ms. veasley. now with dr. john sarno. as i said, dr. sarno is the author of four books, the first being "mind over back pain" in 1984, the second "healing back pain" in 1991. the third is "mind-body prescription" 1998. and the fourth book is "the divided mind ,"which i have right here, in 2006. so dr. sarno, welcome to our committee. please proceed. >> thank you, senator harkin. thank you for inviting me. pain syndromes can be grouped into two categories. those results from injury. this is the way i see it, from injury, surgery, or associated with severe infection as seen in patients in an acute hospital setting. and those with pain in the back, neck, shoulders, and limbs of a psychophysical origin. the high incidence of the latter group has evolved into a public health problem of great magnitude over the past 40 years. it has been estimated that 80% of the population have a history of one of these painful conditions, which has led to the performance of a great deal of unnecessary surgery and the

ms. veasley? >> have you read your books, dr. sarno? here's why i ask thatt read ev. ms. veasley told her her story and i'll tell my story and why dr. sarno is sitting here and as chairman i've had him here. i've always been healthy. jet pimt in the navy. physically active all my life. took pride if my physical health. 1988, i just checked with the doctor's office. i didn't know it was that like ago. 1988, i had an episode with my back. ex-extremely painful. walking down outside in the dirksen building and my pain hit my back so hard i femme right on my butt. ghrassg. i didn't know what was happening to me. it got a little bit better, and at one point, and then the next year i was working on the americans with disabilities act, of all things, as the chairman of the subcommittee of this committee, and i couldn't even walk back and forth. i had to put a cot in the capitol over for me to lay on. shortly after that i had an mri. they looked at the mri and said, well, you've got a bulging disc. causing you some problems. you should take an anti-inflammatory. so i did. pain went