How Chris Hemsworth changed his relationship to pain on NatGeo's 'Limitless: Live Better Now'

NEW YORK -- Meet Dr. BJ Miller, a hospice and palliative care physician helping Chris Hemsworth build a healthier relationship to pain on season two of National Geographic's "Limitless: Live Better Now."

Hemsworth has suffered from chronic back pain since he was in high school and was diagnosed with mild scoliosis.

"Over the years, I tried everything to fix this problem," he explains on the show. "And I'd have relief and then my back would flare up but I would still have to keep training, still working. Pushing through it."

Miller, on the other hand, has spent his career helping countless people heal from pain. His passion for pain management stems from his own very personal experience with it.

"In the show, you'll hear more about my own experience with pain, but in brief, as a college student thirty-five years ago, I came into contact with some high voltage wires and began a very long relationship with pain. And so the subject is very near and dear to my heart."

Part of Miller's philosophy on pain is that it is an undeniable and inevitable part of life. In fact, he says that, "to feel pain is to be human."

Rather than attempting to avoid it at all costs, Miller believes everyone can learn tools to better cope with it.

One such tool is leveraging laughter and friendship during painful moments. On the show, Hemsworth and his friends individually test their pain tolerances using nerve stimulators attached to their abdomens.

Later, they test them again during a game of Jenga and realize that each of them was able to tolerate a much stronger stimulus compared to when they were tested alone.

For Miller, watching Hemsworth accept pain as part of being human and learning ways to better cope with it was the biggest highlight of his experience on "Limitless."

"Watching Chris learn, watching him move off this all-too-common sense that feeling pain is something of a weakness. In fact, all that Ive seen in this world is that pain can sum an amazing strength from people."

National Geographic's "Limitless: Live Better Now" is now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+.

To learn more about Miller and his work, visit his X or check out Mettle Health on Instagram.

Disney is the parent company of National Geographic, ABC Localish and this station.