Ashton Kutcher Lost Vision & Hearing Battling Autoimmune Disease Vasculitis: ‘I’m Lucky To Be Alive!’

Ashton Kutcher revealed he suffered from a severe case of vasculitis a few years back.

In a new episode of National Geographic’s Running Wild With Bear Grylls: The Challenge, the That ’70s Show actor shared, “Like two years ago, I had this weird, super-rare form of vasculitis. Knocked out my vision, knocked out my hearing, knocked out like all my equilibrium. It took me like a year to build it all back up.”

Kutcher noted that he was able to learn valuable lessons from the traumatic experience. Now, the actor has newfound gratitude for things he used to take for granted. “You don’t really appreciate it until it’s gone, until you go,” he explained. “I don’t know if I’m ever gonna be able to see again. I don’t know if I’m ever gonna be able to hear again, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to walk again.”

Kutcher emphasized that he’s lucky to even “be alive.”

Despite Kutcher’s seriously personal and shocking revelation on the show, he doesn’t want fans to worry. He’d really rather “move on.”

The actor took to Twitter on Monday to get ahead of the concerned buzz.

“Before there are a bunch of rumors/chatter/whatever out there, yes I had a rare vasculitis episode… I had some hear[ing], vision, balance issues right after,” he said. “I fully recovered. All good.”

There are various types of the rare autoimmune disease, which is defined by inflammation of blood vessels that restricts or cuts off blood flow. Symptoms can range from milder fever, aches and fatigue to more severe ailments like the vision and hearing loss Kutcher experienced.

Luckily, Kutcher is excellent at maintaining perspective and he always manages to find the silver lining. “The minute you start seeing your obstacles as things that are made for you, to give you what you need, then life starts to get fun, right? You start surfing on top of your problems instead of living underneath them.”

The episode will be available to stream on Disney Plus starting August 10.