Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson recently opened up in an emotional and revealing conversation about two major health scares that hit him at the end of 2023 — one involving persistent gut issues, and the other a serious heart scare that initially looked much worse than it turned out to be.
First, Johnson revealed he had been battling digestive problems for some time while prepping for a demanding nine-month work schedule. “I got this gut issue,” he explained. “I’ve seen doctors and I can’t quite nail it. I can’t quite fix it. It’s in my digestion.” Despite consulting multiple professionals, no one could pinpoint the issue until he got in touch with Dr. Mark Hyman. With targeted testing, they identified the cause and resolved the gut problems within weeks — a huge relief considering how long it had lingered.
But things got even more serious with what started as a routine heart screening.
Johnson described the scare in vivid detail. “Everything looked great. Thank God. Knock on wood.” Yet, despite good initial results, the scan picked up something potentially dangerous: “And then there was what looked to be… some stuff inside, like a build up of, like what they thought was plaque… in the circumflex… artery, right?” The traditional MRI scans appeared to show plaque buildup, prompting doctors to react swiftly. “Immediately the call to action was ‘all right, well, let’s get you on this medication. It’s a multi-month medication, and here we go. We got to get on it right away.’ And I thought, God, and I was so hesitant because I wasn’t taking any medication.”
At this point, Johnson made a powerful decision. Rather than blindly follow the advice, he turned to Dr. Hyman again for a second opinion. “So then I called you. And I said, ‘Doc, listen, here’s what I got… What do you think? And here’s what their suggestion is.’” What followed was a game-changing conversation. “You went, ‘Okay, hold on, hold on, let’s not jump to conclusions. I don’t want you getting on that right now. Don’t get on the medication. There’s a couple of steps here… let’s get a scan done, but let’s get an AI scan done.’”
The new scan — using advanced AI imaging technology — told a totally different story. “And I said, ‘Okay, we got the scan done.’ You sent it to your guy and then it came back… I remember when you told me, you said, ‘Hey, look, here’s the report from our… head cardiologist… He said, looks great. It is just an anatomical thing that’s happening back there. It’s not build up at all. Those valves look great. Come back in three years.’”
Source: The Dr. Mark Hyman Show