ALEX LIFESON Says He Has Lost Close To 40 Pounds Since His 2023 Stomach Surgery

In a new interview with Greg Prato of AllMusic, RUSH guitarist Alex Lifeson was asked how he is doing health-wise at the moment. He responded: "I went to a clinic in January in Austria, in southern Austria, called the Vivamayr Clinic. It is a wellness clinic that focuses on digestive system. As well as many other things, they have many cancer patients there, and they provide so many different therapies. And it's very calm and quiet — no phones, no music. It's just about almost zenning out and diving into this — drinking a lot of water, tea, there's no coffee, there's obviously no alcohol. And I went because I had surgery in 2023 on my stomach, and it left me with gastroparesis, which is slow motility. So, food stays in my stomach for ten or twelve hours rather than two or three hours."

"So, I really have to eat very carefully, and I have to be very selective about how I eat and not cross that line, because it's hard for me to get back over," he explained. "Y'know, one mistake costs me two or three days of discomfort. I was nauseous for a year. I was miserable for pretty much a year and a half…until I went to Vivamayr, and they just taught me how to take control of how I'm eating, what to eat, when to eat. And it's just remarkable."

"Because I'm not normally that type of person. I'm lazy and I just don't work hard when it comes to things I don't want to do," he continued. "But this, for the first time in my life, just changed everything, and it's been life-changing for me. Since I went to see them, I've lost about 23 pounds, and I lost another I think 15 or 20 pounds before that. So I'm down close to 40 pounds in a year and a half.

"And if I'm careful and I eat properly, I can live a happy, relatively normal life," Alex added. If I don't, then I suffer. So, you don't want to feel crappy I've come to realize. You sort of take it day to day, but now I don't want to feel crappy anymore, ever again. So, I've become very, very strict about it. I don't drink anymore, I don't smoke, I don't eat junk. Absolutely no junk. Gluten free, lactose free. Like, all of that stuff — because that's me. That's what I have to do. It's not a choice. This is what I have to do to maintain a decent, comfortable life."

For the past couple of decades, the now-71-year-old Canadian musician has also been suffering from psoriatic arthritis, a chronic, autoimmune form of arthritis that causes joint inflammation and occurs with the skin condition psoriasis. A little over a year ago, he told SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk" about the severity of longtime physical ailments: "I would say that's slowly getting worse, as to be expected. I have psoriatic arthritis, and I've been dealing with it for quite a while — for almost 20 years. I'm on two biologics [biologic drugs for the treatment of arthritis], so sort of like a double whammy in dealing with it. And it's been very, very effective. Despite the side effects and all of that, it's been a really effective regimen for me, and it's really helped my hands. I have times where the inflammation has its own mind, and that's when you'll see me shaking my hands [while I am playing]. But it is what it is, and I can still get by, and I'm so used to it, I don't really even think about it that much anymore."

RUSH's final tour concluded in August 2015 in Los Angeles.

As one of the most successful Canadian music group in history, RUSH has performed before millions of fans around the world.

Lifeson made his mark on the music industry over 50 years ago, redefining the boundaries of progressive rock guitar. His signature riffing, copious use of effects processing and unorthodox chord structures befitted him the title by his RUSH bandmates as "The Musical Scientist." While the bulk of Lifeson's work in music has been with RUSH, he has contributed to a body of work outside of the band as a guitarist, producer and with the release of his 1996 solo album "Victor". Lifeson ranks third overall in the Guitar World readers' poll of "100 Greatest Guitarists" and is also included in Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Guitarists Of All Time."

ENVY OF NONE, the band featuring Lifeson, Andy Curran (CONEY HATCH),Alfio Annibalini and singer Maiah Wynne, released its second album, "Stygian Wavz", on March 14 via Kscope.