Customer Reviews

High Heels to Hormones: A Woman's Guide to Spine Care

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I really enjoyed acting as an editor on this book. I learned so much!

Christy Lasich, MD, is a smart and compassionate doctor who, as a spine specialist, helps people with their back problems. (She's also quite funny!)

Here's an bit from the book:

"Why do so many women have neck pain? One reason is that women are more susceptible to whiplash injuries. Our vulnerability is not because we are weak and emotional; our vulnerability is actually due to basic structural differences. The primary structures injured during a snapping of the neck are the small joints, called the facet joints. These joints are held together by ligaments and protected by cartilage sandwiched between the bones. The facet joints of women move more during whiplash then do men's, possibly due to the fact that our ligaments are naturally looser (see Baby Machine Section)."

Did you know that? I didn't. This is a fun and highly informative book. If you have back issues (and most of us do) you'll certainly learn some tricks to save your back.

This was a quick-read with concise, professional advice I found useful for my neck and lower back pain. The author hit home with me about cervical spine pain being directly related to "Shyness," (a page title in her book). This is a good book for women of all ages to read because of the preventative care content as well as the self-help for women who already have spinal pain.

I had no idea that spine care and problems could differ by gender, but according to Dr. Christina Lasich, woman got the short end of the stick when it comes to cartilage, and there are several things that we do to hurt our spines. High heels and poorly fitting bras are bad. Drinking milk and armrests on chairs are good. Lasich writes in a chatty straight forward manner making the book an interesting and easy read. She covers each of the major areas of the spine and how they are damaged. Who knew that bending at the waist instead of squatting made our butt muscles weak which in turn can cause back pain? I found myself tightening my stomach and gluts while reading. She includes easy exercises at the end of each chapter to improve back strength and health. The cartoons that accompany each page are amateurish and how they relate to the context isn't always clear.

As a psychologist who's treated hundreds of chronic pain patients over the past twenty years, I've observed patient responses to dozens
of books and other pain self-help materials. Some materials are so overwhelming that pain sufferers don't read them or don't follow through with assignments and recommendations. Others are overly simplistic or unscientific. High Heels to Hormones strikes just the right balance. It's very readable (actually entertaining, with humorous drawings and clever plays on words). But it also is highly credible, based on the author's background as a knowledgable and wise pain-specialist physician and as a back pain sufferer herself. It's also structured in a way that promotes readers' motivation to follow through with exercises and life-style changes, which is very important, as reading alone is not enough. This is a great book that I highly recommend.