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What if the pain you feel and the damage seen on an MRI aren’t always the same thing?
Lisa Lacy sits down with neurologist Dr. Eric Anderson, MD, PhD, MBA, Chief Medical Officer at Lin Health, to explore chronic back pain, the nervous system, central sensitization, and what patients should understand before making major decisions about back surgery.
Dr. Anderson explains how chronic pain can become a highly sensitized alarm system, why imaging findings don’t always correspond with the intensity of someone’s pain, and how whole-person approaches may help some people retrain the nervous system and regain function.
In this conversation:
- Why pain and structural damage are not necessarily the same thing, and what MRI findings can and cannot tell you.
- How central sensitization can cause the nervous system’s protective alarm system to become overly sensitive.
- The connection between stress, trauma, hypervigilance, the limbic system, and persistent pain.
- How approaches including pain reprocessing therapy, CBT, graded exposure, emotional awareness, coaching, and movement can be incorporated into chronic pain recovery.
- The questions to ask before back surgery, including expected outcomes, alternatives, recovery time, and when structural problems or progressive nerve damage may require surgical intervention.
This is not a conversation about telling people their pain isn’t real. It is about understanding pain more completely so patients can advocate for themselves and make informed decisions about their care.
Connect with Dr. Eric Anderson
Learn more about Dr. Anderson and Lin Health:
Connect with Lisa Lacy
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