Toni Braxton is urging the public to get regular health checkups almost a year after suffering her own life-threatening experience.
In an interview with The Grio published on Oct. 19, the “Breathe Again” singer shared the importance of getting regular health checks and blood work done. Fifteen years ago, Braxton was diagnosed with lupus nephritis, a chronic auto-immune disease that causes the body to attack healthy tissue, according to the Lupus Foundation of America.
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Symptoms may include pain and swelling in the joints, headaches, chest pain, light sensitivity, hair loss and rashes, with 30 percent of patients suffering from kidney failure.
Braxton said that having a checkup saved her life. She had emergency surgery in September 2022 after blood work showed the severity of the disease’s effect on her heart. Eighty percent of the songwriter’s left main coronary artery was blocked, and she needed a coronary stent to prevent a heart attack.
“I wasn’t going to go to the doctor’s last year about this time,” Braxton said. “I would not be here today if I had not gone to the doctor’s if someone hadn’t pushed me. It literally saved my life going to the doctor’s and getting that blood work. That’s part of the reason that I’m still here today.”
