The 'Today' co-host detailed the minimally invasive procedure while on-air Thursday.
Carson Daly has found relief to his decades-long back pain after undergoing a new, minimally invasive procedure. Daly spoke about the FDA-approved procedure, called Intracept, while on the Today show Thursday.
The procedure, which Daly underwent earlier this week, targets the basivertebral nerve and will "essentially cut off the phone call that your back makes to your brain every time you move and you go 'ouch.' It’s just not going get that signal," Daly explained.
The surgery took less than an hour and didn't involve too much downtime either, with the 48-year-old TV personality returning to the show Thursday to share an update with his Today co-hosts.
"I feel actually better, and I'm glad that I did it," he said. "It's not a cure-all, but it was a step in my journey that I think is going to help."
"Hopefully, it'll help some people because there's some new technology out there that's definitely helped relieve me of some sharp pains," the former MTV VJ added.
While he will be sharing more about the procedure on the Today show next week -- including some clips of him going under the knife, Daly has been open about his struggle with back pain, which, according to Today, stemmed from a snowmobiling accident he suffered while working for MTV in the '90s.
"At the end of one of the days of shooting, I was on a snowmobile being shuttled down by ski patrol, and we got into, like, an accident," he recalled. "I was knocked unconscious, and I kinda came to in the snow in a toboggan, really couldn’t feel anything below my legs, one of those really scary moments."
Daly ultimately suffered a T12 compression fracture, which he said: "in the world of back injuries is actually not that bad."
Doctors told him early on that nothing in his spine was severed, but that the pain was actually coming from "within the vertebrae."
"The pain source actually isn’t coming from those discs or the vertebrae. It’s coming from within the vertebrae, he explained. At the time, the only option was to turn to pain management tactics, which included prescription pain pills. But after a bad reaction to the medicine, Daly decided to use the pills only as a "last resort," and instead turned to physical therapy, yoga, massages and cupping to deal with his pain over the years.
The pain progressed over time, with Daly noting the toll it took on him as he became a father.
"(My back pain's) affected my interaction with my family. It really has," Daly, who shares son Jackson, 13, and daughters Etta, 9, London, 7, and Goldie, 2, with wife Siri said. "I could still pick my kids up when they were little. ... But one thing I love to do is just get down on the ground and let them jump on me and roll around and play."
"If you just follow me around for the day, you hear me. I’m, like, 'Oh, eh,'" he added. "It’s like I’m an old man, and it sucks because there’s times when my son's like, 'Hey Dad, let’s go play basketball, or let’s go outside and throw the ball.'"
The goal Daly said, was to no longer wanted to be in pain, and while the procedure is not a cure-all, it's gotten him one step closer.
"I don’t want to be in pain," Daly stressed. "I want to play golf, I want to wrestle with my kids. I want to pick things up. I want to be better."
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