Excerpt from a letter by Valerie Andrews
San Rafael, California, April 29th 2005

Thank you so much for your wonderful DVD. My husband and I are lapsed athletes now suffering from neck, shoulder, back and hip pain. We are in our mid-50s and found your presentation so very helpful and inspiring. I was thrilled to see you so flexible and your radiance and open spirit will now be with me every day, as I follow these exercises. It's also wonderful that you have given us a DOABLE time frame. Who can fail to take 20-30 minutes out of a day for all of this?? Your husband's story is remarkable, and gives us hope for our lesser problems which we, too, have been putting down to "age." As a journalist and writer, I want to tell you what an engaging tape you've made.

Excerpt from a letter from Pierrette Abel
Quebec

I've had your videotape for a year now and have been doing the stretching intensively. My back and knee pain are now just a bad memory.

Stay flexible in mind and body
From "Hippocrates News", Vol.15, no.4

At the age of 75, Jack England is at his peak. Whereas people of similar age enjoy a quiet game of bridge or bingo, Jack water-skis, on his head! His lust for life has found the perfect outlet in his chosen career: fitness instructor at Club Med.

"Years ago I fractured my back in an aircraft in the Korean War and I lost a year out of my life, in and out of hospitals. When I was 50 years old, someone took me to a yoga class and I didn't know Yoga from yoghurt. I couldn't do anything. Six months later, one hour a day, I was in a complete "splits", front and side and my feet up to the back of my head. It changed my life and now I have the flexibility of a child."

Excerpt from a letter from Monique
Belgium

Thanks to you, my life has changed completely. Since September 2001, I've been doing your 30 exercises every day.

Since the age of 13, that is, for the last 50 years or so, I was undergoing treatment for my back and my joints. It was impossible for me to get undressed or do my hair without help. I was unable to walk for more than 20 minutes. Any longer and I'd have to lie down on a bench or directly on the ground, in order to relax my hips. Not to mention the stiff neck and pinched nerves, etc.! That's all over now. I feel really good and enjoy hikes of 5 km, and sometimes longer.

Stop Back Pain Instantly: Stretch Those Strained Muscles
From "Prevention", July 1999

Stretching - that thing you may do involuntarily when you wake up every morning - can directly relieve the back pain that emanates from strained or sore muscles, says Art Brownstein, MD, author of Healing Back Pain Naturally (Harbor Press, 1998) and assistant clinical professor of medicine at the University of Hawaii in Manoa.
Stretching elongates muscle tissues improves blood flow, and speeds delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the back. It also helps decompress the vertebrae (the 24 movable bones that make up your spine)m which press on disks, the cushionlike pads between them.
Remember to breathe deeply and fully, adds Dr Brownstein. "Your breath is the link between your mind and body," he says. "When you're mentally agitated and upset, you can not get enough oxygen. When you breathe slowly and deeply, your mind calms down, your nerves calm down, and your muscles stop contracting and start to lengthen. With this, blood flow is restored, and healing can occur."

Your achin' back
New thoughts on easing the pain and hastening healing
By Joannie Schrof Fischer
In "U.S.News & World Report", October 11, 1999

About 4 out of 5 people will fall victim at least once in their lives to the relentless dull aches, the searing flames, and the stabbing throbs that assault the body's complex "other side". And although back pain is usually no more serious than the common cold, it can be as debilitating as a heart attack. It is the leading cause of lost workdays among people younger that 45 and the reason $50 billion a year is spent on diagnosis and treatment.
Now, though, the collective moans and groans of a society unwilling to tolerate pain are prodding government officials and scientists to devote more energy to solving the mysteries of the back and to finding lasting relief.
Much of the advice focuses on getting moving despite back pain - waling around at work, exercising as much as possible, and even using the back to help it to heal.
The back works so hard through just about every life activity that it can seem impossible to know whether to blame damage on poor posture, stress, "couch potato" habits, weekend athlete syndrome, or something else entirely. But research offers at least a clue, and the worst culprit is modern life. Sitting too much, for instance, leads to far more back pain than does heavy lifting. Some research finds especially high rates of back pain among truckers and others who drive for a living, and epidemiological studies show that as office work has replaced heavy labour, more people have complained about their backs.
For decades, doctors have sent patients with back pain to bed with strict orders to stay there for at least a week. Early logic had it that, just like a broken bone, an injured back should not be used until it has healed. But now, doctors say the key to the fastest recovery is to stay out of bed as much as possible. That's because little-used muscles and other tissues weaken so quickly that just a few days of inactivity can be harmful.
In fact, the more scientists study exercise, the more powerfully they prescribe it.
A combination of stretching, strengthening, and aerobic exercises probably does the most good for back pain, for a myriad of reasons. Active muscles rebuild themselves more quickly, and because spinal disks don't contain blood vessels, they rely on the body's movement to bring healing nutrients their way. Exercise also sends natural painkillers flowing through the body.
A key in using exercise to hasten relief is to distinguish hurt from harm. The pain could get worse while a back sufferer exercises, but that does not mean the activity is dangerous. One way to judge the nature of the pain, says New York orthopaedic surgeon Russell Windsor, is to see whether it is possible to distract oneself from the pain for even a few moments. If so, patients should keep trying to walk, climb a few stairs, or stretch. If not, they should rest and try again soon.
Relaxation techniques such as massage, yoga, and meditation probably do some good for back pain, for at least two reasons. First, say researchers, people in a state of stress hold their muscles in a tightened position, which reduces blood flow, cuts off oxygen and builds up painful waste products, and can lock muscles in a constricted spasm. Second, many people can remain unaware of their body position or pains for hours as tey concentrate during the workday; relaxation courses can teach them to heed signals from their body before too much damage is done.
For 99 out of 100 back pain sufferer, surgery in not even an option.