The Rock Reveals Long-Running Gut Issue—and How He Finally Fixed It

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson might look invincible, but even he’s dealt with stubborn health issues—and he just got very real about it. In a deeply personal conversation on YouTube with Dr. Mark Hyman, Johnson opened up about battling digestive problems that left him frustrated and without answers, even after seeing multiple doctors.

Johnson explained that despite feeling strong overall, something just wasn’t right with his gut—and nobody could figure it out. That changed after a conversation with his longtime business partner, Ari Emanuel, at the end of 2023.

“So, probably going on a couple years now, and I was having some gut issues. And at that time, you and I didn’t know each other. And we have a common friend—we have a lot of common friends, come to find out—but we have a common friend in Ari Emanuel. And I was talking to Ari at the end of 2023, and we were just talking—talking about our stuff. He’s been a longtime business partner of mine, been my lead agent for years and years—decades. And I was talking to him about my gut, and I said, ‘Man, I got this gut issue.’”

“And 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. I feel great—and that’s the odd thing—but I just can’t crack it.’ And he said, ‘I’m going to introduce you to a friend of mine. His name is Dr. Mark Hyman. I’m going to connect you.’”

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“And as you know—as anyone who knows Ari knows—these conversations last 30 seconds. So this was a five-minute call I had with him, which is a long time. And so he connected you and I via text. And then you and I spoke.”

That conversation quickly led to a virtual consultation with Dr. Hyman, who specializes in functional medicine. Johnson admitted he didn’t know what that even meant at first.

“I’ll never forget when I talked to you—it was a Zoom—and you had said, ‘Hey, just curious: are you familiar with who I am and what I do?’ I said, ‘Not one bit.’ And you said, ‘Do you know anything about functional medicine?’ I said, ‘Well, I’ve heard about it a little bit.’ I said, ‘Tell me a little bit about it.’ And you said, ‘This is my specialty. This is what I do.’”

“And 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.’ And I said, ‘I love that.’”

“And that speaks to some of the challenges I’ve had in my own health journey in the past with some doctors—not indicting any doctors—but just the way they operate. It’s how they’re trained. But I found I was so challenged with them, trying to get to the root cause of this problem and a few others.”

Dr. Hyman confirmed that their work started in early 2024 and required some serious detective work.

“And I remember you asked, ‘How about my gut?’ And I said, ‘Well, that’s what I specialize in.’ And then I said we’re going to do a deep dive—blood panel, stool test—and we’ll find out what’s going on.”

From there, Johnson described how things quickly began to turn around—even as he geared up for a grueling nine-month schedule.

“That was at the beginning of 2024, and I was just getting ready to launch into what would become a 9-month workload for me—nonstop work. And I was thinking, ‘Holy sht, how am I going to get through this with my gut issues? I’m not digesting properly.’”

“And I would say probably six to eight weeks later, you had me on the right track. Things started to come around. Started to recalibrate.”

Dr. Hyman then explained what they discovered after testing: Johnson’s gut issues started after taking multiple rounds of antibiotics, which wiped out key bacteria.

“You had taken an antibiotic for something—two rounds of antibiotics. And then your gut changed. But regular doctors don’t pay attention to that. Through detective work—taking your history—we realized, that was the moment things changed.”

“You probably killed off the good guys in your gut. We found in your stool test you were missing Akkermansia, a very important bacteria that coats the lining of your intestine and protects you from inflammation and leaky gut.”

“So we basically rehabbed your gut. Gave you probiotics and plant compounds—pomegranate, green tea, cranberry—to help rebuild it.”

“And we made you this amazing gut health shake with 10+ ingredients personalized for you.”

Johnson’s story shows even the strongest people in the room sometimes need help—and sometimes it takes going deeper than surface symptoms to truly fix what’s wrong.

Do you think more people should look into root-cause medicine instead of quick fixes? Drop your thoughts in the comments and share your own health journey if you can relate.

Please credit Ringside News if you use the above transcript in your publication.