In a preview trailer for a new episode of Into the Wild with Bear Grylls, Ashton Kutcher has revealed that his struggle with an autoimmune disease rendered him almost blind for over a year. The actor admits that a rare form of vasculitis that compromised his vision, hearing, balance and ability to walk makes him feel lucky to be still alive.

Vasculitis is a generalized term for a group of autoimmune diseases with varying symptoms, underlying causes and risk factors. Vasculitis can affect small and large blood vessels, causing them to weaken, narrow or bulge. This may lead to tissue and organ damage, swelling, internal bleeding and obstructed blood flow.

Though Kutcher had a ‘super-rare’ form of this autoimmune disorder, struggling for a year that it took him to recover, he points out a positive side to this condition. The actor didn’t know if he would be able to see, hear, or walk again. But it made him appreciate his life a lot more, viewing the hardships as opportunities for “surfing on top of the problems rather than living underneath them”.

After recovering, Ashton Kutcher has returned to occasional shooting and then – to full-time work. The “Vengeance” by Benjamin Joseph Novak, starring Ashton Kutcher, premiered in 2022, and “Your Place or Mine” by Aline Brosh McKenna – in 2023.

Together with his wife Mila Kunis, Ashton Kutcher has raised $45 million through more than 65,000 individual donations from around the world to help Ukraine amid the ongoing Russian invasion.