Heal Pelvic Pain: The Proven Stretching, Strengthening, and Nutrition Program for Relieving Pain, Incontinence,& I.B.S, and Other Symptoms Without Surgery [Paperback]

Amy Stein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 6, 2008

Bronze Medal Winner of a 2009 National Health Information Award

Stop your pelvic pain . . . naturally!

If you suffer from an agonizing and emotionally stressful pelvic floor disorder, including pelvic pain, irritable bowel syndrome, endometriosis, prostatitis, incontinence, or discomfort during sex, urination, or bowel movements, it's time to alleviate your symptoms and start healing--without drugs or surgery. Natural cures, in the form of exercise, nutrition, massage, and self-care therapy, focus on the underlying cause of your pain, heal your condition, and stop your pain forever.

The life-changing plan in this book gets to the root of your disorder with:

• A stretching, muscle-strengthening, and massage program you can do at home
• Guidelines on foods that will ease your discomfort
• Suggestions for stress- and pain-reducing home spa treatments
• Exercises for building core strength and enhancing sexual pleasure

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Amy Stein is the founder and premier practitioner of Beyond Basics Physical Therapy in New York City, specializing in pelvic floor dysfunction, pelvic pain, and manual therapy for men, women, and children. A well-recognized expert in her field, she lectures nationwide and has been interviewed for NBC, the New York Daily News, and www.ourgyn.com. Amy is a contributor to the medical textbook Female Sexual Pain Disorders: Evaluation and Management, and she serves on the board of the International Pelvic Pain Society. She lives in New York City.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (August 6, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071546561
• ISBN-13: 978-0071546560
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #13,687 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #24 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Aging > Chronic Pain
  • #33 in Books > Medical Books > Allied Health Professions > Physical Therapy
  • #49 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Exercise & Fitness > Injuries & Rehabilitation

More About the Author

CONTACT INFORMATION: Amy Stein, MPT, BCIA-PMDB; phone #[phone]
Beyond Basics Physical Therapy, LLC; 1560 Broadway Suite #311 NY, NY 10036
www.beyondbasicsphysicaltherapy.com
AUTHOR of HEAL PELVIC PAIN (www.healpelvicpain.com)
Board Member, International Pelvic Pain Society;


Amy Stein is the founder and premier practitioner of Beyond Basics Physical Therapy in New York City, specializing in pelvic floor dysfunction, pelvic pain, and manual therapy for men, women, and children while taking a holistic approach to each patient's entire well-being. She is a well recognized expert in her field, lectures nationwide, and has been interviewed in media outlets ranging from the medical segments of popular news shows on television to such newspapers as the New York Daily News to internet sites like www.ourgyn.com. Amy is a contributor to the medical textbook, Female Sexual Pain Disorders: Evaluation and Management, and serves on the board of the International Pelvic Pain Society. She lives in New York City.
HEAL PELVIC PAIN offers readers relief and recovery for this illness through a program of strengthening, stretching and relaxation exercises, massage techniques, nutritional basics and self-care therapies. The book addresses the various pelvic floor disorders, including pain, irritable bowel syndrome, endometriosis, incontinence, non-bacterial prostatitis, or discomfort during sex--without drugs or surgery.
The book also provides valuable information that addresses:
* The pelvic floor and its importance in urinary, bowel and sexual function
* How pelvic floor dysfunction can be mistaken for many other things
* A program that can ease pain, bladder, bowel and/or sexual dysfunction without surgery
* How to relieve pain in an intimate area
* Enhancing ones sex life well into the elderly years
* The effect this malady has on men, women and children and during and after pregnancy
* A muscle-strengthening regimen that boosts sexual pleasure, eliminates incontinence, increases the bodies' core strength and pelvic stability.
* Guidelines on foods and beverages that ease your discomfort, and assist in bladder and bowel disorders
* Suggestions for stress- and pain-reducing home spa treatments
* Patient testimonials
* Resource guide

The reader will participate in a "symptoms monitor" to track his or her symptoms and how it affects their daily life. As the reader goes through the exercise and treatment recommendations, he or she can track their improvement and progress according to their symptoms monitor.
The book provides 2 different programs consisting of various exercises. Chapter 3 focuses on all the various pain syndromes related to urinary, bowel or sexual dysfunction, including IC, IBS, urinary and/or bowel frequency, urgency or retention, pudendal neuralgia, prostatitis, endometriosis, PID and more. Chapter 4 addresses pelvic floor muscle weakness and incoordination resulting in incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse and/or decreased sexual response. The book is comprehensive but easy to read. It is a great resource for healthcare providers and for those that suffer.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good if you're starting from zero, May 29, 2009

By 

May V. Ray (Mogollon, NM) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Heal Pelvic Pain: The Proven Stretching, Strengthening, and Nutrition Program for Relieving Pain, Incontinence,& I.B.S, and Other Symptoms Without Surgery (Paperback)

This book came to me via a recommendation from my urologist and physical therapist, neither of who have actually read it. I've been dealing with chronic pain for about 20 years, and in that time, I've done a lot to educate myself. As a result, I already knew much of what I found in the book. If the reader has recently been diagnosed and knows little or nothing about pelvic pain, the book could prove to be insightful.

The first couple of chapters are excellent. Amy Stein does a good job of explaining what pelvic pain is, which conditions make up pelvic pain syndromes, and how the conditions feed off of each other to create even more problems such as shortened muscle structures, spasms, and pain. It all makes sense, and I've never found such a concise yet comprehensive explanation of this type of pain.

I think it's ambitious, though, to say that following the plan in the book will heal pelvic pain. It might diminish the pain and bring some relief, but healing is something else all together. The exercise plan is made up of exercises I have done for many years, and yet, my pain has never improved. The book claims to include nutritional advice, but it is scant information, at best.

Stein's book relies heavily on exercise as the course to healing, but I know many people who have not found relief this way, myself among them. Reading further and doing some calculating, Stein's plan requires the patient to exercise at least 90 minutes a day in order to get in all of the stretching and strengthening exercises, plus an hour of cardio. Frankly, I don't believe that is realistic. Do people with normal lives really have 90 minutes or more for daily exercise, plus an additional 30 minutes or more for meditation? Don't they work or have families?

With the exception of the helpful information in the first two chapters, a lot of the non-exercise related information is very general and superficial in scope. As for the exercise chapters, you could benefit just as much from exercising with a yoga DVD of the gentle/restorative or pregnancy genre.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Help for Pelvic Pain, October 26, 2008

By 

Blue Rose (Liverpool, NY USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Heal Pelvic Pain: The Proven Stretching, Strengthening, and Nutrition Program for Relieving Pain, Incontinence,& I.B.S, and Other Symptoms Without Surgery (Paperback)

This is a great self-help book to heal pelvic pain. The introduction to the pelvic floor musculature with simple diagrams is easy to follow and understand. She describes many disorders that are the result of weakened and dysfunctional muscles, nerves and tendons of the pelvis. A questionnaire starts off the self-help section that is completed monthly to monitor progress and determine whether you are ready to move on to the next section(s) in the book. The stretching chapter in the book provides easy to follow directions and pictures followed by strengthening chapters. A chapter on self massage was also easy to follow. The chapter on nutrition was very basic but a good primer. It was nice to read a book that addresses sexual dysfunction and the importance of sex in our relationships in a professional manner. I highly recommend this book to anyone trying to heal pelvic floor dysfunctions such as urinary incontinence, painful intercourse, irritable bowel syndrome, constipation, fecal incontinence, urinary urgency, to name just a few examples.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Trigger point therapist loves this book, September 26, 2008

By 

Erika Bourne, RN "Erika Waly Bourne, RN, CMTPT" (Massachusetts, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Heal Pelvic Pain: The Proven Stretching, Strengthening, and Nutrition Program for Relieving Pain, Incontinence,& I.B.S, and Other Symptoms Without Surgery (Paperback)

I am a myofascial trigger point therapist who works with many pelvic pain patients. This book is a wonderful primer for patients suffering from pelvic pain. It explains why people get pelvic pain and how tight muscles are a major culprit. The book gives easy to understand instructions of self treatment options. It talks about other things that affect pain such as nutrition and stress. I will be recommending this book to my pelvic pain patients from now on. Erika Bourne, RN, CMTPT.