Glenn Beck reveals medical condition he says made him 'look crazy' for last 5 years


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Glenn Beck has a confession. On his BlazeTV show Monday evening, Beck told his faithful viewers — "tonight's show is not for the casual fan or, really, anyone in the press" — that he has been suffering from debilitating health problems for the past five years. Starting in about August 2010, Beck said, "I had begun to have a string of health issues that, quite honestly, has made me look crazy. And quite honestly, I have have felt crazy because of them."
The health problems included shooting pain in his hands and feet, an inability (and lack of need) to sleep, memory loss, and eventually seizures. "Doctors tell me that up until recently, I hadn’t had a real REM sleep in maybe as long as a decade," he said. Doctors in New York gave him a test for people with traumatic brain injury and found that his brain was operating in the bottom 10th percentile. Doctors told him to take a year off; instead, he threw himself into building his own media empire in Dallas, where the weather was supposed to be better for him.
"I asked God: 'Am I done? Can I put my sword down now?'" Beck said on Monday. "The answer was always 'No.'" Then, he said, he found a brain clinic that diagnosed several related problems and helped him on the road to recovery. "After months of treatment and completely changing the way I eat, sleep, work, and live, along with ongoing hormone treatment and intensive physical therapy, I have reversed the process," he said. You can watch Part 1 of Beck's monologue below, and Part 2 here. --Peter Weber
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A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Peter Weber is a senior editor at TheWeek.com, and has handled the editorial night shift since the website launched in 2008. A graduate of Northwestern University, Peter has worked at Facts on File and The New York Times Magazine. He speaks Spanish and Italian and plays bass and rhythm cello in an Austin rock band. Follow him on Twitter.
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