During a recent interview with Dr. Mark Hyam, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson discussed the importance of being proactive about your health and cited his grandfather, Peter Maivia, as an example.
You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On his grandfather ignoring health issues: “My grandfather was a prime example of that, of just toughing through it, and he was a tough guy. He was a Samoan. He was one of the first Samoan professional wrestlers. Wow. And his name was High Chief Peter Maivia. He toughed through it and he had all these aches and pains, refused to go see the doctor. One of his guys, one of his fellow wrestlers, used to have him come over every day, and this was in Hawaii. And he goes, I need you to pound on my back. He would just pound on his back just constantly thinking just that old school, probably barbaric head in the sand, kind of mentality. He was 45 when he died….Cancer, and he refused it for months and months, and then it had metastasized to a point where there was just no going back, and that was it. By the time they caught it, reach a point where I gotta go see a doctor and see what’s happening.”
On taking charge of your own health: “This is the thing that you and I have talked about, which is what I advocate for in my own little way, however I can help, is. You want to take agency of your own life, you want to take accountability of your own health. There’s so much noise out there in social media and just out there in the world as it relates to health. The noise comes in many forms. You’re doing it wrong. Do it better. There’s gurus, there’s experts, there’s influencers. Here’s what’s not noise, is data…and the data that, for example, a Function Health can provide, like that’s not noise that is real. It’s data, it’s factual, and you take that and you can. Inform yourself and that will inform how you move forward. That’s right. With your own life. You want to take control of your life.”
