During an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience featuring Steve-O, the podcast host opened up about a personal medical decision that significantly improved his quality of life – getting a nose job to fix his deviated septum.
Rogan’s journey to correcting his breathing issues began in childhood and was compounded by decades of combat sports. “I fell down a fly stairs when I was five years old and broke my nose,” Rogan explained to Steve-O during their conversation. “It’s been f**ked ever since then.” This early injury set the stage for a lifetime of breathing difficulties that would only worsen over time.
The UFC commentator’s extensive background in martial arts – including jiu-jitsu, kickboxing, and taekwondo – resulted in multiple additional nose breaks throughout his athletic career. “From that time all those years of combat sports, I broke it in jiu-jitsu, I broke it in kickboxing, I broke it in taekwondo, I broke it so many times it was just useless,” he revealed.
By the time Rogan reached his 40s, the cumulative damage had become debilitating. His breathing was severely compromised to the point where he could barely get oxygen through his nose. “My nose had broken so many times that I only had like one quarter of one nostril that I could get oxygen from. The other one was completely closed,” he told Steve-O. To demonstrate the severity, he explained he could cover one nostril completely and “literally couldn’t breathe a thing out of my nose.”
The condition wasn’t just about the broken septum. Rogan also developed calcium deposits inside his nose, similar to what happens with cauliflower ear in combat sports. “The same thing that happens to cauliflower ear also happens to the inside of your nose, so when you get a bloody nose your nose gets smashed all the time, calcium deposits can form inside of your nose,” he explained.
When Rogan finally decided to undergo surgery at age 40, the procedure was comprehensive. The surgeon “scooped all that s**t out and shaved my turbinates down and then reconstructed the actual septum so the path between the two nostrils” was restored. The transformation was immediate and dramatic.
“When he did that when I was 40, it was like the first time I could breathe out of my nose since I was like five,” Rogan said, emphasizing how life-changing the procedure was. After 35 years of struggling with severely compromised breathing, the surgery gave him back a basic bodily function he had been without for most of his life.
Rogan also discussed his approach to pain management post-surgery, choosing to forgo prescribed painkillers despite his doctor’s recommendations.
