Andre “Doctor Dre” Brown, who used to co-host the music video show “Yo! MTV Raps” with Ed Lover, talked about having diabetes during a recent visit to ABC’s “Here and Now.”
Dre was diagnosed with the disease in 2007, and he revealed that he lost much of his sight because of it.
“I’m a Type 2 diabetic who has lost his vision,” he explained. “I have a foundation called the Doctor Dre VIC, which is called the ‘Visually Impaired Can Foundation,’ and basically I’ve been going through a whole different resurgence of my life.”
“I stopped at one point, and now I’m doing this, and through the blessings of the late, great Dick Gregory and some people he’s known, I’ve worked through different holistic doctors out there to change what goes in my body and actually work with trying to do the best. We can treat diabetes,” added the 56-year-old.
Dre then said he’s working on putting an event together for men, so they can do things like test their blood sugar to determine if they’re at risk of having diabetes.
He also said there will be performances there, and the whole idea behind the event is to get men to take their health seriously.
“Without your health, you’re not wealthy,” said the Long Island, New York, native.
But even though Dre doesn’t have full use of his sight, he’s able to see on occasion. And he also said his issues with vision didn’t come solely from diabetes.
“I had my retinas reattached, so I really didn’t go blind just from the diabetes but in the reattachment,” he explained. “I have what you call scar tissue behind my eyes, so when that kind of fluctuates my vision comes back.”
At the end of his interview, Dre said he’s looking to create an “army” of people to help better treat Type 2 diabetes. And before the discussion concluded, the former TV host gave one piece of simple but crucial advice.
“Drink water,” he urged. “That’s the first big start.”
