Bernie Mac has revealed that he lives with sarcoidosis, an inflammatory disease that most often affects the lungs. The news came after health problems forced the star of The Bernie Mac Show to step away from the Fox sitcom for a stretch of production.
Mac first believed he was fighting a bad case of pneumonia. He has now said the sarcoidosis itself is nothing new: he was diagnosed back in 1983 and insists it has never kept him from living his life, from playing basketball to working a full schedule.
Sarcoidosis causes small clusters of inflammatory cells to form in organs, and its severity varies widely from person to person. For now, Mac says he is feeling fine and focused on getting back to work.