Nick Cannon Has Lupus-Like Disorder

Nick Cannon's scary recent hospitalizations have at last been explained: the entertainer and father of twins by wife Mariah Carey has a lupus-like autoimmune disease, reports People.

First, kidney failure hospitalized the 31-year-old former host of MTV's "Nick Cannon Presents: Wild 'N Out" this past January. Weeks after being discharged, blood clots in his lungs hospitalized Cannon again. Then last month, under doctor's orders, he left his New York-based radio show. Now comes word that what he says will be a life-long kidney condition probably also caused the blood clots.

"The blood clot thing was probably the scariest because . . . I've known people who have passed away from that," Cannon said. "I thought I was getting better . . . and then that happened, so that kind of came out of nowhere."

Heredity can play a role in developing lupus, which in addition to the kidneys, can also impact the joints, skin, blood cells, heart and lungs. When asked if an autoimmune disease like Cannon's runs in his family, Cannon told People that though it presents like lupus, other family members haven't been diagnosed with it.

The four major known types are drug-induced, discoid, neonatal and systemic lupus erythematosus.

"I'm just trying to put my health first," Cannon said, adding that he manages it in part by now getting six hours of sleep nightly. "I feel blessed to be alive. If it hadn't been discovered, I don't know [what would have happened.]"