Judy Foreman is a lifelong journalist who spent most of her career at the Boston Globe as a science and medical writer. She had a medical column that was syndicated in national and international outlets including the Los Angeles Times, Dallas Morning News, Baltimore Sun and others. She is the author of “A Nation in Pain” (2014), “The Global Pain Crisis” (2017), and “Exercise is Medicine” (2020), as well as her first fiction novel “CRISPR’d,” (2022) and her recent memoir “Let the More Loving One be Me."

In this episode of the Major Pain podcast, Judy discusses how her journalism career intersected with her own chronic pain journey. As a medical writer at the Globe she felt powerful, people would take her calls and listen to her. But as a patient, she felt like all her power was stripped away. She had a hard time getting doctors to listen to her and take her pain seriously. Finally she found a doctor who believed her, who uncovered that she was suffering from spondylolisthesis. This means her vertebrae were sliding over each other and pressing a nerve. A proper diagnosis opened the path to helpful physical therapy, which has allowed her to live mostly pain free.

In this podcast Judy also discusses her research into the healthcare system, the opioid epidemic, gender disparities in medicine and how exercise affects the body. Learn more about Judy and find her work at https://judyforeman.com/