Ashton Kutcher Updates Fans on ‘Rare Vasculitis Episode’: ‘I’m Lucky to Be Alive’

Ashton Kutcher at Tribeca Film Fest
Mark Sagliocco/WireImage

Ashton Kutcher has provided a health update for fans after it was revealed in a trailer for an upcoming episode of Running Wild with Bear Grylls: The Challenge that he battled a rare autoimmune disorder.

“Before there are a bunch of rumors/ chatter/ whatever out there. Yes, I had a rare vasculitis episode 3yrs ago. (Autoimmune flair up),” Kutcher tweeted on Monday, August 8. “I had some impairments hear, vision, balance issues right after. I fully recovered. All good. Moving on. See you at the 2022 NY Marathon w/Thorn.”

The Two and a Half Men alum was responding to the revelation from the Running Wild teaser, which had been released earlier on Monday. In the clip, Kutcher tells Grylls that he was “lucky to be alive” after suffering from a rare form of vasculitis.

“Like two years ago, I had this weird, super rare form of vasculitis that, like, knocked out my vision, it knocked out my hearing, it knocked out, like, all my equilibrium,” the That ’70s Show star explained. “You don’t really appreciate it until it’s gone. Until you go, ‘I don’t know if I’m ever going to be able to see again, I don’t know if I’m ever going to be able to hear again, I don’t know if I’m ever going to be able to walk again.'”

According to the LWW journals, “vasculitis is a rare and potentially deadly inflammation of the blood vessels that causes constriction or occlusion, ultimately limiting blood supply to tissues or organ systems.”

Kutcher, who descended from a 300-foot cliff into the jungle in Costa Rica in the new Running Wild episode, added, “The minute you start seeing your obstacles as things that are made for you, to give you what you need, then life starts to get fun, right? You start surfing on top of your problems instead of living underneath them.”

Running Wild With Bear Grylls: The Challenge, Mondays, 9/8c, National Geographic