympathetic and generous he is. Any normal person who had solved their pain problem would have then tried to forget about it, block out the back memories, and put those dark years behind them. David Wise, by writing this book and conducting his seminar, is really doing something incredibly generous for the millions of people who have this problem.

Bottom line is that this book is required reading if you have this problem. This book may not be all you need to solve your problem, but for some people just understanding what is going is enough. Others need physical therapy or the seminar, but either way this is the first step.

Knowledge is power and I learned so much from this book. Highly recommend to anyone with this condition who is not familiar with this condition and not know that many men stuggles with this anamolie. Just so you know that I am male & my wife ordered this book for me. I am grateful for this book and for all the information it has provided me.

When I bought this book I was desperate with pain and unable to take prescribed pain medicine.
Urologists and internal medicine doctors are dubious about efficacy of the approach - but you shouldn't be.
It save me and many others. Here's my take. The book has three important aspects: the authors are smart flexible thinkers who were paying attention during their time with patients, they employ trigger point release which is remarkable in it's own right (see Travel & Simons), finally, progressive relaxation was lifted from Edmund Jacobson - a practical genius. You can trust the Stanford protocol.

Folks,

I am one of David's original patients, in the sense that I first saw him in late 2000 before the first edition came out and before he started the clinics. I was living in the bay area at the time and I was able to see him 3 times over the course of about 8 months. Each time he basically just gave me encouragement and feedback as I went through the healing process at my home. Well it's now June 8, 2010 and I'm happy to report that I am still essentially symptom-free. To be honest if I get extremely stressed out over a sustained period my symptoms will creep back a tiny bit but never in 8 years have they retreated to anywhere remotely close to where they were at the peak. I hardly ever think about it anymore and I only do a relaxation lesson occasionally now because I enjoy it. My symptoms used to consume my thoughts all day long and I would comb various forums at work in desperation. I read the 1 star reviews here from people whom the treatment has failed and my heart goes out to you guys but I think it's simply dead wrong to call the protocol a charade. Hardly anything in medicine works 100% of the time for everyone. Based on my own experience I have no reason to doubt the veracity of other positive reviews. It may very well sound cliche or canned to skeptical ears but I can say without hyperbole that this protocol saved my life. At my symptoms' worst I damn near lost my job and had to move back in with my mother. My life is no less stressful at present - in fact I have to deal with more stress than ever - but my symptoms have remained at bay. For myself, the deep relaxation lessons in the morning and at night were the absolutely critical part of the protocol. For over a year I listened to a 35-45 minute lesson in the morning just after waking and another after getting home from work before dinner. Sometimes I did a 15 minute lesson to substitute if pressed for time, but for the most part it was almost 1.5 hours a day. I know this is a very substantial commitment but if it works for you, you will not have to do this for the rest of your life. For myself, I could feel in my bones that I was without any question getting better after about 4 months. For others it might take longer. But when starting out, you have to be religious about it. I've never been to one of his workshops and I was pretty much healed by the time the first book came out, so this review is admittedly over the protocol discussed in the book rather than the book itself. But I can tell you that when you go from absolute misery to feeling 90-100% better, you're going to write a glowing review. It doesn't surprise me that some of the reviews tend to use some of the same phrases. For what it's worth, here is the first review I ever wrote of the book (which isn't up anymore??) I read over it now and I'm aware it may come across like a bit of a sales pitch. But this was from MY pen. There is no conspiracy to defraud people. People *are* getting better from this treatment. I don't hang out on the forums anymore because I've moved on with my life, and I suspect the same is true for other successful participants. Don't be discouraged from the get-go by negative voices if you're just starting out. Good luck. Stay committed. But don't try so hard that you make it worse (you'll know what I mean if you go through it)...

"I suffered from prostatitis/CPPS for 3 years and my life became absolutely miserable. I received 4 different diagnoses from 4 urologists, tried over 20 prescription medications, vitamins and herbs and underwent several very uncomfortable and expensive procedures all of which did hardly anything to help my symptoms which had slowly increased in intensity over time (sound familiar?) Eventually I met one of the authors of the book, David Wise and he taught me the techniques described in the book. Slowly, I began to heal myself, without any medication. Six months later my symptoms were diminished significantly and nine months later I felt I was healed. It is now 2 ½ years after I first started to practice these methods and if feel that I have been freed of this horrific condition. I cannot recommend this book highly enough for those who are still suffering. There are many schools of thought regarding this syndrome and I studied all of the obsessively at one time. I feel very strongly that over the coming years the ideas in this book will eclipse the other models of this disease and come to be recognized as the most powerful methods for dealing with it as more and more people are seen to have solid and long-lasting benefit. Mine is not the last testimonial you will see. I should say however that it is not a simple or a quick solution and requires a lot of devotion, but chances are the end-result will be your freedom. Best of luck, do not abandon hope until you have given these methods your most sincere effort."

I am sharing my story to you hoping that you will benefit from my experience. I believe that this book is great if you can establish that the main culprit causing your problem is the pelvic floor muscles. Now remember that there is no secret in this technique, just go to a pelvic floor physio therapist as these guys are very experienced in dealing with tight pelvic floor muscles. If your pelvic floor muscles are tight, you will know during the rectal examination because the insertion of the fingure into the rectum should not be painful at all.

I believe this book is great if you have established that your symptoms is indeed caused by the pelvic floor muscles BUT you will notice that David Wise does not tell you about how he recovered from his ailment. I am not saying that David Wise is being untruthful at all but I am saying that he skirts around the issue without covering one of the root causes. He fails to mention one of the missing core causes of the symptoms. I believe if you have the symptoms mentioned in the book the area you should look at include:

1. Pelvic Floor (mentioned in the book)
2. Bacteria infection (mentioned in the book) or any other pathological reasons e.g. stones in uretha.
3. Mental fixation with the pelvic area after going through an operation or due to some sort of anxiety disorder, guilt related due to pornography / extra marital affairs (Not Mentioned in the book).


Through a process of elimination, I discovered that I suffered from number 3. I suffered them all tip of the penis pain, sharp pain under scrotum, urinary frequency, sleep deprivation etc. Af first I could not believe that my mind could be doing this to me until I noticed specific patterns:

1. The symptoms eased during weekends.
2. Symptoms dissappeared when I am with friends and relaxed.
3. It got me only at certain times of the day especially when I am at work.
4. Symptoms also eased when I was at the doctors.
5. New Symptoms start to mirror frightening testimonies I have read in the book.

I will advise you to not panic the next episode of symptoms arise but sit back and try to observe if they are any patterns which have developed.

These patterns gave me a clue but it wasn't until I was prescribed some mild anti-depressants (ENDEP 25mg) that all the pain dissappeared until I really believed that I was the main culprit behind my subconscious. After ongoing pyschological coaching I was able to break free within 2.5 weeks of this ailment. I went through hell and thought I was going to lose everything for a period of 3 months.

Here is my advise for you:

1. Don't search the web for advise as this will heighten your catastrophic thinking..soon you will start to believe that you have some sort of nerve disease or MS.
2. If you have established that your Pelvic muscle is not tight. I would advise putting this book away as again it will feed your mind with more ideas. The stretches are good but again does not address the core issue. Of course your muscles around your entire pelvic muscles are painful if you have been sub-consciously tightened them.
3. Team up with a good GP and psychologist. You will be out of hell shortly if you keep it simple (don't think too much), stay positive and stay focused.
4. I forgot to mention that positive and affirming prayer also work but the 2 killer punches for me have been ENDEP 25 mg and a good psychologist to coach you.


In conclusion, I believe the book does give us brilliant clues to execute a recovery strategy which involves a doctor, psychologist and maybe a physiotherapist. It just doesn't say what the third category is. I really do not believe that there is a secret incurable nerve disease. If you read the book, you will notice a common thread among sufferers and the root cause is always anxiety and fear driven. You don't have to go to California for treatment. Use the resources around you to establish the root cause of the problem first because you won't find progress until you have a baseline to work off. You have to seek the truth to what is causing your symptoms but you cannot do this alone. You need to seek people who are experienced to help you seek the root cause.

My husband struggled with chronic pelvic pain for three years and bounced from doctor to doctor before finding this book. The book spoke directly to his symptoms and condition, and he was greatly encouraged just by reading it. He subsequently went to the seminar clinic in California and had a great experience there. Using the tools described in the book and taught in the clinic, he was able to free himself from this distressing condition. Before finding this book, my husband's physical condition and anxiety and depression had taken him into a very dark place. It was upon finding this book and heading in this direction that turned his life around. I recommend this book to anyone suffering from pelvic pain symptoms and any loved ones of those suffering from pelvic pain related symptoms.

This is an incredible book! It was the first information about pelvic pain and it's treatment that seemed to be written just for me. If you have been suffering from pelvic pain this is a MUST READ. I can't say enough about it. It has turned my life around!