Scott DeLuzio: [00:00:00] You wake up stiff, your back aches, and it feels like just getting out of bed is a battle. You tell yourself it’s just part of getting older or maybe that injury from back in the service is just acting up again. But what if there was another way, a way to take control of your pain without going under the knife?

Today’s guest has helped over 20,000 people manage their pain and reclaim their lives all without surgery. If you’re tired of feeling held back, stick around. This episode could change everything for you. Oh, and before we get started, head on over to Drive On Podcast dot com slash subscribe. Join the mailing list and I’ll send you my top five favorite episodes, the ones every veteran needs to hear.

Let’s get into it.

Welcome to the show, uh, Winfred, really glad to have you here.

Dr. Winifred Bragg: Well, thank you for having me as well.

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, absolutely.

So, um, tell us a little bit about yourself and your background, kind of your experience dealing with people, uh, suffering with [00:01:00] chronic pain, muscle, musculoskeletal issues, and any unique challenges that they, they have.

Dr. Winifred Bragg: Well, I’ve been treating people who have musculoskeletal pain, back, spinal problems. orthopedic veins, whatever you want to call it, pain from the neck, shoulders, elbows, and back, primarily, over the past 25 years. And my specialty, I focus on non surgical treatment because what people don’t realize is that only 5 percent of people who have back pain really need surgery.

Yet in the United States, back pain, A back surgery is done at twice the rate of other countries, and I’ve treated over 20, 000 people, uh, and that’s what I do.

Scott DeLuzio: That’s, yeah, and that’s awesome too because I know from my own personal experience, I’ve, I’ve had some neck and back pain issues and, uh, a lot of times, you know, they’re, they, they always try with the, the non surgical, uh, first, I, I, I feel [00:02:00] like they, they try to do other things for pain management and, uh, You know, if those don’t work, then eventually they work their way to, okay, well, I guess that’s all that’s left is, is, uh, you know, a surgical approach.

But, um, my guess is there’s, there’s probably more that maybe isn’t even being explored, um, you know, based, based on your experiences, it seems like you, you’ve been able to treat. a good number of people without using surgery. Um, what are some of the, those techniques that, that you’ve been using that, uh, that can help manage some of that pain and, and hopefully alleviate, uh, the, the symptoms altogether,

Dr. Winifred Bragg: Well, one of the first things that what people miss, a lot of people don’t really know when to come to a pain management doctor. A lot of people think you come after you’ve had surgery. Think about it. You’d rather come before you have the surgery. So instead of going to the orthopedic surgeon when your back hurts, uh, your shoulder hurts, consider going to a pain management doctor early on so that they can do those non surgical [00:03:00] things.

So I’ve educated primary care doctors and urgent care centers to send the people to me first. And certainly, If they don’t respond to non surgical things, then I will refer them to the appropriate surgeon. So that’s one of the number one thing you need to know, where you go first....