Grant Cooper

This book is a solid, well-written volume that addresses alternative methods of treating arthritis beyond the normal routine of prescription medications. While it is mainly focused on osteoarthritis some of the information in it may well be of value to those with other types of arthritis, or even other rheumatologic and inflammatory conditions such as fibromyalgia. Surprisingly for most alternative treatment and "natural medicine" books this one does NOT claim that conventional medical treatment using prescriptions and surgery is completely unnecessary or strictly detrimental, in fact near the end of the book the author explains that at times surgery and drugs may be the best (or even in some cases the ONLY) viable treatment for providing patients with an acceptable quality of life, however he does emphasize the need to be cautious when making those decisions, and to only do so when you are truly informed about the treatments and their expected outcomes - as well as not to forget the basics of nutrition, body mechanics, etc even while pursuing a more traditional medical course. All in all this is a very useful book, that contains a great wealth of information on how to deal with what can be an exceedingly painful and frustrating condition.… (mere)

This book is a great introduction to neck pain both it's causes and some simple exercises that can help alleviate it. It's written by two doctors which to me makes it seem a little more credible than some other books that have been out in the marketplace. It's written so that it's easily understood by the average person and contains some easy to understand charts and pictures. The chapter about the neck had some excellent illustrations to help you understand how the neck works. It also had some excellent pictures in following chapters to demonstrate bad posture positions and also examples of simple exercises you can do to alleviate the problem. This book is targeted for those people who have chronic neck pain that is caused by poor posture and a lack of exercise, but there are sections that are devoted to other types of neck pain (such as those stemming from injuries) but they are very brief. While they did discuss the importance of seeking medical treatment for certain symptoms, I was impressed that they also included a section on alternative treatments for the problem. This book was a pretty quick read but I felt was very imformative. It has some great exercises, charts, diagrams and photographs and as someone who has suffered from neck and back pain for years it gave me some ideas on how I could treat and possibly prevent some of what I've been dealing with.… (mere)