Frankie Muniz ‘still trying to make sense’ of his mini-stroke

Frankie Muniz isn’t sure why he suffered a mini-stroke last Friday, but he knows one thing: It’s good to be alive.

“I’m still trying to make sense of it,” the “Malcolm in the Middle” actor-turned-drummer told “Good Morning America” on Wednesday, “but happy that I’m alive.”

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The incident — caused by lapses in blood flow to the brain — occurred after a morning workout in his Phoenix hometown, while he was riding on his motorcycle over to his fiancee’s home, he told People on Tuesday. Vision in his right eye began to blur and things went downhill from there. By the time he’d arrived at his destination, his hands were numb, he was dizzy and unbalanced, and he felt like he was being “stabbed in the head,” he said.

The 27-year-old, who marked his birthday Wednesday, tweeted about the mini-stroke early Tuesday.

“I couldn’t say words,” he explained to GMA, “and I thought I was saying them, and my fiancee was looking at me like I was speaking a foreign language.”

Muniz told the magazine he considers himself to be “very healthy.”

“My biggest problem is I always want to be working, going nonstop. So it’s a wake-up call to take a little time and relax a bit.”

In general, high blood pressure is the top — but not the only — risk factor for strokes and mini-strokes, the NIH says. Some of the unhealthy lifestyle traits that can raise risk are heavy drinking, smoking or using certain illegal drugs, as well as eating too much fat or salt. GMA experts pointed out that fewer than 10% of strokes happen to people younger than 45.

“I’ve literally to this day never had a sip of alcohol in my life,” Muniz told GMA. “I’ve never had any drugs. I’ve never even smoked a cigarette.” He did admit to People, however, that he eats “like a 7- to 10-year-old-kid.”

Feeling “less invincible” now, he said that moving forward he’s going to approach his diet differently.

And though he’s still physically lethargic and under a doctor’s care, he’ll also be moving forward with an eight-date tour with the band Kingsfoil starting next week, hitting venues in the northeastern U.S.

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