Health
Damon Wayans reveals the scary symptom that led to his type 2 diabetes diagnosis
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Comedy icon Damon Wayans has gone from spreading laughter to spreading awareness about diabetes risk.
The actor, best known for his roles in “In Living Color,” “Major Payne” and “My Wife and Kids,” has lived several years with his own case of type 2 diabetes, which runs in his family.
In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, Wayans, 65, shared the moment he realized the condition should be taken seriously.
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“It was like 2017 and I just remember going to the bathroom and peeing so much that I thought maybe my blood was draining out, too,” he described. “And it kept happening and I’m just like – I’m not even drinking that much water.”
Comedy icon Damon Wayans has gone from spreading laughter to spreading awareness about diabetes risk. Wayans is pictured here in a scene from the 1995 film “Major Payne.” (Universal Pictures/Getty Images)
This frequent urination was followed by pain in his feet, numbness in his toes, delirium and blurry vision.
“My sister Kim made me go to the doctor because I probably wouldn’t have gone,” Wayans said.
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After the doctor revealed that Wayans’ blood sugar reading was at a critically high 535 mg/dL, he was “scared straight” into making some “serious” lifestyle changes.
“I used to drink wine, love wine. I don’t drink wine [anymore],” he said. “It’s a much healthier life I’m living, and I’m aware of all the joys that I have now that I just took for granted back when I wasn’t taking care of myself.”
Damon Wayans, right, and his son Damon Wayans Jr. appear on “The Jennifer Hudson Show” in October 2024. The actor has lived several years with type 2 diabetes. (Chris Haston/WBTV/Getty Images)
Wayans said he stays “disciplined” with a healthy diet and works out every morning, involving a mix of weightlifting strength training using his own body weight, like burpees and yoga.
“I also wear a glucose monitor, so I know what exercise does to me [and] to my blood sugar,” he said. “I know if I lift weights, I feel better, and also I’m burning [calories] for the rest of the day.”
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While Wayans feels he has his routine under control, the risk of long-term diabetes complications still looms.
The entertainer recently teamed up with biotech company Genentech’s “All Eye on DME” campaign, a movement to spread awareness of diabetes-related vision loss.
Damon Wayans performs a stand-up set at an “All Eyes on DME” awareness event in New York City on April 23, 2026. (Genentech)
Diabetic macular edema (DME) is a complication of diabetes that can lead to vision loss, according to Genentech.
Although Wayans does not have DME himself, he continuously monitors his own symptoms, including depth perception issues, admitting he “needs to get [his] eyes checked.”
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“Sometimes God talks to you, and maybe this is something I needed to hear and be a part of in order to keep myself from going blind,” he added.
What to know about DME
The condition occurs when fluid leaks from weakened or damaged blood vessels (called retinopathy), causing buildup in the macula, a small area in the middle of the retina that is responsible for clear vision.
If left untreated, the buildup can lead to partial or complete vision loss, according to Genentech.
DME can be diagnosed by an eye doctor via a visual acuity test, eye exam or optical imaging. (iStock)
DME, which can occur in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes patients, is the leading cause of vision loss in “working-age” diabetics.
The condition occurs in about 750,000 diabetics in the U.S., disproportionately affecting Black and Hispanic populations, research shows.
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Some symptoms of DME include blurry or doubled vision, floaters or dark spots, difficulty seeing colors or objects when there’s a glare, seeing straight lines as curved or bent, or seeing objects as a different size when one eye is closed.
The condition can be diagnosed by an eye doctor via a visual acuity test, eye exam or optical imaging.
Actor Damon Wayans attends the FOX Fall Party at Catch LA in West Hollywood, California, on Sept. 25, 2017. Wayans’ biggest piece of advice for diabetes patients is “don’t be afraid to see a doctor.” (Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic)
Wayans’ biggest piece of advice for diabetes patients is “don’t be afraid to see a doctor.”
“You’d be surprised at how simple the treatments are, but you can’t treat it if you don’t know what it is [and] if you never get diagnosed,” he said.
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“It’s important that we let our guard down and let our egos down and go conquer the fear, because the fear is all in your head.”
Wayans – a member of the iconic Wayans comedy family, including brothers Keenen Ivory Wayans, Marlon Wayans and Shawn Wayans, along with son Damon Wayans Jr. – said he hopes that doing his part to spread awareness for DME will help his family talk more openly about health.
Actors Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans, Damon Wayans and director Keenen Ivory Wayans pose at the premiere of “White Chicks” at the Village Theatre in Los Angeles, California, on June 16, 2004. Although Wayans does not have DME himself, he continuously monitors his own symptoms. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
“If they see that I’m not afraid, then maybe they’ll be less afraid,” he said. “And if I can go home and actually talk in-depth about treatments… especially if I got it done myself, I think they’ll be more receptive to it.”
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Wayans acknowledged how cost and access obstacles can hold people back from seeking medical help.
“Even if you have to spend a little money now to get it under control, it’s worth it,” he said. “Because there’s so much life to live, unless you do nothing.”
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During a recent episode of her podcast, Gwyneth Paltrow spoke with neuroscientist Dr. Andrew Huberman about retatrutide, a new advancement in GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1) therapies.
In recent years, GLP-1 receptor agonists have become a major focus in discussions around biohacking, longevity and wellness – but they’re not without a multitude of side effects.
Huberman noted that while first-generation weight-loss drugs curbed users’ appetites, they frequently plunged them into massive, rapid caloric deficits.
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Without aggressive resistance training, a high percentage of that lost weight came directly from lean muscle. “People would lose a ton of weight, but they would also lose muscle mass,” Huberman told Paltrow.
In clinical trials, retatrutide is administered as a once-weekly subcutaneous injection. (iStock)
That is where retatrutide comes in, he said. Unlike older single- or dual-action medications, retatrutide is a triple agonist.
That means it activates the body’s receptors for glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP), glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and glucagon – three hormones involved in regulating blood sugar, appetite and metabolism.
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“Retatrutide is a more mild agonist of GLP-1,” said Huberman. “It also increases glucagon and … GIP. So, it hits three different pathways, each a bit more subtly.”
In clinical trials, retatrutide is administered as a once-weekly subcutaneous injection.
Without aggressive resistance training, a high percentage of lost weight can come directly from lean muscle mass, said Andrew Huberman. (iStock)
Because of its balanced, multi-receptor approach, Huberman said the drug has a “lower side effect profile” while still allowing people to lose up to a third of their body weight “across a year or so.”
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Most importantly for fitness and longevity advocates, the doctor pointed out that retatrutide seems to have “some muscle sparing effect.”
Because the drug is still moving through official pipelines, a massive gray market of compounding pharmacies and online peptide suppliers has cropped up to meet the growing demand.
Retatrutide is an investigational molecule that is legally available only to participants in Lilly’s clinical trials, according to Lilly’s website, and the company is currently “evaluating its safety and efficacy” in these clinical studies. (iStock)
Huberman issued a strict warning regarding these unregulated online sources, noting that these options “can say 99% purity, but that 1% means there could be some LPS,” referring to lipopolysaccharides, a type of bacterial toxin.
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“LPS will cause inflammation,” he cautioned. “One injection isn’t gonna do it, but multiple injections over time, I could see where that could become problematic.”
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Paltrow echoed the safety concerns, comparing the current “wild-west” peptide craze to the landscape of supplements in the 90s, “where there’s really no third-party testing and it’s kind of word of mouth.”
“Multiple injections over time, I could see where that could become problematic.”
Both agreed that anyone exploring these therapies should avoid unverified online sources and prioritize working with a medical doctor.
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Retatrutide is an investigational molecule that is legally available only to participants in Lilly’s clinical trials, according to the manufacturer’s website. The company is currently “evaluating its safety and efficacy.”
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The drug has not been reviewed or approved by any regulatory agency, and no one should consider taking anything claiming to be retatrutide outside of a Lilly-sponsored clinical trial, experts advise.
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A new treatment for endometrial cancer demonstrated strong potential in a Phase 3 clinical trial.
Drugmaker Merck announced Monday that the investigational drug sacituzumab tirumotecan (sac-TMT) met its “primary endpoints” of overall survival and progression-free survival in patients with advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer.
The TroFuse-005 trial is the first global Phase 3 trial to “demonstrate statistically significant improvement” in survival compared to chemotherapy in these patients, according to a Merck press release.
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This was also the first and only antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) to achieve such a result for endometrial cancer patients in this setting, the researchers stated.
An ADC is a targeted cancer therapy that delivers more of the drug to tumor cells while limiting damage to healthy cells.
The investigational drug, sac-TMT, is administered every two weeks via IV infusion. (iStock)
The trial involved 776 patients with endometrial cancer whose disease worsened after receiving both platinum chemotherapy and immunotherapy.
The patients were randomly assigned sac-TMT, administered every two weeks, or a treatment of the physician’s choice, including doxorubin or paclitaxel chemotherapy. The patients were aware of which treatment they were receiving.
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Those receiving sac-TMT showed “clinically meaningful improvement” in their disease state compared to the treatment of physician’s choice, the researchers found.
The study also met response rate benchmarks and exhibited similar side effects to earlier studies of the same drug, Merck reported.
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The drugmaker did not disclose any statistics on exact survival benefit, response rate, side effect rates or other details, but the researchers aim to present this Phase 3 data at an upcoming medical meeting.
The drug “may be able to address a critical unmet need for certain patients with advanced endometrial cancer,” said the lead researcher (not pictured). (iStock)
Dr. Domenica Lorusso, the study’s global lead investigator and professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Humanitas University and Humanitas San Pio X in Milan, wrote in a press release that these results show sac-TMT “may be able to address a critical unmet need for certain patients with advanced endometrial cancer, one of the only cancers increasing in both incidence and mortality worldwide.”
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“Despite recent advances, patients whose disease progresses following treatment with platinum and immunotherapy are urgently in need of new options, and these findings show for the first time that a TROP2 ADC may be an effective option in this setting,” she added.
Dr. Brian Slomovitz, co-director of gynecologic oncology at Mount Sinai and an investigator on this trial, reflected on the study findings during an interview with Fox News Digital.
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“Unlike many other cancers that we are treating, the number of endometrial cancers and the number of deaths due to endometrial cancers are on the rise,” Slomovitz noted.
“In the United States, the number of deaths due to endometrial cancer has surpassed the number of deaths due to ovarian cancer, [making it] the deadliest of all gynecologic malignancies.”
Endometrial cancer has become “the deadliest of all gynecologic malignancies,” one doctor shared. (iStock)
Despite recent advancements introducing immunotherapy as the standard of care, “better treatment options” for patients with recurrent disease “remains an unmet need,” Slomovitz commented.
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“If the full data confirm this announcement, the key questions will be the magnitude of the survival benefit and the toxicity profile — those will define sac-TMT’s role,” he said.
“But an overall survival improvement in recurrent disease is a real, meaningful result for patients and their families, not just a statistical one.”
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