Peter Staats, MD, MBA founded the Division of Pain Medicine in the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at Johns Hopkins University, where he served as division chief and director for more than a decade — becoming the youngest major division chief in the hospital's history. He went on to co-found Premier Pain Centers of New Jersey, which merged with National Spine and Pain Centers, now the largest integrated network of pain physicians in the U.S., where he served as chief medical officer.

A past president of the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians, the North American Neuromodulation Society, and the World Institute of Pain, Dr. Staats has authored or co-edited more than a dozen books and hundreds of articles on pain medicine. He co-founded the Vagus Nerve Society with Mark Tager, MD, and now serves as its president and chairman.

In this episode, Dr. Staats describes his path from implanting devices for chronic pain into vagus nerve stimulation and root-cause medicine, breaks down the nerve's anatomy and its role in controlling inflammation, and touches on emerging research into its potential for managing diabetes and blood sugar.

"I'm a typical western doctor. I was a surgeon implanting devices to help people with chronic pain problems. And then we developed techniques to treat and stimulate the vagus nerve. This opened up a whole world for me of people who are interested in functional medicine, understanding the problem at its root cause."