US actor Ray Romano reveals 'widowmaker' health scare: 'I had 90% blockage'

The 65-year-old says high cholesterol led him toward a close call with a so-called widowmaker heart attack. Photo: AP

Ray Romano recently had something nobody loves: a "widowmaker"-related health scare.

The Everybody Loves Raymond star revealed Monday (April 17) that high cholesterol led him toward a close call with a so-called widowmaker heart attack, caused when the heart's main artery gets nearly or fully blocked.

"I just had to have a stent put in, I had 90% blockage," Romano told Marc Maron on the latter's WTF podcast as the two discussed aging and diet. "I got kind of lucky that we found it."

Romano said that although he doesn't feel 65 in his mind, his body has given him a few notices.

"I had high cholesterol 20 years ago and my guy always told me, 'Why don't we start going on the statin'," Romano said. Statins are a class of lipid-lowering medications used to lower risk of cardiovascular disease and are commonly used to treat high cholesterol.

"Every time, I said 'Let me do it myself,' and I would go home and I would eat right, not vegan, but I would eat a little healthier, and get it down a couple ticks," he continued.

Romano said this method would lower his total cholesterol from approximately 280 to 220 – which is still borderline high, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.

"But then I'd go home and think I was hot s—, I got it down already, and I'd start cheating, and cheating, and that was the cycle."

Still his doctor expressed concern, saying he wanted to treat Romano's cholesterol more aggressively. He consistently told the comic he would like to see lower numbers.

"Everything else was checking out," Romano said, revealing he did stress tests and calcium tests, but stayed in that cycle for 15 to 16 years.

Now the Men Of A Certain Age star is "on the meds" and says his cholesterol dropped right away. "If I could go back 20 years ago, I woulda went on the meds," he said.

Maron said he also has struggled with cholesterol, saying he exercises constantly and has been experimenting with a vegan lifestyle, hoping to improve his health.

"It's hard for me to sustain that diet stuff, it was hard," Romano explained. "Here's the kicker: So I'm on the meds and it's got me all down now, so I figure now I can enjoy and eat the food — my sugar level's up now! I'm pre-diabetic."

Earlier this month, Romano told ET he had chest pains while directing and starring in Somewhere In Queens.

"I called my agent at 1 in the morning because I couldn't sleep, I go, 'I can't do it,'" the comic said. "Because – I'm not joking – I had to go to my cardiologist in New York and get on the treadmill and do a stress test because I was getting chest pains."

In 2017, Romano and Maron teamed up for the International Myeloma Foundation's 11th annual Comedy celebration to raise money for the Peter Boyle Research Fund, named in honour of the late actor and Romano's Everybody Loves Raymond co-star who died in 2006 after a four-year battle with myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow plasma cells. – Los Angeles Times/Tribune News Service