Joe Manganiello reveals new details about ‘deadly mystery illness’ that resulted in 'amputation'

Joe Manganiello has shared an update about the ‘deadly mystery illness’ he’s been battling for almost a decade.

The Spider-Man star has written a new memoir entitled Bloodlines, where he’s opened up about serious long-term health issues that resulted in him needing a 'life-saving organ amputation'.

The 49-year-old spoke to PEOPLE about his experience, saying it ‘was the most brutally difficult time of my life, one I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy’.

Now, he’s shared a new update on Instagram, revealing new details about the mystery illness and how it’s impacted him over the years.

In a clip shared today, he said: “For the better part of the past decade, most people don’t know this but I suffered in silence battling a deadly mystery illness and other than a very small circle of family and friends I hid it from the rest of the world.

“And until recently hadn’t really shared what I’d gone through.”

Years of chronic pain, an organ amputation and a prolonged fight for survival

It all started for the actor as a 'a cascade of autoimmune-related illnesses' that attacked his skin, thyroid, eyes, lungs and digestive system. This resulted in seven years of '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 revealed that his condition had left doctors baffled and attempts to treat it had made him worse.

He continued: “I saw the best doctors in the world and no one could explain what started my illness and all 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.

“And 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 that I couldn’t stand up or walk.

“I spent months and months heavily medicated while dealing with excruciating bouts of chronic pain.”

A hope to give people who are also suffering answers

Manganiello also said his new memoir will cover his decade-long search for answers into the mystery illness.

The book, which is set to be released in October, details his efforts to find treatment which saw him turning to 'shamans, pagan rituals, ancient myths, long-lost family records and the rebirth of his own spirituality'.

“I hope there are people out there, it’ll give hope to and will connect dots in ways I couldn’t at the beginning of my struggle,” he said.

Despite this being the most 'brutally difficult' time of his life, Manganiello said it was also his '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," he told PEOPLE.

"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.”