Dr. Patrick Roth pens book 'The End of Back Pain'

His new book may be titled "The End of Back Pain," but Dr. Patrick Roth, chairman of neurosurgery at Hackensack University Medical Center, said that his prescription has much more to do with managing it.

"Poll the people at any place in the world, at any time," he said, "and the percentages will be the same: 20 percent will have back pain at that moment, 40 percent have had it in the last year, and 80 percent have had it over the course of a lifetime. And that's not going to change."

So why buy his book?

Because even if you can't eliminate that dreadful discomfort that can make walking, standing, sitting and lying down difficult, you can manage it effectively — as long as you're willing to give his method a shot, Roth said.

"There's a big difference between treating a disease and building health," he said. "This is about building health. People come to me and say, 'Take away my pain.' But there's a better way."

That "better way" relies on about a dozen exercises that, when done in a progressively more difficult workout, should reduce the frequency, duration, and intensity of the participant's back pain.

Roth's program requires a kettlebell (a piece of equipment that looks like a cannonball with a handle) and a Swiss ball, and can be done as easily in a living room as in a gym, he said.

"What's beautiful about a kettlebell is the convenience. They take up no room, and you can literally put it in a closet."

All of the exercises, from the cat stretch and back twist to the kettlebell squat and Turkish get-up, aim to strengthen each part of a person's core, including the smaller muscles of the back that are often neglected in traditional routines, Roth said.

"Everyone will do sit-ups, but they won't work the back muscles. And that's the key. It's the muscles that you don't see that are the most important part of mitigating back pain."

It has worked for him. With two herniated disks and a stress fracture in his L5 vertebrae, thanks to his high school football days, he practices what he preaches. "I went through it. I lived it. My whole life has been back pain," he said.

Roth's ideas might not be for everyone: His advice to work out even when in pain will turn some off, and his opinion that back surgery is "terribly overdone" because it's profitable for the surgeons will likely raise hackles. But he argues that most patients who get surgery don't need it, and could, with a little work, take control of the pain themselves.

"You have to try it," he said. "People don't feel confident that they can do it on their own, but they can."

Email: janoski@northjersey.com

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