The Made 2 Move Podcast · Hannah Breal - Physical Therapist

Back Pain Myths, Recovery, and the Future of Spine Care with Dr. James Eubanks, MD

August 11, 2025·1 hr 7 min·4 clips

Disc herniations often regress on MRI, and many older scans no longer match the current spine.

Dr. Jim Eubanks sits down with the host to untangle what back pain really means. He is an MD and board certified specialist in physical medicine and rehabilitation, and he keeps the discussion rooted in everyday patients instead of medical theater. He says most disc herniations do recover and improve. Serial MRIs can even show that improvement over time. That matters because a scary scan does not always mean a permanent problem. He makes the plain point that humans are not cars. The body can regenerate in ways that matter when people are given time and the right care. The bigger issue, he says, is how often back pain gets flattened into one story. Sometimes the pain is age-related. Sometimes it is something else entirely, like a tumor or an autoimmune condition. The problem is that health care has not done enough to teach people the difference. Many patients are told to wait a few weeks and hope for the best, and that advice is too thin for the people whose pain keeps coming back. He describes that cycle as an ebb and flow that can turn into disability if nobody explains the pattern. Clinicians often treat the flare in front of them but do not explain the larger course. That leaves people stuck in a kind of whack-a-mole loop. He argues that better public education and better one-on-one education would help a lot. He also wants people to feel more confident about what is safe to do for themselves. The conversation widens into surgery and recovery, where preparation matters a great deal. He points to a more interdisciplinary approach in which surgeons, rehab clinicians, families, and patients think across the whole continuum of care. The basic rehab idea still holds: the better prepared you are going in, the better you usually come out, and that is the episode's center of gravity.

As heard by us

A calmer way to think about back pain, scans, and recovery.

This episode offers a calmer reset for listeners who have started to treat back pain like a fixed identity. Dr. Jim Eubanks pushes back on the usual gloom around disc herniations and recurring pain, and he does it in plain language that keeps the topic readable without…

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Why you'd press play

If your back scan scared you, this episode helps you read it without panic.

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