Ray Romano needed a stent put in after discovering he had an almost completely blocked artery in his heart.
Ray Romano was given a wakeup call
The 'Everybody Loves Raymond' actor has opened up about his health issues after finding out he had a 90 percent artery blockage, with doctors warning him it could have led to a heart attack.
Appearing on Marc Maron's 'WTF Podcast', he said: "I just had to have a stent put in, I had 90 percent blockage...
"I got kinda lucky that we found it before having a heart attack."
The 65-year-old star noted while he doesn't "feel that old" in his mind, his body has been giving him "a couple of notices".
Ray admitted that for years, he and his physician have been going back and forth.
He explained: "I had high cholesterol 20 years ago, and my guy always told me, 'Why don't we start going on the statins?'
"And every time, I said, 'Let me do it myself.' And I would go home, and I would eat right. Not vegan, but a little healthier, and get it down a couple ticks."
Statins are medication used to treat high cholesterol and can lower the risk of a heart attack and stroke.
While his method would lower his cholesterol from around 280 and a still borderline high 220, the actor would then "start cheating".
He added: "But then I’d go home and think I was hot s***, I got it down already, and I’d start cheating, and cheating, and that was the cycle.”
He has since agreed to take the medication, and he immediately saw his cholesterol drop.
He admitted: "If I could go back 20 years, I would have gone on the meds."
However, Ray has since discovered he is pre-diabetic, after thinking he had everything under control.
He said: "It’s hard for me to sustain that diet stuff, it was hard. Here’s the kicker: So I’m on the meds and it’s got me all down now, so I figure now I can enjoy and eat the food — my sugar level’s up now! I’m pre-diabetic.”
Earlier this month, Ray revealed he had chest pains on the set of 'Somewhere in Queens' - which he directed and starred in - and was struggling to sleep.
He told 'Entertainment Tonight': "I called my agent at 1 in the morning because I couldn’t sleep, I go, ‘I can’t do it'. Because — I’m not joking — I had to go to my cardiologist in New York and get on the treadmill and do a stress test because I was getting chest pains.”
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