The CDC says chronic pain affects more than 50 million Americans. Persistent pain that

last beyond a typical recovery period can be debilitating. And finding the right treatment

is a challenge. But now, a recent study could provide a glimmer of hope. Ali Rogan recently

spoke with Pam Bullock, health and science reporter for the New York Times.

Pam Bellick, thank you so much for joining us. Before we jump in, I'd like to play a collection of interviews we did with people living in chronic pain from across the country.

It ranges from things as being as simple as, you know, having something like back pain that you may experience on a daily

basis to literally not being able to get out of bed, to be able to brush your teeth.

The simple act of driving to work makes the commute extremely painful.

I start my mornings, assessing which joint needs to

kind of be put back in place. And then my day goes from there. Even today, like I've had a

seven out of time migraine all day today. I still got up. I still did my errands. And it's something

that people living in crowd in pain are just forced to do. I have had to cancel outings on weekends, local trips around the area, just for the simple

fact of waking up and rolling out of bed and realizing that that day was just going to be

Tylenol and couch and ice and heat and hope for the best.

I look totally fine, but I'm dealing with an invisible illness, and that's very frustrating

because I'm in a lot of pain, but I mask it.

You know, you might see someone suffering in public, and they could very easily be hiding

it because they just have to, but also sometimes it's not possible to do that.

It's a unique kind of torture.

The sort of guilt and shame, at least I feel, of questioning, you know, could I have avoided

some of these injuries or was I just built to be broken?

I was very active.

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