Joe Manganiello Says He was Left ‘Mutilated’ During Treatment for ‘Deadly Mystery Illness’

Joe Manganiello is giving further insight into his health battle over the past decade, which is the subject of his new memoir “Bloodlines.”

In a new Instagram video, he shared, “I suffered in silence battling a deadly mystery illness… Other than a very small circle of family and friends, I hid it from the rest of the world. Until recently, I hadn’t really shared what I’d gone through.”

The “True Blood” actor went on, “I saw the best doctors in the world. None of them could explain what started my illness, and all their attempts to treat it with high-powered biologic drugs only exacerbated my symptoms and then unlocked a host of brutal side effects that plagued me for years.”

He said, “Then, in an attempt to buy myself time, I underwent very serious operations and procedures that mutilated parts of my body and left me so weak at times I couldn’t stand up or walk. I spent months and months heavily medicated while dealing with excruciating bouts of chronic pain.”

Joe continued, “Now, after three years of writing my memoir, ‘Bloodlines’ is done… It documents my 10-year search for answers and it spans the globe and also goes backwards in time as I expand on my understanding of my family’s history and make some absolutely unbelievable discoveries as I wake up to the idea that maybe what happened to me wasn’t random. In order to heal, my mind, my body, my spirit all had to align, and I needed to become open to some really radical and unorthodox techniques and ideas that lie beyond the boundaries of western medicine.”

Manganiello said he hopes “Bloodlines" will give others hope and help them “connect dots in ways I couldn’t at the beginning of my struggles.”

People magazine announced Joe’s memoir on Wednesday, reporting that he writes about the scary disease that attacked his skin, thyroid, eyes, lungs, and digestive system.

According to People, the book synopsis states Joe’s battle was "marked by multiple near-death experiences and medical crises that led him beyond medicine and into a remarkable, globe-spanning quest that revealed answers about his ancestry, inherited trauma and the deeper histories we carry.”

The description explains that Joe faced a “cascade of autoimmune-related illnesses” that caused "chronic pain, a life-saving organ amputation, existential crisis and a prolonged fight for survival that left doctors with few answers and no clear explanation.”

Manganiello decided to look outside traditional medicine for help, seeking out "shamans, pagan rituals, ancient myths, long-lost family records and the rebirth of his own spirituality.”

Joe told the magazine in a statement, “It was the most brutally difficult time of my life, one I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy, but also my greatest adventure. I hope that what I went through on this journey can give readers hope that answers and healing may lie for them on the other side of whatever they are fighting through. The process of writing this book gave me the gift of perspective that helped me to see that my suffering was a cocoon from which I would emerge forever changed.”