“Over 500 or 600 surgeries in last 20 years” - Arnold Schwarzenegger’s favorite bodybuilder narrates a heartwrenching tale

Flex Wheeler is a bodybuilding legend who holds the record for most Arnold Classic wins and was even praised by the seven-time Mr. Olympia Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to Wikipedia, after becoming the first bodybuilder with rare kidney disease to hold most Arnold Classic wins, Arnie described Flex Wheeler as "one of the greatest bodybuilders he had ever seen."

However, Arnold Schwarzenegger's favorite bodybuilder's fate had something else in store for him. Flex Wheeler has suffered from countless surgeries over the years. One of the surgeries even cost him one of his legs. But despite all these hardships, Wheeler didn't give up. He recently shared the challenges he faced throughout the years and shared a video on his Instagram.

In the video, Arnold Schwarzenegger's favorite bodybuilder opened up about the pain he's feeling due to his surgeries and his rare kidney condition. To decrease the pain, Flex Wheeler is currently taking Kratom, a plant-based remedy.

"I've had over 200 surgeries just within the last few years, probably well over 500 or 600 surgeries in the last 20 years. I can't tell you the different opiates I've taken—everything from fentanyl, you name it, they've never worked," stated Flex Wheeler.

"I'm also a kidney transplant patient, so it makes me very, very toxic when I take these opiates; it causes me to hallucinate, and everything else using kratom I don't get that doesn't take away my pain completely. Nothing does, but it makes my pain more bearable," he added.

He further mentioned that Kratom helps him to stay positive and keep him away from dark thoughts. Wheeler feels 'proud' of consuming Kratom and thinks of it as his life savior.

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What is Kratom that helped Arnold Schwarzenegger's favorite bodybuilder battle his hardship?

Kratom is a tree from the coffee family that grows in Southeast Asian and African countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea. The leaves of this tree were traditionally used as a pain-numbing medicine, but now they are used as a recreational drug (as stated in multiple reports).

According to WebMD's article, Kratom possesses a substance that attaches to one of your nerve cells and behaves like an opioid painkiller. Traditionally, people used to chew Kratom's leaves or make tea to experience the benefits of the tree. But now it is available in the form of pills, helping many people, like Flex Wheeler, to numb their pain.