The Pain Solution: 5 Steps to Relieve and Prevent Back Pain, Muscle Pain, and Joint Pain without Medication

I thought the book was a great summary of lifestyle choices we make that impact our health. There is a lot of information and good suggestions for each topic (basically diet, sleep, exercise, stress management, and relationships). All of the suggestions cannot be implemented at once but the graphs and charts at the end of each chapter make it easy to choose a few things to get started with.

I am very fortunate to be a patient of Dr Sharma. I love how her gentle bedside manner and sense of humor shine through in this book. Reading it is like having an honest conversation with a smart friend who tells you the things you already know (eat better, get more exercise) but this is different…Dr Sharma takes each step and breaks it down to make it very easy to add her tips to your life right away for increased health in both the short and longterm.

This book breaks down in to baby steps how to increase your quality of life! Super easy to understand and implement. Thank you for your wonderful insight and care!

The Pain Solution, by Saloni Sharma is full of the kind of wisdom that we have largely forgotten. The book's central message is based around five tenets that our grandmothers probably exhorted us to follow. Each chapter focuses on one of these tenets and goes into why it's important, what are the consequences, and how to do it. The book also has some really great testimonials to following this advice, which I very much enjoyed reading.The five tenets are simple but devastatingly effective. I am summarizing them here, according to how I interpreted them.1. Eat sensibly- It's a sad state of our world that most of us don't know what and when to eat anymore. Dr. Sharma breaks it down clearly and thoughtfully. She asks us to look at the ingredients and food labels when we go shopping and stay away from labels that have a lot of words that don't look like food. She suggests fresh, in-season, unprocessed, without preservatives and without excessive sugar foods.2. Sleep regularly- Dr. Sharma gives advice and tools about how to achieve 7-9 hours of sleep a night and why it's important.3. Exercise- Dr. Sharma isn't telling us to go run a 5K. She does, however, tell us to move daily- go for walks, do some yoga, stretch, and try to maintain some activity daily.4. Connect- Isn't it strange that we would need to be told to go spend time with loved ones? Are we really that busy that we cannot cultivate relationships? Dr. Sharma tell us that there is a lot of science behind making connections with each other, doing things in our communities, with our friends and family.5. Refresh- this is probably the hardest one. Dr. Sharma actually doesn't tell us to meditate (because some of us cannot), but rather to do things that will help to reduce the stresses we have. Stress has a corporeal effect, anxiety, tension, sadness can all cause inflammation, which leads to pain and suffering. Dr. Sharma suggests we learn what are our triggers, and to pursue antidotes to those - like spending time in nature, going for walks, dancing, talking to a good friend, etc. Yoga and meditate have a place in all this, but they are part of a toolkit.In summary, Dr. Sharma's book is full of excellent advice and tangible strategies to live a good life.

From someone who suffers from arthritic pain from autoimmune disease, this book gave a refreshing and achievable step wise approach to improving my health holistically. Each information nugget is backed by scientific evidence. I felt like this book was written FOR ME - it is so hard to change habits when you live with chronic pain because it eats into every aspect of your life. Dr Sharma reinforces that even a tiny small step in the right direction has benefits, and it gave me the insight to implement many small changes this fall knowing the short term and long term benefits for me and my family. After years, I feel like I really CAN do it. I have cut out processed food where I can, I have started meal planning based on my work schedule, and started to walk more. I re-emphasize what I’ve learned from this book to my family to hopefully make long lasting change. I read the book several weeks ago, and I’ve found I’ve remembered a lot of the information it contains because of the stepwise approach.The book itself is light and not too big so it’s easier to hold (for people with arthritic hand pain) and has a nice size print on good paper so it’s easy to read.I highly recommend this book for people who are exploring lifestyle changes to improving their health. This type of education should be on public school curriculums!

As a mother and teacher, I am always putting others first and myself last. The effect of this neglect is beginning to show itself. Additionally, I was recently diagnosed with an autoimmune condition. I am already on a number of medicines, and I do not want to take more if I can avoid it. A friend recommended this book on how to be healthy in body and mind without more meds; it is a reminder that caring for myself is within my reach. Unlike so many books focusing on mind-body connections, this book focuses on microboosts—small and manageable ways to incorporate better nutrition, physical activity, mental health, and human connection. All these things synergize to reduce inflammation and therefore improve health. I always knew that pursuing such healthy body and mind remedies made me feel more content. What I did not realize is that scientifically they are altering my body to improve my health.Now, instead of feeling depleted by my diagnosis I am feeling empowered with knowledge of manageable microboosts that I can realistically attain to make myself healthier. In turn, I will also be more joyful as my body will be stronger, my mindset more positive, and my relationships more edifying.I read the book from cover to cover, but I am going to keep it close to I can grab it whenever I need a little bit of a boost to treat myself better. Thank you, Dr. Sharma!