Glenn Beck revealed on his network The Blaze on Monday that he has been battling a series of health problems that have left doctors baffled.
The conservative media personality said the problems started when he was on Fox News and became so severe that the crew worked out hand signals to indicate when to take the camera off of him.
"We didn't know at the time what was causing me to feel as though, out of nowhere, my hands or feet or arms and legs would feel like someone had just crushed them or set them on fire or pushed broken glass into my feet," Beck said. "I can't tell you how many nights my wife would sit in the light, looking at the bottom of my feet to make sure that there really wasn't any glass in it."
At times crying, Beck explained how he has visited various doctors who were unable to figure out what was wrong.
He's also experienced sleep problems, which at first allowed him to function with just two to four hours of shut-eye per night.
"Quite honestly this isn't a symptom that you look to fix," Beck said. "If you have a ton to do, you're like, 'I don't need sleep this is great.'"
However, doctors told him he hadn't had any REM sleep in about a decade. And soon, other problems appeared, including what he called "time collapse," or the inability to remember if he had met someone just a week ago or years earlier.
Beck said he suffered in ways he publicly revealed at the time, including macular dystrophy and vocal chord problems, as well as some had not, such as seizures that would strike while flying and in times of exertion.
"Most afternoons my hands will start to shake or my hands and feet begin to curl up and I become in a fetal position," Beck said. "When it gets real bad my friends just kind of try to uncurl me."
In New York about 18 months ago, Beck went through a battery of tests, including one for traumatic brain injury.
"I did so poorly on this test the doctors shared the results with my wife and didn't focus on them with me. I never wanted to see the results," Beck said. "I knew I was functioning at about the bottom 10 percent. I knew when I couldn't figure out simple math problems or remember a series of words I was in real trouble."
Beck said doctors told him he may be unable to function in five or 10 years.
"It has baffled some of the best doctors in the world," Beck said. "It has frightened me and my family as we didn't know what was happening."
At one point, Beck looked into the possibility that he was being poisoned.
Beck said he moved from New York to Dallas because he believed the better climate might help. He didn't realize it at the time, but he also moved near Carrick Brain Centers, a brain rehabilitation center that specializes in experimental therapies that are not covered by insurance.
There Beck was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder and adrenal fatigue, among other things. He said these conditions are being treated with diet, lifestyle changes and hormones.
Beck said his faith has played a major role in his recovery.
"My doctors told me that it was my faith in God that was powering me through all this, that I shouldn't be standing," Beck said, adding that the move from New York to Dallas may have saved his life.
Beck's discussion of his illness and how it has affected his plans for his upstart media company, The Blaze, begin in the clip above and continue below.
(h/t Mediaite)