“Veteran journalist Ramin (Carved in Sand) spent six years researching her latest topic, conducting 600 interviews for this comprehensive investigation. She also personally explored a number of back-pain solutions—as human lab rat, the author took notes while being examined in her underwear (a first, she observes, “in over three decades as an investigative reporter”) and observed disc surgery while cloaked in scrubs. Although she experienced chronic back pain herself, her personal story isn’t shared until chapter 10; the book’s first half is instead a riveting exposé of the back-pain industry, critiquing such common treatments as lumbar spinal fusion, epidural spinal injections, and opioid prescription. Though Ramin asserts that she knew very little about the back-pain industry when she began her research, she soon realized that she was delving into a checkered subject with “twists, turns and corrupt characters” worthy of a Le Carré novel. Ramin offers two approaches to her text: readers may begin with a chronological study of various medical techniques and their efficacy (or lack thereof), or they may jump into part two (“Solutions”) first, where they will encounter a much more optimistic exploration of back rehabilitation, exercise, Iyengar yoga, tai chi, and other nonoperative approaches. This book will be of particular interest to back-pain sufferers and health care professionals.”
Booklist
Booklist
“[A] thoroughly reported first-person take on the back-pain industry . . . Buyer beware! This cautionary book ends on a high note with the once-hobbled-by-back-pain author standing up straight and hiking a 13,000-foot trail in the Peruvian Andes.”
Miranda Esmonde-White
author of the New York Times bestseller Forever Painless
Miranda Esmonde-White author of the New York Times bestseller Forever Painless
“Crooked is a well-researched and fascinating read detailing the heart-wrenching experience so common to millions of back pain sufferers. Jakobson Ramin exposes the devastating financial and emotional cost of back pain—she herself went through the many medical options presented to patients, from surgery to opioid medication to the many varieties of manual therapy. Ultimately, her in-depth research lights the way to a better path for healing.”
Paul A. Offit, MD
author of Pandora’s Lab: Seven Stories of Science Gone Wrong
Paul A. Offit, MD author of Pandora’s Lab: Seven Stories of Science Gone Wrong
“In Crooked, Cathryn Jakobson Ramin offers a thoughtful and heartfelt way through the maze of painkillers, hot packs, electrical stimulation, ultrasound, laser therapy, chiropractors, miracle balms, massage balls, steroid injections, physical therapy, and spinal surgeries used to treat one of humankind’s most debilitating disorders—chronic back pain. A remarkable guide from someone who unfortunately had to make the journey, and found her way out.”
Vijay Vad, MD
sports medicine specialist at the Hospital for Special Surgery, and author of Back RX
Vijay Vad, MD sports medicine specialist at the Hospital for Special Surgery, and author of Back RX
“I see back pain patients who have undergone invasive procedures before they go through evidence-based rehabilitation. In a most engaging way, Cathryn Jakobson Ramin tells it like it is. Whether you’re a patient, a physician, or a public policy wonk, you should read this book.”
Jonathan Cohn
author of Sick: The Untold Story of America’s Health Care Crisis—and the People Who Pay the Price
Jonathan Cohn author of Sick: The Untold Story of America’s Health Care Crisis—and the People Who Pay the Price
“Cathryn Jakobson Ramin has written a riveting and disturbing account of a sector of American medicine that’s gone very wrong, and it’s even more powerful because the story at the center of the book is her own. Politics, science, history—it’s all in there, along with concrete advice for fellow sufferers. Policymakers can learn from this book, and patients can, too.”