Dr. Sanjay Gupta

But the idea that ultimately, you know, I started meditating myself, doing these other things myself, really focusing on movement, I think really helped her.

She ended up doing the Malibu triathlon with me.

It's really hard, Mel.

You're talking about 50 million people right now, at least.

These are the people who actually come forward and raise their hand and say, I'm in chronic pain.

A lot of people still don't because there's so much stigma attached to it.

I think what I say to people is that there is an off-ramp.

I don't know how many exits away it is.

I don't know how long it's going to take to get there.

But the idea that you imagine this to be the rest of your life, that does not have to be the case.

If you're somebody who's listening and you're in chronic pain and you say, come on, man, like, really?

I'm not saying don't rule out structural problems.

I'm not saying don't treat pain if it's really bad.

What I'm saying is all the other things that probably got ignored should probably be addressed.

It's going to greatly increase the likelihood that you're going to be able to relieve your pain.

I think it's very empowering to start to journal about your pain.

I think part of the problem is that when patients often start to, they go to a doctor's office or they're describing, they're just saying, I'm in pain.

But pain is complicated.

There's all these different things that are sort of associated with it.

So starting to really understand your pain.