Bernie Mac had sarcoidosis What does that weird word mean?

As we know Bernie Mac died on August 9, 2008 from complications of pneumonia. Many people have been reading that he was diagnosed with a condition call sarcoidosis. I have been asked by many people being in the medical profession what is sarcoidosis?

Sarcoidosis is an autoimmune disease (body is attacking itself) where inflammatory nodules caused by a cluster of cells called granulomas which can be seen throughout the body but most of the time in lungs. It is classically seen in people of African descent. Patients with sarcoidosis will complain of fever, night sweats, weight loss, dry cough or breathing problems but the list is much longer since sarcoidosis is a systemic disease.

The treatment of sarcoidosis is primarily steroids which reduce the inflammation. However, the draw backs of treating with steroids is that your immune system is weakened. So in Bernie Mac’s case, he did not die from the sarcoidosis but most likely what happened is he was on a treatment of steroids which weakened his immune system from fighting off the organism that caused he pneumonia. Most healthy people would have been able to fight it off but in Bernie’s case his immune system was not up to par and his body was overwhelmed from the organism. Our prayers go out to Bernie Mac’s family in this difficult time.

Here is a video of Bernie in one of his famous skits entitled “My Sisters Kids” :