Comedian George Lopez sheds light on neuropathy and kidney disease

Latin men don't go to the doctor because they don't want to know,” says George Lopez, echoing a line from one of his signature stand-up routines. Onstage, he elaborates. “Don't go,” he jokes. “Because doctors are only going to find something wrong with you.”

Offstage, the actor-comedian is adamant: Regular visits to the doctor are essential. That's a message he's spreading among fans and at-risk communities after his own experience with kidney disease and the debilitating nerve pain it can cause.

Lopez's journey from “not wanting to know” to wellness and advocacy began at age 43 with a diagnosis of chronic kidney disease. While the news was a surprise, it explained years of discomfort and fatigue and eventually pain from uremic neuropathy that he could no longer ignore. (“The nerve damage caused by uremic neuropathy is thought to be related to toxins that build up because the kidneys can no longer eliminate them,” says A. Gordon Smith, MD, FAAN, chair of neurology at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.)

“Culturally, where I grew up, health was not a priority,” says Lopez, 60. “I had to learn to advocate for myself.” Lopez, who is of Mexican American descent, was raised by his grandmother in Southern California's San Fernando Valley. In his 2005 autobiography, Why You Crying? Lopez recalls growing up angry and ashamed. He never knew his father and felt emotionally neglected. As a boy, he often wet his bed, which he would later learn is a potential symptom of early-stage kidney disease. “When I was 18, I had to get a physical for baseball, and the doctor noticed that my blood pressure was high,” Lopez says. “But he passed me and never even mentioned that high blood pressure can be a sign of kidney disease.”

Chronic kidney disease is often misdiagnosed, says LaTonya Hickson, MD, associate professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, FL. “Many patients have no outward symptoms at first. We diagnose via blood or urine tests, looking for chemical indicators or structural issues. But if an individual looks healthy on the outside, some doctors may not prescribe those tests.”

Lopez may have looked healthy, but he was racked with pain. “I ignored it,” he says. “I figured it was fatigue because I was working a lot. I was in the bathtub six times a day because it relieved my back pain.” By the time he went to a doctor, the pain was so great he couldn't stand up straight. And his kidneys were shutting down. When he was diagnosed in 2004 with advanced kidney disease—possibly a result of a genetic condition that causes cysts to grow on the kidneys, eventually shutting them down—the doctor said he'd ultimately need a transplant.

It was then that Lopez learned that his chronic pain was likely nerve pain caused by uremic neuropathy, which was triggered by his failing kidneys. “It's a condition that is increasingly rare because of better detection and treatment of kidney disease,” says Anne Louise Oaklander, MD, PhD, FAAN, associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and editor-in-chief of NeuropathyCommons.org.

A year after his diagnosis, Lopez was told it was time for a transplant: His kidneys were no longer functioning and were too small to be detected by an ultrasound. Ann Serrano Lopez, his wife at the time, donated a kidney, and the surgery was a success. Almost immediately, Lopez experienced pain relief: “The kidney had been in for a day and a half, and I said, ‘Man, I think I feel better right now than at any other time in my life.’ Even my taste buds were working better,” he says. “I remember eating a bagel and thinking, ‘This is the best bagel in the world!’”

Following his recovery, Lopez resolved to help other people avoid the pain he'd been through. In 2009, he launched the George Lopez Foundation to effect “permanent change for underprivileged children, adults, and military families confronting challenges in education and health.”

The organization promotes organ donation (it has an emergency fund for patients urgently in need of a transplant); sponsors a weeklong “kidney camp” at the Painted Turtle, a camp for kids with serious illnesses, in Hughes, CA; and raises awareness of neuropathy, including treatment and resources, in partnership with the Neuropathy Action Foundation.

In 2015, Lopez was awarded the President's Medal by the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) for “his compassion and dedication to increasing awareness of the importance of kidney health and organ donation and his commitment to the kidney community,” said Dr. Jonathan Himmelfarb, president of the ASN, upon announcing the award.

Lopez also helped promote the Hispanic Health Campaign, which advocates for better access to care and encourages and empowers people to take control of their health. “I want people to understand their own bodies,” says Lopez, noting that Hispanic patients often lack access to health care, leading to higher rates of diabetes, heart disease, kidney failure, and other serious conditions. “That's where advocacy begins.” Lopez tends to his own health with exercise—he's joked that his Pilates routine is even rougher than his childhood. He has stopped eating junk food and has lost more than 30 pounds since his transplant.

Best known for his eponymous ABC sitcom, which aired from 2002 to 2007, Lopez has been developing a new comedy series for NBC, Lopez vs. Lopez, co-starring his daughter, Mayan. He has voiced characters in hit animated films, including Rio and The Smurfs. Outside of performing, his delivery-only George Lopez Tacos offers fresh, healthful food, including items such as vegan tortillas made with cauliflower.

In his stand-up comedy and on social media, Lopez uses humor to draw attention to health concerns in underserved communities. Alluding to his jokes about men “not wanting to know” about their health, Lopez insists, “You do want to know. I ignored my pain. Now I'm trying to prevent other people from going through what I did.”