Dr. Dre says he had 3 strokes while in hospital for brain aneurysm: “Makes you appreciate being alive”

Dr. Dre said he suffered three strokes while he was hospitalized for brain aneurysm in January 2021.

“It’s something you can’t control and it just happens, and during those two weeks I had three strokes,” the rapper and producer said. James Corden said last week in an interview.

“I got up and went about my day, and I thought I could just lay down and take a nap,” Dr. Dre recounted on SiriusXM’s “This Life of Mine with James Corden,” adding that a friend of his son he was with he said they needed to go to the hospital.

“So they took me to urgent care,” Dr. Dre said, where he was told his condition was serious. “The next thing I knew, I passed out. I went in and passed out and ended up in the ICU. I was there for two weeks. I heard the doctors come in and say, ‘I don’t know how lucky you are.'”

“No one could give me an answer,” he said when asked what doctors told him that could have prevented the aneurysm.

“I had no idea I had high blood pressure or anything like that,” Dr. Dre told Corden. “I lift weights, run, and do everything I can to stay healthy.”

“High blood pressure in black men, that’s exactly what it is. They call it the silent killer,” he said. “You just have no idea.”

Strokes, which are a leading cause of death in the U.S., occur when the blood supply to a part of the brain is blocked or when a blood vessel in the brain bursts, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Disease Prevention. Strokes can cause brain damage, long-term disability and death.

According to the American Stroke Association, Strokes and stroke deaths are highest among black Americans. than any other racial group in the US.

“Not all of the reasons why black people are at increased risk of stroke are clear,” the ASA says. “We know that there are a greater number of risk factors and social challenges that may underlie new cases of stroke in black Americans. The experience of racism results in chronic discrimination, stress and depression that negatively impact black Americans” .

Stroke risk factors affecting African Americans include high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol and smoking, according to the ASA.

Dr. Dre said the intense experience “definitely makes you appreciate being alive, that’s for sure… It’s crazy, so knowing now that I had no control over it. It’s just something that could happen out of nowhere.”

In January 2021, when Dr. Dre was recovering at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, he said in a social media post that he was “doing great and receiving excellent care from my medical team.”

“I’ll be out of the hospital and back home soon. Shout out to all the great medical professionals at Cedars. Love!!” he wrote.

Almost exactly a year later, Dr. Dre headlined the Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show alongside Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar and 50 Cent.