HOW TO CARE FOR YOUR BACK: The Newest, Most Up-to-Date Book on Preventing and Curing Back Pain

Another basic back care guide--which suffers, however, from having been written by a physician (and sounding like it, too). Keim, an orthopedic surgeon at New York's Presbyterian Hospital, properly emphasizes healthful living habits, especially exercise; but he keeps forgetting his readers. He is good on body-structure, the causes of problems (stress, chiefly--but also trauma and circulatory diseases), and the forms of treatment--not just pharmacological and surgical, but chiropractic and acupuncture as well. His preventive exercise program, however, is curiously reminiscent of school gym (Jumping jacks, toe touches, push-ups, sit-ups, running in place); and his PREs--pain-relieving exercises--are routine. But Keim's biggest problem is that, since other guides are available, readers can easily avoid the medical-lecture tone (""most hysterical patients are females who are greatly agitated and unable to deal with the stress under which they have been placed""; ""the physician should suspect hysteria when . . .""). And some of his physician-finding advice (regular attendance at ""meetings of the county and medical societies""?) surely reflects a bygone era. Far better, overall: The No More Back Trouble Book (1980), edited by Edith Rudinger, or, for specifics on exercise, Shirley Linde's How To Beat a Bad Back (1980).