Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson had a digestive issue that he couldn’t kick — and no answers in sight.
Johnson, one of WWE and Hollywood’s biggest stars, opened up about his health journey during a recent conversation with the man who saw him through to the other side in Dr. Mark Hyman.
The 53-year-old, after years of dealing with the gut issue, had a conversation with former agent and longtime business partner Ari Emanuel about it at the end of 2023.
“He’s like, ‘What’s going on?’ I said, ‘I’ve seen doctors and I can’t quite nail it. I can’t quite fix it. It’s in my digestion,” Johnson said during “The Mark Hyman Show.” “I feel great — and that’s the odd thing — but I just can’t crack it.’”
Emanuel, the CEO of Endeavor and WWE’s parent company, TKO, mentioned seeing Hyman, who practices functional medicine.
The two eventually connected for a virtual visit.
Johnson admitted he knew nothing about functional medicine, which, according to the Institute for Functional Medicine, provides a framework to systematically identify and address the underlying processes and dysfunctions that are causing imbalance and disease in each individual.
“You said, very succinctly, ‘I’m not going to treat your symptoms. I’m going to go deeper than that and treat the root cause of what’s going on,’” Johnson said. “And I said, ‘I love that.’”
The treatment began in early 2024, with Johnson set to begin his “Final Boss” run to WrestleMania 40 with WWE. Getting to what was holding Johnson back took some heavy digging, Hyman noted. They did blood panels and a stool test, among other things, to get to the source of the problem.
Johnson was in for a grueling year with WWE commitments, the release of “Red One” and “Moana 2,” and filming for his upcoming movie “The Smashing Machine.”
“That was at the beginning of 2024, and I was just getting ready to launch into what would become a nine-month workload for me — nonstop work,” Johnson said. “And I was thinking, ‘Holy s–t, how am I going to get through this with my gut issues? I’m not digesting properly.’”
Luckily, Hyman was able to provide Johnson some relief, finding the issue began after he took multiple rounds of antibiotics, which messed with the bacteria in his gut. He was missing Akkermansia, which coats the lining of the intestine and protects from inflammation and a leaky gut, Hyman said.
“We basically rehabbed your gut. Gave you probiotics and plant compounds—pomegranate, green tea, cranberry — to help rebuild it,” Hyman said. “And we made you this amazing gut health shake with 10-plus ingredients personalized for you.”
Johnson hasn’t wrestled in WWE since, but was the catalyst for John Cena’s heel turn earlier this year.