Dr. Sanjay Gupta

Right.

But I thought I was seeing a very select, you know, sort of segment of the population.

It's about somewhere between one in five and one in four people in the United States.

Really?

So you're talking over 50 million adults are dealing with chronic pain.

Every day for more than three months.

And for many of them, decades.

So three months is sort of the minimum.

But when I started, you know, really researching this book and talking to so many patients with pain, it is a daily negotiation for them every day.

Like you wake up and you may think, I have a little bit of ache and pain here and there.

But everyday pain is sort of the biggest driving force in their life.

They wake up with it.

They go to sleep with it.

They think about it all day.

If they have a conversation with somebody in their life, they're probably going to talk about their pain.

So for about 17 million people, it completely interferes with their ability to conduct their lives.

So they are unable to hold on jobs, go to school, have terrible relationships, all these things.

It is really awful.

And I have to say, I was stunned, even as someone who sort of works in that field, the magnitude of pain that we have in the United States and, frankly, many countries around the world.

One of the things I think we really have to be mindful of is that chronic pain is now the fastest growing condition in the United States.