published 8/18/07, updated 12/31/08
Does “Lose the Back Pain” Actually Help Low Back Pain?
A review of the popular low back pain treatment system
by Paul Ingraham, Vancouver, Canada MOREclose
Credentials and qualifications
I am a writer and retired Registered Massage Therapist (unusually well-trained for a massage therapist, a 3000-hour program). I’m almost done with a Bachelor of Health Sciences degree. I am a peer reviewer for The Natural Standard, and a copyeditor for Science-Based Medicine. My most important qualification is more than a decade of workaholic post-graduate study, clinical experience, and constant conversations with readers from around the world, including many experts who have provided countless suggestions and criticisms.
For more information, see: Who Am I to Say? More information about my qualifications, credentials and professional experiences for my readers and customers.
Credentials and qualifications
I am a writer and retired Registered Massage Therapist (unusually well-trained for a massage therapist, a 3000-hour program). I’m almost done with a Bachelor of Health Sciences degree. I am a peer reviewer for The Natural Standard, and a copyeditor for Science-Based Medicine. My most important qualification is more than a decade of workaholic post-graduate study, clinical experience, and constant conversations with readers from around the world, including many experts who have provided countless suggestions and criticisms.
For more information, see: Who Am I to Say? More information about my qualifications, credentials and professional experiences for my readers and customers.
“Lose the Back Pain” is a prominent low back pain treatment program marketed with infomercial-style advertising. Many or most people who have searched the internet for information about low back pain come across this product. See www.losethebackpain.com.
Conflict of interest?
Definitely! This product is a direct competitor to my own for-sale tutorial about low back pain. I am happy to acknowledge this blatant conflict of interest for three reasons:
- “Lose the Back Pain” promises a cure for low back pain, and I do not.
- “Lose the Back Pain” does not cite scientific evidence to support ideas about low back pain, and I do.
- Revealing my bias is simply the ethical thing to do, even if it hurts the credibility of my review.
“Lose the Low Back Pain” is poorly presented
The “Lose the Back Pain” product is a poorly produced DVD/book/CD combo. I first saw them when a patient of mine brought them to an appointment for show and tell. He’d paid about $100 for it online, and was curious to know what I thought.
I give it a C- for presentation. They have nice covers, but the content between them is not of good quality. The writing and typesetting are amateurish. The book is photocopied and spiral bound, and many of the pictures are unclear. The DVD has blurry text, stilted narration, and skimps on information. The patients who recorded testimonials were more animated and persuasive than the main presenters.
But … nice covers!
An amusing error: lose the shirt
As a final example of the technical weakness of the product, I was particularly amused by the “self-assessment procedure” as shown on the DVD, which requires patients to assess the curvature of their back by having photographs taken of themselves.
The demonstration model is wearing a loose T-shirt that fully obscures his lumbar curvature!
According to the narration, lumbar curvature is the most important factor in diagnosing the One True Cause of low back pain … but they hide it under a T-shirt.
Lose the Back Pain is sold with aggressive marketing
When my patient brought me the product, he said:
“Yeah, these guys really have a system. An email every few hours. Some kind of automatic thing. I know they were selling me hard, and I don’t normally respond to that, but I was really desperate.”
Another customer who subscribed to receive free information from them last year told me that he has received an email from them “every single day, ever since.” I’ve received many other similar reports.
The marketing for this product is sophisticated and savvy, a masterpiece of a well-known breed: a pitch-perfect “long copy” sales letter, crammed with hard-selling tactics. It’s about 50 screenfuls of selling, selling, selling. If you give them your email address, they use a technique called “autoresponding” — a long series of emails is automatically delivered to you on a schedule.
What is “long copy”? It’s a classic sales letter format, the written equivalent of an infomercial. It strongly emphasizes product features and benefits, testimonials, and money-back guarantees. The format was stagnating in the 80s and 90s, but has enjoyed something of a renaissance on the internet.
In their defense, please note that aggressive selling is not necessarily unethical. A good case can be made that there’s no point in having good information if you can’t “get the word out.” However, this style of advertising is also often associated with poor quality products.
Lose the back pain is based on an obsolete theory
I disagree with the main theory of back pain presented “Lose the Back Pain.”
Their treatment system is based on a single and simple biomechanical theory of “muscle imbalance” as the root cause of most back pain. It is presented as though it is revolutionary and modern, when in fact it is an old idea — and not a very good one in my opinion. Conventional physical therapy is infamously ineffective at treating low back pain, and yet it routinely uses the same revolutionary concepts taught in “Lose the Back Pain.” New back pain patients in my office routinely describe being given a theory like this by physiotherapists, chiropractors and massage therapists — it is practically a cliché!
“Lose the Back Pain” portrays normal low back pain curvatures as painfully dysfunctional, placing all back pain patients in one of two categories — either curved too much one way, or curved too far the other. This kind of attractively straightforward explanation for any painful problem is just exactly what desperate patients love to hear, love to believe, and love to tell people at the office the next day.
Such simple biomechanical theories about back pain are thoroughly analyzed and mostly debunked in my own tutorial. Citing the extensive scientific evidence, I clearly show that there is no compelling connection between poor posture and back pain. There undoubtedly are connections between posture problems and low back pain problems — but nothing that can be relied upon as a basis for the One True Back Pain Therapy!
Lose the Low Back Pain is too good to be true
Unfortunately, the authors of “Lose the Low Back Pain” also claim that most back pain and sciatica will disappear “within hours or days” if you follow their program.
This is unlikely to actually happen, in my opinion. Even if “muscle imbalance” were the only clinically significant phenomenon in low back pain, it wouldn’t be possible to change it with “a few simple exercises” in weeks or months, let alone hours or days.
Claims like this have been contradicted for decades by medical back pain experts, researchers who know the entire field of scientific evidence inside out, and respected clinicians with decades of practical experience with every possible kind of back pain. These are the kinds of experts that I personally respect (and refer to everywhere on this website).
I can find no sign of references to those experts anywhere in the Lose The Back Pain product or promotional materials.
What accounts for the testimonials?
There are many dozens of testimonials included in the marketing materials and the actual product. That is a lot of enthusiastic people. Where do they come from?
Bear in mind that ancedotes and testimonials are the lowest form of evidence. Scientists and legal experts have come to understand over the centuries that nothing is less reliable than human testimony. It’s a sad truth that many historical snake oils — remedies long since proven to be useless or harmful — have always had plenty of testimonials!
Anecdotes and testimonials are the lowest form of evidence.
“Lose the Low Back Pain” may be generating testimonials in many ways without being effective. Most obviously in this case, through placebo and wishful thinking created by the emotional high of hearing a lot of exciting promises and superficially appealing explanations. By portraying the “muscle imbalance” idea as a sophisticated alternative therapy, people may be flattered into believing that they have stumbled on a source of information that is particularly special and excellent. Once they believe that, the desire to be counted among all those “in the know” is quite potent … and a great engine for a powerful placebo effect. And if you think placebo can’t do that, think again: the scientific evidence is overwhelming that placebo and is a powerful force in low back pain. Much more than any known physical therapy, in fact!
The desire to be counted among all those “in the know” is quite potent.
I am sure that many of the people who offered testimonials really did feel better, at least at the time that they made the testimonial. But unfortunately this does not say much about the truth value of the claims made.
No medical credentials or references to scientific literature
“Lose the Back Pain” was created by a massage therapist, Steven Hefferon and fitness trainer, Jesse Cannone. Hefferon is a “Certified Massage Therapist,” an American certification that involves much less training than any physician, chiropractor or physiotherapist. Fitness trainers are not health care professionals, and should never give advice on medical problems.
Credentials are not everything, and I would never hold that fact alone against the creators of “Lose the Back Pain.” My own credentials are not impressive, and I know it and acknowledge it openly.
But when an author lacks good credentials, he or she must compensate for this by diligently referencing actual experts. Hefferon and Cannone do not do this.
As far as I can tell, there are no direct references to peer-reviewed scientific research anywhere on the website or in the product.
The verdict
“Lose the Back Pain” does not have much to offer: poor quality printing and video, a central idea that clashes with many expert opinions and my own, and a promise that is probably too good to be true.
Was this useful for you?
There is a backlash against the worst excesses of alternative medicine. People are tired of being told what they want to hear. If you’ve read this far, you probably agree! If you think I’ve offered a rational, useful and interesting perspective, then please consider spending your money on my own carefully researched, evidence-based tutorial about low back pain.
Save Yourself from Low Back Pain!
$1995