Dr. Peter Attia
speaker
5,258 appearances
36 recordings
6 series
first heard Jan 2024
last heard Jun 2025
Dr. Peter Attia’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Yeah, and it's actually been yet another benefit of this experience is the ability I now have to help my patients. If you just look at the population and understand the ubiquity and frequency of lower back pain and you realize I don't remember the numbers, but let's say a third of people are going to go through some bout of lower back pain in their life.
A number of my patients have also been in the loop of chronic lower back pain. For these patients, one of the most powerful messages I can deliver to them is learning that a setback is not permanent. So part of the journey, because remember, it's not like in the nine months after this injury got better, I never had another setback.
No, within that period of time, I would have days where I felt bad again. Now, fortunately, I never went back to laying on the floor for days. I never experienced that level of discomfort again. But there were many days when I was very uncomfortable, and it would wax and wane. But over time, and with every time that I would recover from one of those cycles, my confidence would go up.
The ability to know that this is going to pass, and I'm going to have to make some adjustments... and I'm going to have to not sit, and I'm going to have to change the way I lay, and I'm going to have to do these exercises a little bit more, that's okay. This will pass. I actually just got an email from a former patient. He's not even my patient anymore.
He said to me, hey, Peter, just want to let you know, man, I have never forgotten what you said about this. I just had a big setback last week, and this would have normally taken me down the spiral to hell And I hear your words telling me, it's okay. This will pass. And he's like, you know what? It's a week later. I'm already on the mend. So there's no difference. It's not impacting physiology.
It's impacting the psychology. And the psychology is what goes on to impact the physiology. So again, I think of that as I tell patients, this is not going to be a monotonic improvement. it's going to look more like the S&P 500, where if you step back 30 years, yes, it's monotonically going up. Look at it for a given week, not at all. It can go down. It's quite volatile.
Now, the volatility will decrease over time, but it never goes to zero.
How are they treated now?
How many people get these? What percent of the population?
But less prevalent than migraines?
And that'll rescue it now?
Well, Sean, this has been a great discussion. I think we're certainly better off today as a species having a medical discipline that is devoted to pain. We have the luxury of caring about this now. There was a time when just not dying was the highest priority. And now we need more than that. It's not just that we don't want to die. It's that we want to be able to live pain-free.
Not to be confused with discomfort-free. I'm still a big proponent of discomfort, as I'm sure are you. We should be out there working out hard, experiencing discomfort. But chronic pain can be inflammatory to the psyche. And it's not something I would wish on anybody. So it's great to know that since my time as a patient there, that department has increased log fold.
And I hope that's true and trust that it's true around the country. So thanks for the work you're doing.
I've mellowed.
I've mellowed since then.
Thanks, Sean. Thank you for listening to this week's episode of The Drive. Head over to PeterAttiaMD.com forward slash show notes if you want to dig deeper into this episode. You can also find me on YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter, all with the handle PeterAttiaMD. You can also leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or whatever podcast player you use.
This podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing, or other professional healthcare services, including the giving of medical advice. No doctor-patient relationship is formed. The use of this information and the materials linked to this podcast is at the user's own risk.
The content on this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Users should not disregard or delay in obtaining medical advice from any medical condition they have, and they should seek the assistance of their healthcare professionals for any such conditions. Finally, I take all conflicts of interest very seriously.
For all of my disclosures and the companies I invest in or advise, please visit peterottmd.com forward slash about where I keep an up-to-date and active list of all disclosures.
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