Actor and comedian Kenan Thompson has revealed his secret health battle that left him “suffering in silence”. The regular Saturday Night Live star, 46, admitted it started affecting his work and would leave to “uncomfortable sleepless nights”.
He said the condition added more stress to his already hectic work on the hit live show. Kenan revealed he has been struggling with severe heartburn and kept it hidden due to embarrassment of taking up doctors time.
The TV star, who has appeared on Saturday Night Live since 2003, shared the impact on his life as he said: “I noticed that I would get hoarse a lot easier when I’m doing the show. Losing my voice quicker, but also uncomfortable sleepless nights because I’m burping up acid, just kind of hiccuping all night.”
“And that can definitely add more stress to an already stressful kind of environment doing a live show like that. So all of those factors, I was like whatever, I’ll get over it. But it just started to pile up,” Kenan told People.
To help manage the condition, Kenan shared how he steers clear of trigger foods and takes over the counter medication. However, neither helped long term relief.
He revealed: I was able to take something and patch it up for the moment, but I got to a point where that didn’t work anymore. That’s when it got serious. It was a suffering-in-silence situation. I don’t know if I was necessarily embarrassed to talk to a doctor — I just didn’t know if I needed to.”
In 2024, Kenan, who is best known for kids TV show Kenan & Kel, suffered the worst symptoms he’d ever had and made the decision to see a doctor. He was diagnosed with GERD, or gastroesophageal reflux disease.
According to the NHS, heartburn is a burning feeling in the chest caused by stomach acid travelling up towards the throat (acid reflux). If it keeps happening, it may be called gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD).
Kenan confessed to not knowing there was a medical term for the issue and was prescribed a medication. The former Nickelodeon star said it gave him “relief pretty immediately”.
He has even launched his own campaign, GERD IS NO JOKE, to raise awareness of the disease as well as treatments. His time on Saturday Night Live has enabled Kenan to take a “comedic approach to tougher topics”.
Kenan’s commercial sees him portray a chef in a fictional TV program called Kick Some Acid Cooking Show. Aside from his gastroesophageal reflux disease, Kenan says he is feeling better about maintaining his health.
He said: “I’m in a much healthier kind of space with my daily lifestyle and meal decision-making and all of that good stuff. I’m in a good place.”
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