Actor Ray Romano is opening up about a health scare that could have been fatal.
The "Everybody Loves Raymond" star revealed during an appearance on the latest episode of the "WTF with Marc Maron" podcast that he could have suffered a widowmaker heart attack. He was forced to undergo a procedure after it was discovered that 90% of the main artery in his heart was blocked.
"I had to have a stent put in, at 90% blockage," Romano, 65, told Maron. "I got kind of lucky that we found it before having a heart attack."
Romano had struggled with cholesterol for 20 years, saying his doctor kept suggesting medication.
"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," Romano said.
However, he slid back into old habits.
"Now because I'm on the meds, my cholesterol dropped right away," Romano said.
"If I could go back 20 years, I would have gone on the meds," he admitted, sharing that he's now pre-diabetic. "It was hard for me to sustain that diet stuff."
Leading up to the health scare, before he received treatment and adjusted his lifestyle, Romano said he felt as if he was getting old.
"Man, saying 50 was weird, but saying 60 … it sounds foreign, it sounds fake, you know?" he said. "I know in my head I don't feel that old. In my body, I'm getting a couple of notices that I am that old."
Earlier this month, Romano spoke about his heart health with Entertainment Tonight, saying that chest pains prompted him to see a cardiologist.
"I called my agent at 1 in the morning because I couldn't sleep. I go, 'I can't do it, can't do this,'" Romano said. "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."